Help me with rust

[90blue5.0]

My car is rusting away and I don’t really want to sell it. The problem is not the body by the undercarriage from the rear wheels back, primarily the sub-frames and trunk pan. This is not typical rust as it seems to get between layers of metal and flake off in large pieces – the frame rails are becoming quite thin now – easily dintable.

Has anyone ever encountered this type of rust and replaced metal back there? I know that the trunk pan would not be too difficult to replace but what about the frame rails?

Or should I not even bother just sell and start over?

 

[PuterAmI]

Or should I not even bother just sell and start over?

Yep.

 

[srothfuss]

It would be a lot of work to repair that type of damage. It isn't impossible to accomplish, but it will take a lot of time to do it properly.

If your car is rusting that bad, everything needs to come off of the car so you are just left with the shell. You can then have the car media blasted to really see the extent of the damamge. Once that is done, you can weld up patch panels with ease. You'll probably have to custom fab up frame rail parts out of sheetmetal. Once all of the holes are patched you can have the rest of the body work fixed / repainted and basically have a new car (starting from scratch)

Again, that will take a lot of time and money but it is the best way to fix it 100%.

 

[90blue5.0]

That is what I thought. I think that it is time to look for an '85 GT - have wanted one of those for quite a while.

 

[clifdawg]

After you decide what to do, whether to fix your car or buy a different one, i know something you can try to reduce rust in the future. Personally, I have not done this because we don't have THAT much of a rust problem in GA. However, my Chemistry professor said that if you take a block of zinc and bolt it to the frame, it will prevent the entire car from rusting. Sounds kinda crazy, but he claims he has a friend in the north that does it. The zinc rusts a lot faster than the metal on your car, so it will prevent the rest of the car from rusting. Just something to try and zinc is supposed to be fairly inexpensive, but I do not know where to by it by the block. Good luck.

-Clifton

 

[srothfuss]

You can also buy one a kit that sends a small electrical current through the body to prevent rust (once the rust is fixed.) It was on one of those shows on Speedvision a couple years back. I forgot the name of the product.

 

[90blue5.0]

Cool, thanks guys.

I think that car will be for sale in the spring.

 

[Bladez5_0]

clifdawg- no offense to your chem prof but he's pretty much wrong. We use zinc plates all the time in the Navy and everything (that's steel/iron/ferrous)still rusts to pieces. It will minimize corrosion of the bronze mix materials but not much else. For 90blue5.0 to get any benefit from the zinc idea he would have to virtually plate the underside of his car with zinc and he would have to redo it probably once a year.

 

[clifdawg]

thanx, bladez...like i said, i've never tried it, just thought i would mention it cuz he claimed it would work...i was sketchy about it when i heard it, also.

 

[88Stangboy]

By your sig. i noticed you've got alot of exspensive parts on that car. I would pull the motor, tranny, rear end....basically everything i put on the car. Then i would shop around and buy a cheap body that was in decent shape and had no rust on it. And i would swap all the stuff into it. Its just not worth it to repair all that damage, it would be far simpler to just swap alll your stuff into another body, Fox's are everywhere, look in the paper. Mybe find a 4 cylinder body in good shape for $1,500. It would end up being cheaper doing it that way then it would to most likely repair the rust, or sell it, buy another stang and start upgrading that one. Just a thought.

 

[Michael Yount]

I'm with Stangboy -- especially if part of the plan to sell it involves a lack of full disclosure about the problems with the car. It sounds like the right thing to do is to get that unibody into the junk yard so no one else has to try and deal with it -- ESPECIALLY if they bought it thinking everything was ok.

And you may want to shop for your next one down south in the States....plenty of completely rust free examples available.

 

[88Stangboy]

And you may want to shop for your next one down south in the States....plenty of completely rust free examples available.[/QUOTE]


Only place on my car i got rust on my car is around the battery box. I just slathered on some POR-15 and never had anymore problems from it. And to make things even easier on you, try to find a body with no motor so its just a straight swap. Then like Michael Yount said, just junk the car you got, no body is going to be happy to buy a car made of swiss cheese. And if the frame rails are rusting, then most likely your rust is much more thorough than you can just see. Frames are some pretty heavy guage metal. Before you junk it though. Take everything out of it. Just strip the car to bare shell. Keep wheels, brakes, everything. Its money in the bank, just store it in the garage. Next time something breaks. Just run out to the garage.