How often do you restore? Tried taking my car in for quarters

[Chris66]

Yesterday I towed my car (66 stang conv't) to the body shop to have new rear quarters put on.

I've talked to the guy about the project a few times, and the this guy was recommended by a good friend of mine.

He looked at the car and said I need new outer fenders for the quarters, no big deal, but I also need new rockers panels. The skins are solid, but he says they must have been used, and were hacked (welded) on the car. So he said order the parts and bring back the car when I have the parts.

So I went back to today to verify the exact parts to order and he said, I was thinking last night, I think you should also replace the floor pans. The floor pans are peppered and have patches. There is a patch under each cowl vent, and there is about 5 patches under the rear seat. Theses patches were pop riveted from the previous over. The floors are solid, I have jumped up and down inside the car to test it out. The owner of the shop said he would could to my house to do the repairs, since it is just welding.

So my question is, I am not sure how often you have to do repairs to the floors and stuff. (I live in Chicago, but will not drive it in the winter). Should I bit the bullet and replace everything now, or should I assume I will have to do repairs in 5-10-15 years from now, so wait until problems arise, or when I need to do another restoration.

Thanks in advance.

 

[68 Coop]

The rust you see is just the tip of the problem. I would, since you can afford to do it, DO IT NOW.

 

[Chris66]

Thanks for the reply.

From what I have torn into, the rust was taken care off already. I bought the car from was from an older gent that was trying to do a complete restore on his car. The car is very clean, he replaced all the rusted out pieces. He just started pop riveting everything in place verses welding because of his eye sight

 

[65up2d8]

Thanks for the reply.

From what I have torn into, the rust was taken care off already. I bought the car from was from an older gent that was trying to do a complete restore on his car. The car is very clean, he replaced all the rusted out pieces. He just started pop riveting everything in place verses welding because of his eye sight

If you are ABSOLUTELY SURE all the rust is gone and you don't care about original looking floorpans, then just have the patch panels welded in and the rivets removed. Notice my emphasis above, however. If you're not 100% certain the rust is 100% gone, then bite the bullet and replace the pans. Think of it this way; rust is cancer as far as metal goes, and it will spread quickly just like cancer. Would you feel confident of your prognosis if you had cancer and the doctor put in "patch" tissue but knew some remnants of the cancer was left behind?

 

[Hack]

It all depends on you. If it were me, I wouldn't replace the floor pans. I'd just wait until they get bad and replace them then. If you have the car apart now, you could grind off the surface rust and POR15 them or something. Or just leave them. It will take quite a while for them to rust out if the car is garaged during the winter and rainy days. You might get by 15 years or more.

I guess some people have to have perfect cars. I'm not that way. I just like to drive them and enjoy them. I find I enjoy a car more when I'm not constantly worrying about it getting a drop of water on it or a door ding.

Spend the money someplace where it will do you more good, rather than dropping it into a money pit.

 

[Chris66]

I did wire wheel all the paint off the car and spray Eastwood Rust Encapsulator over all the floor boards. I had posted picture of the floor boards a couple of months ago, and the decision was I could leave them as is.

The other thing I was curious about, if the parts are not prep'd correctly or installed correctly, couldn't I be in a worse position in a couple of years then if I didn't touch anything?

 

[Doc Voodoo]

Do it once do it right never worry about it again.

 

['69Mach1]

"Do it once do it right never worry about it again"
I'm all for that ,my '66 convertible was done 15 year's ago ,floor's ,inner, and outer rocker's ,quater's ,outer wheel housing's ,typical mustang ,I have no problem's with rust ,do it once ,why piecemeal it ,and go back and forth to different rust spot's?

 

[70vert]

My advice having just had this done

I bought the car 16 years ago with rust in the floorpans and aluminum patches to cover them up but no real antirust treatment done. I don't know if the rockers were rusted then but they were when I just had them fixed.

-If the rust is into the rockers or threatening them, DO IT NOW! You don't want the rust to get to the outer rocker, it's harder to replace than the inner.

-If just the bottom, away from corners and from rockers you can probably POR it and postpone it

-Wherever rust is in a corner, it is going to be more expensive because you may end up needing 2 parts or some custom work instead of replacing one floor pan piece

Having said that, it took 15 years to really get into the inner rockers if it wasn't already there before, and I didn't need a full rocker panel replacement. I had some driver's side firewall issues and some corner issues, but the cowl was OK but for some surface rust. Convertible kept garaged but not covered for 10 years or so.

good luck, cross your fingers!

 

[Hack]

Do it once do it right never worry about it again.

No such thing.

Metal rusts. Period.

Edit: well if you live in the desert you might be fine forever.