Early 911 longitudial repair near torsion bars

[evilfij]

How would you go about patching this rust at the longitudinals:

http://www.early911sregistry.org/forum/showpost.php?p=159857&postcount=12

I bought this thing with the idea that I want this to be a driver, not a full resto or anything close. Assuming this is the biggest of my problems (I can live with the rocker rust for now--I will wire brush it down, prime and touch up, and the front pan, although ugly, looks solid enough--maybe needs a reinforcement).

My plan was to remove the undercoating and see how bad it was, cut out the rust and to plate it with 14 gauge steel (which I have and is much thicker than stock--maybe even plate it with 1/8in), with the idea that it would make it solid and down the road the correct replacement stampings could be welded in by someone more ambitious because the only areas I would be working on would be replaced by the full panel. I plan to overlap it and maybe even throw in a few plug welds. The idea being is that down the line, this

http://members.aol.com/darryld/912MAR06.htm

could still be done.

Thoughts . . . please do not say she must be too far gone . . . the floor pans have been done already and look nice enough.

Ron

PS anyone have a bracket they are not using to replace the rusted out one?

[Fritz Peyerl]

beside that you have more problems, than the gaping hole, it can all be fixed.
I just did the same repair at the same spot. Using thicker sheet metal will not make it stronger. You are welding to old rusty metal and need to fix that before you attach
new metal.
I purchased a complete longitudinal from our host and cut out what i needed.
start cleaning off the ugly undercoating and find how far you have to go.
You will find lots of rust around the rockers and that will be a a must
It looks like your A-arm is rusted through.
Rocker panels don't look original either.
do a complete inspection, before you get going, it might be to much if you want to bring it back to original.

[evilfij]

Thank you,

The A-arm is just has some undercoat that peeled off, it is not rusted out. I was planning on leaving the rockers as is for now and just spray inside with inhibitor.

I am trying to avoid the time it would take to properly fit the replacement longitudinal panels in addition to the cost and availablity issues.

I fully plan to cut out all the rusty metal back there and spray the inside.

Best,

Ron