I am hoping Jack Olsen will chime in with some advice and pics? He has removeable panels in BB2 does he not?

I have race car without the back seat structure, however I am quite sure I would not do it to a street car. It makes the car really noisy, I mean earplugs inside the helmet kind of noisy. I also don't know how removal of that section would affect rigidity without a rollcage.

My suggestion to you would be learn to weld, you seem pretty handy, I picked up welding over a weekend, atleast good enough to weld something not seen by the public eye. Get a mig welder with the gas. Practice on scrap steel go get from a junk yard or cut out of you car, and replace that section.

Remember the weld does not need to be air tight, only structurally sound, water and air can be kept out with a sealant.

It is not as hard as you think, one other suggestion is get an autodarkening helmet, it will make life a lot easier, total cost $800, but once you have the welder, everything will look like it needs welding :-)

Too bad you are not in San Jose, I would have offered to help.



Jim

find out where the good metal remains and determine the repair from there. the seat bucket area can easily be trimmed out of a donor car and welded into yours, but only if there's something to weld it to. the undercoating will catch on fire and burn your car and garage to the ground if it's not removed from the welding area. good idea to have a spotter with a garden hose while you're welding inside.

If anyone wants to come over this Saturday and help me out. PM me and I will get directions to you. I would REALLY appreciate any help.:)

Painful to see, ouch!

I'd say you have two choices unless you want to fab up some kind of custom race setup panel (which I wouldn't do on a street car).

Choice 1 - Quick and Half Ass but, will get you on the road again with minimum cost.
- POR 15 both sides of what's there.
- 2 - 3 layers of fiberglass mat http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/nono.gif over holes to regain decent structural element back. Top off with some sound deadener.

Choice 2 - The right way, but a P.I.A! - and expensive.
- Get doner for the entire panel from a dismantler/junk yard.
- Drill out welds, remove, reweld new panel in.
- Apply seam sealer like factory did.
- POR 15 the whole area.

Of course you could go the half ass route for now which would get the car on the road until you find a doner panel.

Good Luck.

I paid $250 for mine at the local welding supply shop (Sierra Airgas) although Harbor Fright [sic] has them now for ~$100

This seems like the perfect time to put in camber boxes!

I noticed the CV joints are very accessible now. Handy!

I think some do it yourself MIG welding is in order. I also do not think you have found the end of your rust. I would pull out all the carpeting and see what the floor boards look like.

Wow, that's really bad...IMHO this is WAY beyond POR15 and fiberglass, or even fabricated panels.

Donor tub or buy a welder and start learning.

look at the bright side.................you can change your CV's and transmission oil without jacking up the car.

I just talked to Restoration Design. They have form dies in the works.
I think I will fiberglass the rear shelf and firewall. Then remove the jumpseats and tranny hump and weld or bolt in a flat panel. When the repair panels are available I will cut it all out and weld in the new panels.
I can weld I just don't have a welder. When the time comes I will rent one for a weekend.
The floors are good. Beleive me I checked everywhere with a pointy screwdriver after I found that rust!
When I bought the car I knew about the rear shelf. I had him pull out all the stuff in the trunk including batteries. I checked the torsion tubes and shock mounts. Everything checked out. The only thing holding the rear jump seats in was factory undercoating. So I didn't see it from the underneath of the car.

how dissappointing! that looks really bad but fixable.

Was there any hint to the extent of the damage from the underside?

There's a lot of good advice, here. My bolt-in aluminum panel certainly wouldn't be as cheap or as fast as finding a donor tub and drillingo ut the spot welds for the panels you need. In my case, a steel base was welded in, with the gaps all filled. My shop also put in a number of reinforcements (as well as a cage) to insure that we weren't losing any structural rigidity.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/88RearCage.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/99RearSeat.jpg

Jack, perhaps you could ask Kevin to weigh in on this one as well? Any man crazy enough to want to restore a Corvair Turbo has to be good, right? ;)

Hammer, that tub is way too much rusted out to repair with fiberglass anywhere! You could try to fiberglass the rear deck, but I bet the chassis will flex so much it will crack your repairs! If you want to keep this car then do it right, cut out all the rust you find and weld in steel.

I haven't read this thread and am sorry about your rusted tub, but I think you may have a bigger problem in your garage. Is this what a gremlin looks like? If so, I'm scared.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/gremlin.jpg

Bummer.... I would by a clip from a wreckers and weld it in.. as long as everything else is sound. Don't do the fiber glass thats a temporary fix that will have to be redone and it will just eat at you anyway. Sounds like you have welding experience. You may want to concider purchasing a good welder I don't think this is a weekend Job. This is definately not the type of project you wanna rush through.

Jorge (Targa Dude)

If your on a budget then John Walkers suggestion is the best one IMO.

There are donors all over that can fix this car. Half the time good rear seat sections end up getting crushed because no one wants them. I just gave away a 72' Targa roller that had zero rust in this area. It only had a rusted suspension pan (batteries).

The cost in this part is the removal from the donor. If there is a dismantler near you then you might make a deal on removing it yourself. You'll need a drill with some super hard metal bits, a chisel and hammer. Sawzalls are nice but not neccessary. A chisel and hammer are a lot easier in tight spots.

Before I'd start repair though I'd check the rest of the car thoroughly. (suspension pan, A pillars, door jambs behind the strike plate and inner rockers). If there are enough other bad spots then it's time for a replacement tub.

I am gonna try to locate a wreck. But remember I live in the P-car wasteland. This isn't southern Cali, where I could just drive across town and pick one up. I may be forced to fix it for now and wait till the replacement panels are available later this year. The pics may be a little deceiving. The original color of the car is gold. I think in the pic the gold color and the oarngeish glue is creating an optical illusion. All the rust is actually black. I coated it with Extend rust destroyer. The fire wall is fairly solid. I think if I lay down 3 layers of woven FG matte and fab some little buckets for the jumpseats and weld them in for now. That will get me by till the repair panels become available.