to replace or to patch?

[svandamme]

i'm scraping of the undercoating , i knew i'de find rust and i did
two wholes on each side of the car, rightside a bit worse than the left (not finished scraping left side yet , but first signs are good)

anybody has any suggestions on what would be the best way to deal with this, the floorpan has obviously been repaired,
should i replace or is re-welding/patching good enough?
it's not visible so my main concern is long term durability.




the brown on the floor pan is just mild surface rust, nothing bad
the rocker panel has slight whole though




this is the worst part, front of the floor pan, and bottom of the fenders

anybody can give me any tips on what's the best way to deal with this?

[RickM]

Hmmm, looks to be small enough for a quality cleaning, patch/weld and recoat. Since it seems to be an area prone to rust you might want to go military strength with the recoat. The same goes for the other side for prevention sake.

You probably know the options: etxh/zinc primer, POR 15, Body schutz etc etc...

[svandamme]

does the fact that there already has been some patching done matter ?
i presume there's not much structural stress on that area?

[RickM]

It's hard to tell from the pic where the patches are. Is the rust in the patch area?

[svandamme]

yes actually it is , if you look closely on the top pic you can see there's a weld running over the lenght of the car

2 patches on both floor pans

the whole itself is more on the fender, but there's little holes in the welded in patch



not completely cleaned in this pic , acid guey still on it doing it's work

[ubiquity0]

Svandamme- I can't believe you're managing to do all this work in a parking garage building!!! Thats pretty cool. Do the other users think you're crazy?

[Zeke]

Originally posted by ubiquity0
Svandamme- I can't believe you're managing to do all this work in a parking garage building!!! Thats pretty cool. Do the other users think you're crazy?

A parking garage with lift? Look again at the first pic, upper right.

I think you should heal up any open rusted out area. If you can find solid metal to weld to, scab something over it after erradicating the rust. That is, unless you are going concours or w/o the schultz. Then you almost have to butt it in. You can form that piece out of 18 guage with a ball pein hammer and a big block of wood.

[svandamme]

it's not a parking garage, i wouldn't dare undertaking such work if it were
i'm sort of crazy , but not in that area

i found a place with 2 lifts that rents out storage and gear , 40 bucks a month , 10 bucks a month for big tools.. either way
a bargain if you ask me, buying the **** myself would set me back a whole lot more...

the guys who owns it doesn mainly 944's

last time i checked :
1 911 T > horribly disfigured with a bad slantnose kit
1 928
7 944's
4 924's , 2 for parts
2 citroen DS'es
a bug
a maserati biturbo
a fiat 500
bmw 1600
bmw 2000

if mine is done , i'll probably volunteer to do some other restore work
i need the therapy , like i said , i am sort of screwed up, cars keep me from doing other dumb and selfdestructive things

[svandamme]

i'm not going for concours , i want to drive it , not have people give it marks on authenticity or something...

i think it's doable to patch it up so it is solid
it might not look pretty , but as long as it's not rusting through and is solid, it should suit my purpose

thanks everybody for the opinions and tips !!

[Zeke]

Originally posted by svandamme

i need the therapy , like i said , i am sort of screwed up, cars keep me from doing other dumb and selfdestructive things

That rings a bell.

[dtw]

I had similar holes on my '72 in those exactly locations. I was able to carve out the cancer and get back to solid metal, fabricate patches, and weld everything back in, in an afternoon. This was with the disadvantage of being outside and under the car, which made the welding interesting to say the least.

Note that those don't look to be so much part of the floors as they are the outer portion of the inner wings and longitudinals. They are stressed members though those specific sections shouldn't cause your car to break in half. A quality repair job should have zero impact on safety/rigidity. Overall that car looks pretty clean! (rust-wise). Congrats on taking on a restoration of this caliber!

[svandamme]

went to see a body shop a friend referred
he had a look at it , and is going to take care of the whole thing for me professionally

i live in a country with 250+ wet days a year, so i don't want to take any chances with rust prevention

the shop does great work, 2 older brothers who are semi retired and now restore cars mostly because they like doing it, i saw a Ford Consul completely beeing patched, fixed , primed ... those guys know how to weld
they also had a 68 camaro which probably looks better now than it did when it left the factory
amazing craftsmen
i hoped to be driving end of april, but it will delay my date for driving , i'm turning the car over beginning of march, they'll return it mid - end of may, by then i'll be ready fixing the oil leaks , two days of wrenching and i'll be firing up the beasty six

i think in the long run, i will not regret it