White flag of defeat could be displayed soon. (Rust)
 

You better believe when they say it you can see rust, there's a lot more you can't see. This pic shows the area to be investigated.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1097267997.jpg
Here's what's behind.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1097268060.jpg
All of this debris came out of that hole and there's twice as much more in the shop vac.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1097268122.jpg
I actually had the inner rocker trial fitted here last night, but I wanted to make sure I had access to the suspension console before I welded it in.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1097268223.jpg
I'm now going to go to the other side, which doesn't look as bad on the surface. If it is, I may be real discouraged. You know, I shouldn't have done all the bodywork on the top side first. Starting at the bottom, I would have parted it out instead. If and when this car gets painted, it will be a damn good looking and straight car. It certainly won't give any indication of the condition of the bottom. :(

EDIT: Make sure you read my other follow up posts here. This is not the whole story.

I am so sorry you found that Milt. Actually, I am glad you found it now before you started all the work welding in the rockers. At this point, If you can access the rusty parts, make patches and weld them in. You are about as deep as you can get.

I will have a beer for you tonight. You will need a few.

Don't take any guff from those swine!

You're doing an awesome job, keep up the good work.

JCM

BTW, you wonder why you can see red overspray on the oil lines and heater tube? That's because the PO painted the car with the gaping hole in the inner rocker.

Just a bunch of GD idiots!

No offense to the guy I bought it from or the guy that looked at it for me. I knew what I was getting into. And, I could have parted the car from the get go and made money.

As it is, I have nearly covered the purchase of the car by selling the deep sixes and sport seats. So, it's almost a free car except for the enormous amount of labor.

It will be a street legal track car, not some garage queen. But, we all knew that anyway, eh? ;)

Why don't you cut out all the sheetmetal and use round tubes for the build up. :D I see a 935 in the making...

I found similar stupid repairs on my 71. My favorite was the fist sized ball of newspaper and bondo. The list goes on.

How does the statement go: "Don't walk away from a rusty 911, run!" Jim

Zeke - could you do me a favor while you're in there?

I need the diameter and depth of the big torsion bar bushing hole in the framerail - the hole in the outer rail and the sleeve inside it.

Thanks!

Milt,

I've done this before. All you need to do is focus on one patch at a time. Take satisfaction from each repair, do them one at at time.

If it takes a little longer because there's a little more rust, that's not a problem.

From what I've seen you're doing a fantastic job.

Michel Richard

Grind it...spray it ....drive it until it breaks...then move on.....

Zeke, since it's going to be a track car just weld a jungle-gym of a roll cage in that baby and tie the front and rear members into the cage. You won't even need solid rocker panels! Just Kidding, keep fighting the good fight!:D

Milt, perseverence, let the rustoration be a zen sort of experience. I believe it was you that asked me why I bothered when you saw the pics of my rustoration
I did itbecause I had all the parts, for the tub, for the engine, roll cage suspension etc.

When I saw how badly the tub was rusted I took it as a challenge to fix the tub. Im almost done. I installed the engine management last week, and cranked the engine, I have spark, and the noid light blinks, so I have fuel too. All I have to do now is finish my front mounted oil tanks and associaterd plumbing..

To properly fix some of those areas you have to open up quite a bit of sheet metal to allow access, and to allow good positioning of the torch etc.

You had me worried for a minute there, but now you're talking. That's the Milt I thought I knew. I can't wait to see it finished.:)

Awesome work Milt, it's going towards a good cause. Keep it up!

Milt, far be it from me to give advice to somebody with your hand skills. If you ever need a shoulder to cry on, there's beer in the fridge, and Cindy makes great blueberry pancakes...just ask the guy you sold the seats to. Good luck in whatever you decide! :)

Milt,

Keep going, don't give up!!!

Milt can't white flag this. He's *sick*. :p

I'm sure the two-tone primer beast will be at Willow in '05.

Hat's off you Milt. I don't have the patience.

Good luck.

Tom

Don't be a pussy Milt, buck up you, and get back out to the garage.

Go Milt Go!! You are a rare California Porsche enthusiast......one that can say he has fixed rust. ;)

It's an 'S'......well worth saving!

I took Rust 101 back when I was ( let me think?) 26 or in 1978 or there about's.
A 1965 Corvette roadster, not from Calif.
Hey, it's fiberglass how bad can rust be. This was a So Cal boy's logic. Well after sandblasting and using rust stop chemicals, Liquid wrench etc. etc. I cleaned it up pretty nice but the mental scars are still with me.
Even a galvinized 911 will get rust on every nut and bolt that holds it together if their exposed and not protected. Just to bleed the brakes can turn into nightmare.

I feel you pain, Milt SmileWavy
Rust sucks

Keep up the good work. If nobody ever fixed rust then there wouldn't be many 356's and early 911's on the road today not to mention other collector cars. I agree with you too Craig that an early S is very much worth saving.

Milt,

I am a few towns over and can bring in some beer, just make the call.

Michael

Sometimes beer doesn’t help.

Here's to Kentucky! :D

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1091818459.jpg

Milt, keep up the good work. It will be worth it in the end. Besides, you are going to need something to drive while you work on the Speedster.

The rust repair that guys like you, Jamie Novak, dtw, and thrown hammer have displayed here is what made me want to buy a welding machine.

Bob, that is so weird. My 3rd car at age 18 in 1966 was a '61 Corvette. It was from Michigan, so you know that story. The owner had skipped from MI and was in CA. When the finance company finally got the car, I bought it for $1200 dripping wet and soaked from a good CA rainstorm. The top leaked horribly. Nobody wanted it but me, the fool.

I don't think I got one bolt off that car w/o breaking it. I took the car apart to the bare frame. I had never worked on a car before. It took me 2 years to put it back toghether. I got a trophy at a couple of shows and sold it. I bought a '55 VW convert next and that began a long affair with German cars.

I had an old Chevy truck to chase parts in. I have never been w/o a Chevy PU since and I don't think I have ever been w/o a German car; lots of VW's, some Porsches and one Mercedes 250 SE sunroof coupe (also a rust bucket).

Anyway, today I made a piece to fit a patch area (the big gaping hole in the first post).

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1097367480.jpg

Goes right up here.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1097367543.jpg

If that's the toughest one, I've got it made. :D

Very Nice! Keep going your almost done. :D Every little step seems like a milestone in a project like this. The worst are the days where you spend lots of time in the garage cutting and welding and then it looks like nothing happened. But the next time you finish the chore and it looks like lots of progress was made.

Sounds like a room addition I once built (except for the welding ;) )

Hand made--- Twice :D

Nice work on the sheet metal fabbing! :)

The big problem w/ 911s being rusted in that area is the torsion tube; I know of an early 911 that looked pretty clean on the outside but had hidden rust in the tube. Guy was driving down the road when suddenly, "wham" , the rear end of the car was resting on the tires. It is an absolutely fatal injury when you price a new tube, (only available from Porsche), and the body shop labor to install on a jig, complete disassembly of the car, etc....

Rust sucks. I hope that it works out OK. :cool:

I had the same problem, same place, same patch but smaller(yours looks a whole lot perttier though).
That hidden inner support wall was starting to go as well.
I cleaned as much rust, sprayed a buckload of rust-kill in there, welded in the patch, ground/fiberglassed the edges, and POR15ed the entire underside after scraping all loose factory Weynol(?) undercoating and treating all surface rust.

It's still not a chem-dip but it'll buy some time.
Next step is Wax-Oyl or a similar neutralizer/encapsulator.

The problem with early cars is the little "bucket" in front of the back tires. It catches dirt, dirt catches water, water eats through metal forward, down, and up. I patched those, foamed, smoothed, fiberglassed, and painted. Now theres nothing for flung dirt to stick to. Not concours, but hopefully problem solved.


Also, if there's a panel that needs to be made, all it takes is steel, tools, and a little skill and patience. Check out links in www.metalshapers.org

You are doing God's work, making that which is wrong right once again. Tis a noble deed.

It always looks impossible, until you start trimming, welding and hammering. Then somehow - miraculously - it all just starts coming together. But you already know this.

Keep at it, we are all here for moral support.

Damn, I almost want to take up a collection to make it right again. Seriously!

Rust is almost like a death.........the (fill in the blank) is just *GONE*

Milt has mad skillz. This should be made into a made-for-internet movie.

Hi Milt,

I just did a search on the topic and saw your project. I may be in the same boat rust wise and wondered if I could check out your work sometime (you're in Long Beach, right). I contemplated doing the work but wanted to see first hand what i was getting into.

regards,
Carlo

Milt, you've got to soldier on, not sure how long I'll be waiting, but I really want to see those door posts put to good use.

Remember the car I cut up for the posts? Your rust is nothing compared to that one. You've actually got metal you can weld to!