Started Headliner and .....surprise RUST BUCKET!

[signature65]

Ok now I am in serious trouble. Started to disassemble my interior to replace my headliner. Took out my real parcel shelf and found a heaping mess of rust. There is no hope for the shelf. So I started looking lower and my rear seat buckets are toast too.

Here are my questions to the group. Is there an easy and Logical(not spending a fortune) way of cutting out the rusty pannels and replacing them? I know I can cut out the whole rear section and replace it as a whole but I would rather keep it simple. Here are some pics of my baby turned to devil.....









Im totally bummed on all this so any help/direction on how to start would be awesome.

[yelcab1]

would you not see it from the bottom?

[Rich76_911s]

Darren,

Ouch I am sorry man. I know that pit in the stomach feeling you get when you find this stuff. I found rust and accident damage, and it wrecked me for days. I'm not much help on knowing how to repair that area. I think shaun84targa had a replacement rear seat area, but getting it to California would be big bucks.

Good luck.
Rich

[Fast Corners]

Darren,

Sorry to hear about this but, you can possibly take some comfort in that you are not alone in this. These wonderful older cars have been showing this problem for some time now. Unfortunatly it looks like the rust worm has gotten in their pretty good. You could patch it up but I'm not sure how much good metal there is to weld to. The area by the hinge looks really crispy.

The car looks like it's ment for street use. But you could do what the track guys do and cut out the whole rear seat area and parcel shelf and have panels fabbed up to "delete the rear seats". There are a number of pics of how people have done this very thing on this board. If you go this route do what you can to save the hinge areas of the rear shelf.

[Zeke]

Man, that's bad, I'm sorry to say. But, the good news is that beginning in '72 the rear tray stayed the same up until the late 80's. So, the part is not hard to find in good shape at a dismantler yard. In fact, there are so many that you might be able to negotiate price.

OK, now back to more bad news. You might as well pull the motor and trans to do this work. It's pretty intense. I've done it once and it took some time. More time than doing a front suspension pan.

The vertical green piece is a separate part. I made portions of that and welded them in after the main tray was in. If your paint is good, there is no reason why this can't be done w/o damaging the finish. Everything back there is double walled.

PM me if you need more detail, but in terms of generally what needs to be done, that's pretty much it. Here's a pic of the one I did. Ironically, it was another red over green car.

[signature65]

After assessing the damage it looks like the whole pannel is going to have to be replaced. There are 6 small holes that may be able to be patched in the seat area. But the whole fiewall/parcel shelf is thin and needs to be cut out.

I'm not too worried about keeping it all orginal just want to fix it and hopefully be done with it. Oh and I have never welded or done any kind of rust work.....so this will be a learning experiance for me.

Here is the back cleaned up and highlighted where I think I will need to replace the pannel

[my1st911]

I hate to admit that "SOME" of it looks bad, but overall it still seems somewhat solid. The seat arear is surface rust with minor holes. Has anyone tried POR15. It stands for paint over rust, and is very good at stopping it in its tracks. Obviously some of it needs to be cut out, but it may not be as bad as you think. I hope my 76 doesnt look like that under there. The previous owner garage kept it but it did live near the long island sound (salty air). Maybe it isn't as bad as yo think

[john walker's workshop]

do not cut out any more than you need to. there is plenty of good steel there so just patch in the bad stuff. engine and trans out as milt suggested.

[Dan Morton]

I'm in a similar situation with my '68. I cut out the weak metal and am in the process of grinding down the other rust areas until I find good metal. Then will make patch panels for each large area and of course weld to good metal. I would also consider fiberglassing some areas if it makes sense since the whole section is still structural. My rust is mostly in the rear shelf with only a small area in one of the seat bottoms.

You are going down the right path, just keep digging in to find the really weak areas and you will probably see you don't need to cut out the entire section.

[rw7810]

go to this tread for inspiration.

The Journey Begins- 911ST recreation

I did this in my car last summer.

[dshepp806]

Unfrikinbelievable....what a downer (for me). Almost shedded atear or two......but:

$$ fixes anything. Might as well take the inspirational advice and get started (learning/doing). Luckily, there are several here who "do" (have "done") and are good psychologists, as well. We are SO lucky to have this shared knowledge.

GEEEEZE,..those pics have me listening to Pink Floyd "Animals", this evening (at quite elevated dBs...............)

I'll be absorbing this thread for sheer "medicine"......

Best of luck to you (and her),..somehow: I think it soon done....


Best,

Doyle

[signature65]

Bought the tools today to get to work....

I will keep you all posted aong with my progress. I always did want to learn how to weld!