Here are some of the early pictures I was able to find:
This is the driver's side wheelhouse. Pinholes and extreme pitting
Next up are the rear seats. These were not in the worst shape, but I had no intention of keeping them for this build. Seats deleted.
This was my first experience trying to remove a rubberized undercoat. Very time-consuming, but an angle grinder and a wire wheel worked nicely. I heard horror stories of rust forming undetected because of moisture getting trapped between the coating and metal.
Speaking of undercoat horror stories, this is what the front suspension pan looked like. This was probably the worst section of the car. I am assuming that there was a battery acid leak that was able to get into the panels and eat right through the metal.
Probably not my smartest idea, but I decided to tackle the front suspension pan as my first real project on this car. The first thing to do was to determine the extent of the rust. I started by stripping the undercoat in the affected area to gauge how far the rust had spread.
I learned
VERY quickly how dangerous rubberized undercoat can be. I was not even 5 minutes into stripping the undercoat before I realized the wire wheel was instantly eating through the metal going all the way back to the crossmember mounting point. Circled here in red:
I realized this whole lower section of the inner fender was going to have to be removed. Eventually, I got to this stage and realized the crossmember mount would also need to be replaced
(Don't mind the stack of washers holding the shell)
At this point, I called it for the day. I could not remove any more of the car since the crossmember mounting point was used to hold the car up. I made a list of all the sheet metal I needed and placed an order with Restoration Design.