Rust Assessment

Took time over the weekend to began seeing how much rust/rot I have to repair before getting paint next year. All in all the car is not TOO bad and I have seen much worse. I have not been detered from any plans I have for my wagon as I enjoy the car too much and it is perfect for hauling family/friends around in. I do want to stop it from becoming a rusty unsaveable heap.

Driver side lower quarter has the worst spot. The car was wrecked at some point and repaired with the usual jar of Bondo. Thanks to the water leak the quarter has rotted\ from inside and the Bondo is holding it together. I can push on a spot about the size of my fist but didn't break it out. I have decided to patch it using skin from one of the doors I have laying around.



The water leak has also cause a small D-Pillar rot. It is only on the lower portion and the rest is rock solid. Will just glass it up since the water leak will be eliminated and it should remain dry.



I didn't get a pic of the hole in the pass rear wheel house but it will be patched with metal as well. Will then scrub everything else and POR15 it.

Other than that the rest is mainly surafce rust such as this portion of the gate area. It has some spots up higher in the seam area for these panels. GM did a poor job of sealing and painting this area. It looks worse in close up pics than it is.



There is also (of course) some rusting in the lower B Pillar areas. This was caused by horribly sealed seams allowing water to sit between the panels and cause Cancer. Neither side is rotted completely through and is mainly surface rust. The pic is of the pass side, with the driver side looking about the same except for the center portion being a lot smaller.



I roughed everything up to slow the disease and primed it and painted til I perform surgery.




I do have a question about the lower B Pillar area and hope someone has an answer. Just how many seperate pieces of steel make up this area? From what I saw and you can see in the pic the answer may be 3. I just want to ask around before I decide to learn by cutting up my sedan.

Thanks for reading my long winded post

We are in the same boat with that rear drivers quarter! Standing water got it mine too. Drain hole was plugged with undercoating. I will get mine patched up later on.

https://2img.net/h/i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp261/chrisandcarapowell/Project%20WWW/roady10.jpg

I think it is 3 pieces...I know I guy that has one laying in his garage...he should go look for you!

(*cough...Mike?)

So, are you putting the sedan rear wheelwells in your wagon?

Chris

Yours is how mine would look if not for the Bondo holding it, lol. Though the metal on the bottom of mine is solid, should be simple to patch.

The B Pillars in my sedan are rust free, so if nothing else they may donate themselves for patches if needed.

As for the wheelwells they appear to be slightly different fbetween body styles. The sedan has a little rust in them but not the same place as the wagon.

Still toying with the idea of hacking apart the sedan has it has lots of useable parts and has a rotted floor and quarters. It is a good car but needs a few repairs I have been neglecting for some time as it is a beater. Had people interested in buying it but have to find the guy I bought the car from as he never removed the lien from it He was supposed to do it last year after I made my last payment to him.

I meant to post all this in the section originally, d'oh.

94Woody wrote:

I do have a question about the C Pillar area and hope someone has an answer. Just how many seperate pieces of steel make up this area? From what I saw and you can see in the pic the answer may be 3. I just want to ask around before I decide to learn by cutting up my sedan.

I'm a little confused. You mention the C pillar. Did you mean the D pillar? You pictured the rust at the base of the pillar just above the tail light. Is that were you're wanting to know about how many layers of steel?

If so, a few. Three at least, I'll have to see if I have a picture or, as Chris mentioned, I have a quarter with part of the D pillar in my garage I can check out for you.

Oops, edited the post. I was referring to the last pic of the lower B Pillar.

Ah. I've not cut into a B pillar... yet. Cant' really tell you what's down there.

Sorry!