I am in a very bad predicament. I have a 1984 Z-28 with most of the bells and whistles that were available for that year. My problem is that it is rusted pretty badly. The thing I am having a problem with is knowing that it is a good idea to invest the money to get it fixed. I want to keep my car and I would like to fix it up so I don't look like white trash that can't afford anything half way decent. So what do you all think? Is it worth the $3,000-$4,000 to get the rust fixed? I am stuck please help. Thanks for any and all help.

 

I would look at the under carriage before really deciding. If the bottom of the car is all holes and rust then I probably would just use it as a parts car. If it is just the bottom of your doors and some surface rust then $3000-4000 should fix it right up. How's the interior and the milage on the car. You see everyone will have a different opinion for this one. It all comes down to the overall shap of the car, and is it worth it. Look her over really good and then you'll know if it is worth is or not

HTH
Keiran

 

The interior is still in pretty good shape. The sides of the seats are ripped from wear and tear. The car has like 175,000 miles on it. I don't think the undercarriage has any holes in it (knock on wood). I think it might be a little rusted. The only really obvious rust spots are around the ground efx. Is there a way to seal those if I get it fixed so water and stuff can't get down in there between the body and the ground efx? I would hate to give this car up. If anything it will get sold. Only for the fact that I have no room to store any other cars since I live in an apartment. Thanks for your help.

 

Do you have any pics? It's hard to make an educated guess without actually seeing where the rust is. As stated by Cruizin Kaz, check the undercarriage/floorboards first. My old '85 SC had 170K miles, was rustier than heck around the wheel wells/door bottoms, but the floorboards were solid. I fixed it up and never had any problems.

 

Agreed, need pics if possible

 

I have planned to put some pics up tonight maybe. I just got a new computer so I have to install all the stuff to beable to use my digital camera. I am hoping to get them on here. Most of the rust is in the rear quarters, along bottom of doors, and front fender bottoms. Also a considerable amount around the front windshield. Watch later on or tomorrow for some pics. Thanks for all of your help. Did you do the body work your self or did you have someone else do it? If you had someone else do it how much did it cost to get it done? I was looking on Hawks and the other links at the top of the page and I found some stuff that I need to add and I don't think it will cost too much to get it looking good again.

 

Ok here are some pics. The first one is of the passenger side rear quarter.

 

I don't want to take up too much room so this will be that last pic. If you would like to see the other pics I took e-mail me or message me and I will send them to you. Thanks again for all of your help.

 

Considering the blue book value of your average Camaro I'd say its not worth paying a bodyshop $3000-$4000 to get the rust fixed. Either DIY, or sell the car and find a non rusted 3rd gen on Ebay, buy it, get a 1 way plane ticket there and drive it back home.

 

Thats not so bad...definitly fixable, doesnt look like any of it even goes all the way through. You want to see some serious rust check out this link and see what I had to do to mine:

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=125264

Also might want to check out TomP's posts, he is doing A LOT of body work too. Both of our cars are much worse than yours is. I wouldn't do it if I wasn't doing most of the work myself though. You could do all the body work yourself, then spend $1000-$2000 to get a pretty good paint job and be set. Mine is all done except for the paint job. I rattle canned it all black just so it wouldn't rust again, it looks passable but far from even OK. It is gettin painted in June.

 

It looked like you had your work cut out for you. I think I would have just past on trying to fix it. I would do it my self but I have no idea how to do it. I recently got a magizine from The Paddock and they have a book on how to do body work. I think I might get it. I also have another problem. I have no where to do the work and my apartment complex won't let me do it in the parking lot. I am going to take it to another body shop as soon as it stops raining or snowing here in Ohio. I am hoping the place that told me it would be $3500 was just way over priced. Did you just sand out the rust you had or did you cut it out and weld in new? I think there might be a couple of places that are rusted all the way through. The first picture I posted was rusted all the way through and I cut it out and screwed a piece of heater duct in the hole. Thanks for your help.

 

Here is what I did for mine. I sanded the area around the rust clean so that there was bare(non-rusted) metal around all the rust spots. Then I took a big wirewheel(3m makes a rust stripping wheel that i used) and took the rust down until there was nothing left but the pitted metal. Then I took naval jelly and applied it to all the rust spots. After that I sprayed the areas with a self etching primer. Then I put a fiberglass backing behind all my rust holes, filled the holes with bondo, primered the car again, filled in the low spots with more bondo, sanded the high spots down, primered again, then rattle can sprayed everything so it wouldn't rust again while I wait till summer to have the whole car painted. As fate would have it, two weeks after I got done I hit a deer, thank *** for comprehensive insurance, and now I have a nice check for $2800 to use towards fixing the damage (new hood, bumber, and some dents pulled out of the fender and door).

 

How much time did you invest in fixing your car? That sucks that you hit a deer. I know what you mean about the insurance. I didn't have it and my car got broke into and I lost about $3,000 between my cd's and cd player. D@mn bastards. It doesn't sound like it is too difficult to do the work. Thanks.

 

How much time did I pit into it? Who knows really....2 weeks of working from 11pm to around 3am with the occational day off or going to bed early. I would have to guess that I could do it in 20 hours now, having some practice, not including curing/drying time for the paint and such. It still is far from perfect though, I have some dings i need to take care of as well as some spots i didnt sand quite right.