So I have the same problem that many third gen owners have with the driver side strut tower rusting out from the wheel well in. I searched the forums and I couldn't find any post with some pics of the repair process, so I thought I would document mine. There's nothing like taking a cutting wheel and welder to your car!


So here was the problem after I took out the strut and upper strut mount and got rid of most of the bad rust so I could see what I was dealing with.

 

woops messed up there, look down for pics

 

side closest to the firewall

 

closest to the front

 

inside the wheel well

 

another from the wheel well, you can see the line where i want to cut

 

another from the wheel well

 

before i started cutting, I welded two pieces to support the strut tower because I was removing all the support from the wheel well, and the only thing that is holding it up is the part where it is welded to the fender frame. This pic is after the fact but just showing where it was from when i was trying to get all the bad metal out.

 

this is the one from inside the engine bay

 

another pic of that support

 

the following pictures are after all the cutting and preping for primer and paint.

 

inside wheel well, firewall side

 

this is the front side

 

from the top, firewall side

 

from top, front side

 

here is all thats left

 

So I have a coat of primer on the underside of the strut tower, I think I'm going to get some POR-15 that everybody is raving about and use that. I have a sheet of 16 gauge steel that I am going to be repairing the wheel well with, I'll post new pics as they come.

 

Nice pics and details but I think there is a 3 picture limit.

 

too bad about the 3 picture limit

posts like this are great and should be part of a site database

 

think posts w/ technical information which will help the thirdgen community as a whole can be omitted from the three picture limit. Whether a mod thinks that or not is a different story. I'd say a 3 pic limit of showing shots of your car, or your new interior, or hood, etc. A good repair, or modification where the pix will help those who follow, bring the pictures on.

 

Absolutely....that's what we're here for. As long as it's not 15 pics of someone's new rims from 15 slightly different angles. Pics of a build up or any procedure help to tell a story - a pic is worth a thousand words.

Kudos to mgilorma for documenting that.

 

I can honestly say that I've never seen strut tower rust anywhere near that bad, and considering that I'm from the North East, that's saying a lot.

My 86 Camaro pretty much had no body left, and the floor pans weren't much better, but even that didn't have so much as a pin hole through the strut towers. It just boggles me that you got such severe rust in that area.

In any case, it looks like you're making great strides to get it repaired. If it was me, I think I would have replaced the whole panel instead of piecing it in, but as long as you weld it properly, that repair should be just as strong as stock.

 

My first thought was the car had been wrecked and this area heated and reshaped, but doubt it could or would have happened like this. I'd guess a bad piece of steel from the mill. Looks like a tricky repair, hope it turns out good.

 

It's actually fairly common with all the sandwiched sheetmetal and pinch welds. I noticed a little cancer in this area when I had my struts out recently. I just took a wire wheel to it and hit with with some RustTuff Auto Zone crap paint. I know I have to get in there again and do it right, eventually.

 

as far as I'm aware, no one makes replacement wheel wells for our thirdgens. The only options I had were to piece it in or try to cut apart a donor car and then weld that back in to mine. The biggest chalenge for me right now is not really having any metal working tools. I'm not going to be able to start working on it again until next week, but I'll try to keep up with the documentation.

 

time for new pics, been kind of busy with work, putting in a couple of hours a night hear and there. This first pic is of the first piece that i cut out and hammered and bent into shape, then cut out a hole for the strut and holes for the alignment and strut tower brace.

 

here it is, all it needed from this point is i small piece on the back part, and two large pieces on each side.

 

jump ahead a whole lot of welding, hammering and bending, this is the piece out of the car, primed and ready for por 15.

 

so to end today off, i painted the underside of the strut tower and the top side of the "new" wheel well with por-15. Tommorow I'll be welding that piece in, painting everything, and that should be it.

 

I had rust that bad on my Pass side, once i got it cut out, welded in a new metal, smoothed it with bondo, and i got the idea of smoothing out the edges around the mount, so now that the engine is finnaly out of my car, im going through the bay, striping it, and smothing it out with metal/bondo/epoxies before the new engine goes in

 

I'm having the same problem with my strut towers, my girl aunt just game me her 87 camaro for free! Lucky me huh lol...but anyways do I have to take the engine out in order to do the strut towers on the frame?? Please lmk I will send pics asap...

 

You shouldn't have to take out the engine to do the repairs. I'm going to update some of the pictures on this thread so you can get a better look at what my repair looked like. Have fun!

 

So ten years later I'm going to finally finish up this thread....

I clamped the patch piece to the strut tower and started welding...

 

After grinding, I applied POR Patch to all the seams to make sure my less than optimal welds would be protected...

 

And finally a finish coat of POR-15, ten years later it's still in perfect shape

 

I remember seeing another thread. A dude had cut it out and welded in from a donor car.

 

Wow, good for you on saving the car and doing it right, the repair looks great. A lot of people, myself included, would not touch a car with strut towers that bad. I'd rather be fixing floors or quarters

 

10 years later, still have it, and still posting!!!!

 

Thanks guys. Bought the car from a friend after I graduated high school in 97. Obviously a lot has changed in life since then, married, kids, etc... I will NEVER let this car go, my kids will have to figure out what to do with it after I'm gone.