My '92 GTA just got delivered today, and she's in pretty good shape except for some rust, most noticably around the windshield. I'm no body man, so can you guys look at the pic and tell me what my best course of action would be? I have read a lot about POR-15, but I'm unsure if it will work in my situation. Thanks...

 

If that rust is under the windshield like it looks from the pic good luck. First of all you need to figure out why it is rusting there, and second you need to remove it and coat it with any thing as long as you fix the problem. Iron and O2 in any form will eventually cause iron oxide especially in a 20 year old+ car, so good luck, and post your progress.

 

You will probably have to remove the windshield.... then get all the paint and rust off, sandblasting may be a good idea... Then once it is down to bare metal, a skim coat of body filler to smooth everything down, then some new paint.....

 

its in a tricky spot, most likly started rusting under the windsheild so that does have to come out then sand blasted then pretty much the whole car has to be painted because the spot its in... unless theres another way to just paint a small section of the car....... if there is i would love to know how to! and i think the por15 is just a under body rubber like stuff kinda like ryno lining

 

Hey, is that the GTA that was sold on this board a couple weeks back that we were all ogling over because the price was so good?

WRT the rust, I'm going to chime in with the need to probably remove the windshield to make sure you get at what might be lurking in the channel before it gets real ugly. I'd not use sandblasting as my first choice for killing the rust, though...it is a terribly messy process, and with the windshield out and you blasting at the channel, you'd probaby end up with tons of sand in your interior. Not cool. I'd try to sand/wire brush off as much of the rust as possible, and then hit all those areas with some Ospho (phosphoric acid primer), like maybe even two coats. The acid will get into all the little pits and crevices in the metal, and kill the rust chemically. After the Ospho you can topcoat as you please. But as has been mentioned, if this is at the top of the roof, then that's some work you are going to have to farm out that work to someone who can try to blend the repair into the rest of the panel, or even reapint the whole roof, I dunno. Man, I hate rust!

As for POR15, it isn't like Rhino rubberized stuff. It's kind of like a thick paint in apperance, can be sprayed or brushed on, but if you spray it you gotta be decked out in some serious respiratory gear, as that stuff is NOT GOOD for the lungs. Most often used on chassis parts, floor and trunk pans, frames, kind of hard to use on the body. I prefer to use Master Series products.

Keep us posted on the process here, and good luck.

 

Bull,

It is indeed the GTA from Indianapolis for $2500...

The cars in pretty good shape, but the rust around the windshield suprised me some.

 

Hmm..wasn't mentioned at all, huh? That kinda sucks.

How big is the area that is affected?

On the bright side, you now own a really rare, fast, great looking thirdgen 'Bird!

 

Great advice Dave

 

The Iroc I purchased here for a small amount was well worth the time and effort but has some interior rust problems that I can now tackle. The entire underside and trunk was treated with POR but I noticed that some hidden metal pieces are rusted. Nothing structural but worth attending to.

 

Bull,

It was described as very minor surface rust. Being as I'm in Texas, I've had the luxury of not having to deal with rust, so I wasn't expecting something like this. But I have no hard feelings towards the seller, I should have just done better research on rust.

As far as the size, there are two main spots. The one in the pic is roughly 8 inches long by 2-3 inches wide. There is a smaller one maybe 4 inches long by 2 inches wide.

 

I Well tell you what, when I purchased my vehicle I STRICTLY asked the owner if it had ANY RUST, and he exclaimed NO. Now it does to a small extent, but after driving the car 2000 miles home and finding the hidden rust what can I do but fix it? A little rust can easily be fixed and good luck on your rust problem.

 

Thanks for all the input guys. Sounds like I've got some work on my hands...

 

yea i had a big rust hole on my car when i first got it in the same spot...i had to pull the windshield (which shatterd...very brittle)...and cute the metal out, welded in new metal and used bondo to smooth it out. The metal there is thin, so u kinda have to do small spot welds and let it cool and so on and so forth....at least thats how i did it..came out great

 

small update; I took the car to the car wash today (one of those fancy drive thru Laser Wash places), and low and behold, when the high pressure rinse hit, water started leaking from the inside of the windshield. Got the headliner nice and wet. Maybe that explains why the headliner was starting to sag on that side?

 

Sounds like a good explanation.

I don't envy you with this...having to pull the windshield out is kind of a pain in tha butt.

 

Well, I took the easy way out and decided to leave the windshield in tact and just tackle the rust I can see. I plan on doing a repaint in the future, so I'll tackle the windshield then. I'm banking on the nice Texas weather to keep the rust to a minimum

To start, I sanded the rust spots down with 60 grit paper. I then hit it with some Ospho and let it sit 24 hours. Next came the Bondo to smooth everything back out. Here's what it looks like with the Bondo. Not the greatest job, but it's my first time trying any body work, so cut me some slack



After I laid the Bondo, I sanded it smooth with 320 grit sandpaper. I don't feel any ridges between the Bondo and the paint, so I guess it's OK. I then hit it with two coats of primer, and tonight I'm going to use some glazing putty to fill in the scratch marks. After the putty, I'm going to sand it with some 600 grit, prime again, hit it with the 600 grit again, then paint and clear coat using Duplicolor. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

You better make sure the rust is 100% gone before the bondo went on. Otherwise its going to keep rusting and you'll never know until there's a gaping hole there.

 

I hit the rust with Ospho, and once it's primed and sealed, I should be good, correct? Rust will only continue if moisture is available right?

 

As long as you got the Oshpho on there good, getting into all the little rusty pits, you should be ok. I usually do 2 coats of Ospho if the rust is heavy, but one good coat should be sufficient, especially given your dry environment.

I might be afraid to wait TOO long before seeing what is in the window channel. We know you didn't get the rust down in there, and just washing your car is going to feed that rust. I don't blame you on doing it this way, though...it'll look better, a lot of the rust is gone, and the car can be enjoyed right away rather than having it down for a long time to remove the windshield, which is no small chore.

 

Bull,

It was really the downtime that turned me off. The weather has been nice here (between 70-80 degrees) and I hate to see her sit in the garage. Let me play with her a few weeks, then I'll get down to business.

 

I'd probably do the exact same thing,

When you do go to town and pull the windshield, let us know what you find. And post some pics of the car, too! The original ad thread only had like one or two pics!

 

Here's a link to some pics...

1992 Trans Am GTA

The car is in pretty decent shape overall. The interior is excellent, with only a minor wear mark on the drivers seat, some headliner sag, and an inop factory CD player. The body is straight, but as you can see from the pics, there is a small rust problem, along with bad paint on the spoiler and nose, and a lot of nice scatches all over. A repaint is definitely in the future.

She runs OK, but seems to be hesitating a bit during acceleration. There is some clunking coming from the front end during turning and stopping (tierods? struts?), and a strange knocking/vibration at idle (motor mounts? tranny mounts? flexplate?).

All in all, she was a decent buy for $2500. (well actually, $3200; damn $700 shipping )