From the pics in my gallery what would you say the body work situation is on my car https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/album.php?albumid=1398
On a scale of 1-10. 1 being very minimal and 10 being what the hell were you thinking when you bought that. Let me know what you guys think..

 

thats not bad at all i would give it a 7 yes it has rust but i didnt see any holes so good find how much did you pay for it.

 

I paid 1800. That was good to hear I mean I know they are just pictures, but I just went to a small to body shop and they told me it would be well over 4k just for the body work to get it ready for paint I think I am gonna take itt to big dogs shop and see what he says

 

Now I suppose it all depends on WHERE you live. Up where I am, thats an easy 9 for body work. I didn't see any pictures of the undercarrage, which is where most of those problems really occur. (Especially that spot over the front suspension)

Not a thing that a good bit of sanding and possibly a bit of POR15 under the hood area couldn't solve really quickly. It is time for new paint, though. That CAN be costly. Are you crazy enough to paint it yourself?

That crack over the window seems to be pretty common, eh?

 

yeah im looking at 4K just for paint here thats not even the prepwork lol

 

I have been hearing all the rave about this POR15. Does it really work as good as everyone says??? I think I am just going to bite the bullet and try to do some of it myself. If all else fails I can just find an F-Body roller and throw the power plant in it.

 

That's a nice looking car. Have you tried buffing the paint out?

 

doesn't look too bad. It doesn't look like any metal has to be cut out and replaced which is the good news. I think mostly you will just be sanding and filling and sanding etc. just make sure you do research on techniques and body filler application and things like that. mines much worse than yours and I'm not worried. lol. good luck!

 

Think my car was in worse shape when I bought it, paid 1k. Did have the same looking seat covers though lol. Yours doesn't look bad at all and depending on if there are surprises hiding under the paint, should be fairly easy to fix up.

 

well unless there is some serious undercarriage rust then i think you got your self a good car. For the money you paid you did pretty well. Id get ready to pay through the nose for paint and prep though. You might wanna try to get rid of the rust and try some body work yourself because it will save you a boatload of cash at the shop.

 

7, 9? I that car is a 9 than mine's a 35. That's just grinding and filling, nothing too bad really. Por 15 and rustbullet do what they claim but don't push it. You need to grind off as much rust as possible, then apply por15/rustbullet, THEN bondo.
Your car's not bad at all. I give it a 3 or 4.
Goodluck
Alex

 

Oh geez... I read the scale backwards... Ooops.

 

I think you have a 9. You are going to uncover a lot of other stuff when you start taking it apart. My car showed no visible signs of rust. But, when i got it home and started to take it apart I found some. I have started at the front and worked my way back. Not to discorage you or anything.

 

raven-where do you live?4,000 for * just paint * seems high to me!
A friend had his car completly color changed which included fixing a rust hole by the passenger rear seat,body work,(minimal iirc) & sub frame connectors for right around the 4 thou area by a very respected restoration shop!
The bride & I learned how to do simple body work. The paint was close to 1200 for materials(all sand paper,sanding blocks,primer/surfacer,1 gal paint & clear,thinner,activator,fisheye remover,retarder,etc).
Look around & ask friends if they know someone who would do it as a side job. (that you can trust).I wish you luck in your journey!Your car does look pretty good.

 

yeah i read the scale wrong to lol :facepalm:

i live in MO lol it is high but the guy does amazing work and will give me new seals and glass if needed for nothing extra so its not that bad

 

Thanks. I can tell you my materials will be know where near 1200 unless I buy really expensive paint. I work at 3M so I have damn near everything made by Bondo in my garage. All in.....Probably cost me about 60 bucks. Perks of the job.

 

I give it a 4 overall. The only tricky part is that passenger door. Those dents are going to be very hard to get looking right because you can't get to the back side of them and they are on the body line.

Not sure where all the 8 and 9 ratings are from, Im assuming just from reading the chart backwards. Like someone else stated, if thats a 9 my car was somewhere around 50 lol.

 

10 based on what you paid for it. If it was $700-1000 I'd say 8-9. Not really worth what you paid for it.

Looks to me like you'll be replacing....

-left strut tower (pic 12, THIS IS NOT AN OPTION!!)
-both rear wheel well arches (possible inner and outer wheel patches/pics 6, 8, 2)
-driver side rocker (pic 16), possible pass. side
-driver side fender (pic 15)
-probably various floor patches (based on what rot I can see, I bet the corners where the floor meets the firewall is toast)
-decklid (again based on the rot I can see)

Looks like a beater 3rd gen to me. Have fun with it.

 

also, push all of that old brake fluid out!

 

Its a 3rdgen nothing but sheet metal, tons of over laped metal areas, pinch welds, sealer, bondo and million of unseen areas. . .

I looked at all your pics on that page i kinda had to laugh, the fender and rear quarter panels lips with the rust bubbles that would be the lest of your worries. the area around strut tower is a huge concern. you'll probly need a diffrent door, that door looks stretched beyond repair. there are so many hinde areas on these cars i dont know what level you plan to take your car to I.E simple paint job or full restore or how long you plan to keep the car but these are all factors to consider.

 

Thats kinda taking it a little far. How do you know that all those things need replaced? He has not hit the rust areas with a grinder yet to see how deep the rust is. Bubbles in paint can just be surface rust (starting to go deeper, but still on the surface). I would start grinding the rust areas and then determine if they need to be replaced or not. There are no visible holes yet so you can't be sure.

 

7. do the body work yourself. Rear hatch can be found for $50-100, most of the dents can be massaged out or covered with bondo. Sand the entire car, use non sandable primer, and send it out for a paint job.

 

I have a ton of body supplies laying around i.e. bondo fiberglass resign etc. and I am also off work for a while so I may tinker with it here and there but I gues I am ultimately going to look for a roller unless it turns out that things aren't as bad as they appear. thanks for all the input guys.