Im in a dilemma whether to restore this car (KR Replica), parts or just sell it. The body is straight.. There is some rust around the t tops and windows.
As part os the process I was willing to strip it right back to bare anyway. I paid $2200 AUS for it and it has no motor or trans. It is a Trans AM (checked VIN).
The Bonnet is no good. What are other peoples experiences with rust? Many thanks..

 

And some more pics...

 

Alright, I know I will write a book in this thread but it might help you out.

Well first off, this is almost the same situation that I was in last year (like literally this same month, maybe even week). I bought a true 1987 hardtop Iroc-z with everything in it. 305 TPI (boat anchor, I know), auto trans. It was listed for 2,200 usd bought it for 2,000 usd (overpayed like hell). The guy that sold the car was dishonest, and lied, I even caught him in a lie but didn't think much of it (at one point he said the car had a 350 but I said it was a 305). He admitted to saying it had bondo and some rust (which was visible, he couldn't hide it). I thiought buying it and fixing it up would be easy and fun. well I did have the second part right, it was/is fun, not so easy though. He title-jumped the car (which is illegal, and I didn't know) it means to not register the car in your name and give the title straight to the buyer, it is a felony I believe. I payed him money and I was off. Not until I got home (somehow, without co poisoning, rofl) I found out the car has flintstone sized holes in all of the 4 foot areas in the car, the driver one was the biggest, I could enter the car through it if I really tried, OK, one of the strut towers had a rust hole (I knew this already), both fenders and quarter panels were rusted to **** and caked with 10 gallons of bondo, and the exhaust fell off at some point (the seller said the car was "straight piped", rofl). so since this was my first car, I decided to fix it up, yup. long story short, since I have college and other **** going on in my life, I worked on the car on and off for a year, and I can tell you one thing. If you gotta do the repairs, do them right the first time. Oh and if anyone notices this post and is from the Chicagoland area, if your car seller's name is "William 'bob' Gersch" stay away. OK enough of storytime.

Want to know my opinion on your car? Well first off, check the friggin floors. and, IMO, there is never too much rust to junk or part out a car, that is, if one is willing to invest money and time into the car. Do you want to learn to do bodywork? Do you have free time and money? And most importantly, will you find this enjoyable? Personally, I spent maybe like 2-3k into my car, I do not regret any of it. I learned so much about bodywork that I feel really good about the work I do. But always, and I mean, always do the job right the first time, and don't rush. Oh and getting junkyard parts will save you money over freight shipped body parts (didn't really realize that until I bought all my parts). Also, weld metal with mig, don't use flux (sucks, bad welds, have to clean it after each weld, almost always Burns through 22 gauge metal and higher). Then you get those people that say "junk it, not worth it". Well, what do your really want? if you're asking the question of saving the car then I'm assuming you want to keep it, if that's the case then work on it. Many people just tell you to junk these just so there's less of them on the roads so they have higher value, eventually (I see it all the time, not even limited to thirdgens). One more thing, sometimes rust is worse than it looks, always remove rust, by grinding it out or cutting it off, then protecting the metal with few coats of primer, some paint, and rubberized undercoating.

Having said that, what I would do is try to grind or wire brush the rust off, and seeing how deep the rust is. You may get away with having clean metal underneath, but if the metal is soft or eaten through, gotta weld new metal in. And do that now before you put engine, and trans in. Check all around, especially spare tire area, and entire floors. Take out carpet if you have to. Oh, and subframes. Make sure they are clean, and if they are, I would still protect them with primer, paint, and undercoating or spray bedliner.

I'll check back on this thread and add anything else I might have left out.

I might do a thread on my rust repairs as I got plenty of pics to show you an idea of what to expect, and how to repair it.

Hope this helped you out

 

Thanks for the reply. I am in australia so it is hard to come across good straight TA's with T tops.... Most. Mine has no motor or trans. peope want min 12K for an ok one here as they are rare.. I have the time and patience.. Perhaps I should keep?

 

Hell, if it's rare then yeah of course. Just know that if you are going to do any metal work, you will need a mig or a mig/flux welder, it's not a big deal though, you can get decent ones for 200-300 dollars. I got my mig/flux welder for around 385 w/ shipping off amazon, used it for a year and it's working great. And if the all of the rust is just surface rust, you probably won't even need a welder.

I don't know how common 350's are in a junkyard over there, but if you can stuff in a 350 and a 700r4 or T5 for cheap, you should be set.

Honestly though, if your floors are solid, it's not hard to repair these rust spots. Like I said, try to wire brush it off. In my opinion, the engine bay doesn't even look half as bad as mine, and when I wire brushed the rust, I had nice clean metal underneath. Give the car some good primer and paint and you will have a very nice TA shell.

 

Thanks. I had a guy tell me that once you have have rust you will always have rust - the iron worm. Surely once you you fix it all and prime it and dip it (chassis) in proper solution it should be fine??

 

It doesn't look that bad to me, but you will have to weld some metal on the roof. That rust here is not surface rust.
The rust on the firewall looks pitted pretty bad, but there may not be holes yet there.

The only time I'd say it's too much rust, is when everytime you remove something, you find holes underneath...it happened with my 79 Firebird, the outer panels were fine, but every single panel underneath needed some repair. It wasn't worth it. Only a third of the body was allright :/

 

my 92 bird is pretty straight.. the only rust found is on the engine bay, looks just like yours. i'm gonna fix that later.

what i'm worried about is the firewall, it's rotted bad, specially the left side.. my dilemma; whether to cut and weld a whole new dash/firewall piece) IF cheaper, or just fix it!?



http://www.d1pics.net/share.php?id=49AA_518FE076



http://www.d1pics.net/share.php?id=9778_518FE076

opinions?

 

To the OP....I think you're gonna need to do some further exploring and see how bad the rust really is, and decide yourself if it's all worth it. Some of the bubbled up areas can get a whole lot bigger once you start wire brushing them.

It is neat to see the steering shaft coming out from under the AC box though! Funny how the PB vacuum booster is still in the same place it is here in the states...they must run a linkage from the brake peddle to the opposite side?

Anyways, it might be a lotta hard work to bring it back....but I don't know how many 'birds are over in your neck of the woods. Good luck with it!

-Every car has potential!

 

If cowl area looks like this, your firewall will be Swiss cheese.

If your firewall is Swiss cheese, all water that enters the cowl bowl will end up in your floorboard.

You must fix the firewall, or you might as well just replace your floorboards with chicken-wire.
Merely wire-brushing the rust spots on the front of cowl-bowl, and below the cowl-bowl, will do NOTHING to remedy the holes in the firewall BEHIND THE cowl-bowl.

You must pull the entire dash, all the way to the firewall to access the areas that need to be repaired.

 

Fortunately in my case, the floor boards are intact


I know... that's next on my to do list. i've decided to weld a new piece. Not the easiest but the best IMO.

 

My firewall was shot.

Yeah, I caught mine before the floorboards went.

 

All true....but wire brushing merely allows you to assess the damage and has nothing to do with repair of the holes.

 

Looks scary to me, but you sound like you really like the car. If you've got the time and the passion, go for it.

Corners around the t-top look like they may be gone. That's a tough fix. You may need to fabricate and weld in a new corner.

If you have access to a sand blaster it is a good way to remove rust from those wavy areas like a firewall. You'll get a true picture of the situation then. Makes a BIG mess so do it outside. After that use a spray-on rust converter to get what rust may be lurking in the pinholes. You can use a little body filler to smooth out the bumpies after the rust is gone, but make sure your metal is solid. If you find an area where rust has gone through, it MUST be replaced with new metal.