Recently bought an 89 rs that was sitting for a while and I knew it had rust issues and I pulled the rear wheels off I noticed the wheel wells at the top were gone. Is there a company that makes after market ones or am I going to have to find me a donor car?

 

best bet is a donor part or to fab it up.

id check the whole car out first though

 

I am definitely going to go through the whole car, the passenger side is not as bad and I think I saved the car in time from rusting completely out. But I will soon find out what can of worms I bought. Worst case I have something to learn body work on.

 

always a good learning experience!!!!!!

 

That wheel well is pretty bad. Most of the time in that location, the rust is fairly hidden behind the factory undercoating, but when it gets to the point of big holes like that, there's going to be a whole lot more rust that you can't see until you take it apart. The inner and outer wheelwell sheetmetal is not available, so a donor or fabricate would be the only options. With the original metal that far gone, fabrication will be very challenging.

I'm willing to bet this car has rot in all of the other spots typical for these cars. I have yet to see one that is only rusted in one location. The other rust will be fairly well hidden. You have to know where to look and much of it will be hidden behind undercoat and/or seam sealer. Poke it with a sharp punch and you will find out quickly if its solid or not.

I would be looking at:
-Front shock towers
-Front rocker panel corners/lower fender mounts
-Floorpans (corners where they meet the rockers and firewall and also above the converter heat shield)
-Passenger side firewall/floorboard/cowl/wheelwell intersection (rot will be buried under a lot of seam sealer)
-Behind where the rear bumper energy absorber mounts

Take a look at my restoration thread to see what you would be getting into. Not trying to scare you away, but you should know what you will be up against and it's not for the faint of heart. My project started as just the front rocker corners and I found all of the rest of the rot as I continued working through it. Had I realized how much hidden rust/rot there was, I would not have done the project, but that's in the past.

1989 Trans am GTA Restoration Thread - Third Generation F-Body Message Boards

 

Thank you for all the awesome feedback. Im expected the worst so we will see. I bought the car for 500 bucks so if I have to junk it im not super upset. Something to tinker with.

 

As stated by other members, it’s doubtful that that wheel well is the only problem area. If you plan to do the repair it would behoove you to go over the rest of the car in search of other problem areas. Then at that point you can see what you are really dealing with and plan accordingly. If you have a welder and are motivated, rust repair is manageable and rewarding.
I started this project years ago with the goal of replacing the engine and trans and doing some minor rust repair. The more I dug the more rust I found. I ended up replacing both rear quarter panels because the rust was beyond repairable but I didn’t know that until I started chipping away. It took me about 3 summers of intermittent work to fix all of the rust and rustproof the car.

 

I’m having the same issue with my 86 camaro not exactly the same amount of rot but enough to make me have a body shop weld new metal in.