Hello, Ive gutted my car to Rebuild it and have found quite a bit of rust on floor pans and near pinch welds. I was hopping someone can tell me if this is even worth fixing and/or how to go about fixing it, I’ve already started grinding some rust away to prep for cutting and welding in patch panels but the rust is really close to the side where the body panels meet and Looking from under the vehicle it looks even worse.
the pictures are all the driver side, passenger side isn’t nearly as bad.
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Well.....that's definitely a problem. I guess it's up to you if you want to put that much time/money in the car. It CAN be fixed...but it's a lot of patch panel work plus the pan

 

That's some pretty significant rust. Just that spot will require a floorpan section, part of the firewall/toeboard, front section of the inner and outer rocker panels and may have progressed up into where the door hinges bolt to. Once you take off the ground effects, fenders, doors and dig out the seam sealer, you will see that it's much further than what can be seen in these photos. The other side will be pretty much the same.

These cars generally rust all in the same places and based on that amount of rust in that location, there is a lot more hidden rust in the other typical spots. Front shock towers, rear inner wheelwells, firewall/cowl (under the heater blower motor), rear body where the bumper energy absorber attaches and probably a number of small spots along the rockers/pinch weld and floorpans. Take a real good look at these areas and start poking the undercoating with a sharp awl.

Is it fixable? Yes. Is it worth it? Not if you have to pay someone to do it. You have to decide if you have the skills, tools, garage space and desire to take this on and see it through to the end. It will be a huge project.

 

Find a nice clean shell and start your project there. I know, real easy for me to say, but really it'd be WAY easier than attempting to repair every bit of the rot ya got going on there.....

 

yeah I’m leaning towards doing the work.

 

thank you for the feed back. I’m definitely going to remove the ground effects and fender to see how bad it is under there. I plan on doing all the work myself I have the space and tools, I’m not all too skilled on welding but I’m eager to learn. I was more app looking for confirmation that it’s save-able and where to look for more rust. I had checked other areas like the door hinge and saw that it was pretty clean. It seems to me like the weather seal was leaking and that’s what caused the floors to rot out like this. Everywhere else that I saw was rust free. But I’ll definitely go over it with a fine tooth comb now. Thank you.

 

You’re right and I would gladly do that but the car was originally my fathers and I’m dead set on restoring it. I thought briefly of getting a shell but to me it wouldn’t be the same and my heart wouldn’t be as into it.

 

I understand the ambition and the sentimental value of this particular car. Transferring the good parts to a rust free shell would be the easier way, but it won't be the same car. Restoring this car will take more money, time and determination than moving on to another car in better condition. Still, that doesn't mean don't do it, you just need to do a serious evaluation of what it will take to get through this project and make sure that you really can complete it. Otherwise it will end up as a torn apart unfinished project, taking up space and hanging over your head. With all that said, I am in the middle of doing the exact same thing (and not done yet) with my GTA. I have owned it since 1999, took the girl who is now my wife to the prom in it. I too am restoring it for sentimental reasons. It would have been cheaper and easier to just buy really nice, low mileage version of the same car.

Some advice from my experience along the way. Like you, I started off identifying the same rusted section of the floor/rocker corner as yours and thought that was the extent of it. After getting into it and fixing that area and the other side, I started looking harder and the more of the car I took apart, the more hidden rust I found. Eventually, I stripped the entire car down to the bare shell and repaired all of the rust and stripped and repainted the underside. I did everything laying on my back in the garage and it was terrible. Had I realized the amount of rust there really was and the amount of work ahead of me, I would have stripped the car to the shell in the beginning, mounted it up on a rotisserie and sent it off to be media blasted or chemically dipped.

The other part is that at times, the metalwork will be filthy, endless and frustrating. Break it down into small tasks, walk away and come back later when you get stuck, and just keep plugging away. It's like eating an elephant one bite at a time.

My restoration thread might be useful to you in evaluating your project. I documented the rust areas that I repaired, which should give you a good reference of where to look and what it will take to repair those areas. I have a lot more photos than just the ones that I uploaded, so if you have specific questions about any of the repair areas, PM me and I can send you additional photos. Good luck.

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

 

Thank you for the feedback man, I’m glad to hear you know where I’m coming from with this project and that you have a whole thread I can use for reference. I got the drive side effect off and didn’t Really see much. I’m taking the front nose and fender off tomorrow,so I’ll see more of it then.

 

Once you get the fender off, you’ll be able to see what you’re dealing with. Start poking with a sharp awl all around the rocker corners, inner rockers, wheel wells. Undercoating and seal sealer will hide a lot of rot.

 

I would still get a rust free shell and if you are determined to fix that car for sentimental reasons and I totally get that. Then yu can cut good sections off the other car, Sure it is a lot of extra work but keeping Dads car is not the most logical thing

 

so i dont have a awl but i made do with what i had. i also looked at your thread it is very informative, i will be sure to refer back to it or ask you when i have questions. after i took off the nose and fender this is what i found. that area where the strut is looks really is that even repairable? im really considering that acid dip right now.

 

There’s a lot of rust there. It’s more extensive than what mine was.

The entire corner behind the fender is pretty far gone. Once you start cutting and taking it apart, you’ll see how far the rust goes, likely on the inner panel as well. There’s not much metal left to use as a template to make new pieces. That’s the other issue, other than floorpans, those body parts are not available, so you have to fabricate.

The wheel well is also pretty far gone. The problem is going to be that most of the metal is going to be so thin that it will be impossible to weld to. It will just keep burning though. You will end up replacing a large part of the wheel well. You may even have to separate the shock tower cap to repair underneath and then reinstall. Go at it with a wire wheel on an angle grinder and you get a better idea of what good metal is left.

You need to look at the other areas too. Based on those front wheel wells, I’m pretty certain the rears are just as bad.

You asked if it’s fixable. Yes, it’s all fixable, but it’s going to be a ton of work and challenging to do it right. You will have to decide if it’s worth it.

 

I say find a good shell close to same year and swap all the parts and VIN from subject car over to new shell (still the same car ) or find a damaged,rust free shell to cut repair sections out of.If an extensive body rebuild is done,add SFCs and other chassis reinforcement at that time.