I purchased an 88 IROC, fairly low mileage car. My plan was to restomod the car as a fun project. However, the floors, TTop section, and quarters are fairly rotten. The interior is nice aside from the dash pad and drivers seat, and I was already planning on replacing the drivetrain.
Would you go through the work of replacing sheet metal? or would you find a solid donor shell? I turned down a rust free 91 for $700 this past weekend like a fool. Then, I pulled the carpet to see daylight front and rear. Ill attach pictures tomorrow if it helps.

 

I'd replace the drivetrain and pretend I didn't see that.

 

Unless your day job is a paint and body man and you are also a crackerjack welder then what you have is a parts car.

 

Hard to tell without seeing the pictures, however, what matters more is what you feel you are capable of and what you really want to do. If you like the thought of cutting out rusted pieces and you are a decent welder, then go for it. If you don't want to dig that deep or feel it's beyond your capabilities, then find a better chassis to work with.

If cost is a concern then it will likely be cheaper to look for a decent chassis unless you are good at metal fabrication. Reproduction parts for these cars are not cheap and shipping costs an arm and a leg.

No matter what you decide, good luck with your build.

 

Just make sure the lightning whirler and sparkalators are good(along with a reliable fuel make-it-happener)...

 

Floors and T-top bar wouldn't bother me, but the quarters would. Just depends on how bad it is

 

Fellers, a car only needs what it needs. Doesn't have to be perfect to be a good going to town rig so you can wet the back neck with some mountain waters

 

Get a donor car. Body work will always cost you twice as much and 3 times the amount of time.

 

Pics would really help.

 

Agreed, pics would help for evaluation. But, it's likely rusted in all the same spots that these cars rust. If you're going to pay a shop to do the metal work, then no, it's not worth it. If you are going to tackle it, AND you are honest with yourself about your abilities and stamina to see the project through, then maybe. I did a lot of rust repair work on mine and it came out very good, but I would never do it again. Way more time and effort than I originally expected.

 

I'll upload pictures once I have the carpet out. Heavily leaning towards donor car though.

 

I am in the process of replacing both driver's side and passenger side toe boards back to the seats. Make sure you check under the firewall pad and check the front of the rockers to the bottom of the door pillars. Mine had rust above the toe boards and into a bit of the firewall. Because I had to go up the toe boards I need a lot of room to work so I have removed the interior including the dash assembly and I have pulled the engine and transmission. On the passenger side, I have had to pull the inner metal wheel well and strut support out to get enough room to work on the firewall and clean all the rust at the various joints. I found there was a bit of rust under the strut reinforcing plate anyway. For parts, I picked up a full car section from behind the front seat mounts with full firewall. Basically, they cut the donor car straight across at the seat and just behind the inner wheel liners from the bottom to the A pillars just above the dash. I also picked up a section of the passenger dash up to the front of the frame rail so I could get a replacement inner wheel well for the passenger side. So, as you can see, getting donor replacement parts are a problem. There are a million spot welds and lots of sandwiched panel to separate to use donor parts. BTW, careful cutting out floor pans as the front ones are welded directly to the frame rails and you don't want to be cutting those.

 

My general rule of thumb is if the rot is hand sized... it's fixable, but just depends how many areas there are. if the rot is bigger than head size, and there's multiple areas.... then... Parts....