Well as many of you know I am currently in the process of restoring a 83 Z28 L69. This car seems to have been garaged most of its life(due to limited rust), however being from Massachusetts and driven some winters in the snow it has rust. Up until today the most rust I had found was on the rear filler panel with 5 1/4" holes around the plate bracket and heavy rust around the impact bar plates. Seeing this worried me a little but with the help of a sand blaster and ospho I am not to worried about it coming back to soon. I am now painting the inside and have been finding that most of my rust (heavy) is around where the body seam filler is. When I pulled the fire wall insulation off I was shocked and mad to see that the seem that connects to the floor boards had very heavy rot( 1"X6" hole) My question for all is who else has come across this? What did you do to correct it? Seeing there is a limited amount of body restoration panels available I am doing everything new now that I can and was figureing that approx 10yrs down the road strip the car down again and dip the entire body eliminating all rust. Then I could weld in new floor pans, rear filler, and anything else needed at that time. Am I doing more harm then good waiting to completely fix it? I don't want to spend a fortune welding in metal patches that are not correct molds for the car. Any advise???

 

I would say there are enough good versions in southwestern, and southern junkyards. Perhaps time to take a trip with a plasma cutter and get some fresh panels. I have heard someone is makeing 3rd gen floorpans. Nextgeneration parts I think.
Sorry to hear you found so much rust. Check under the rubber on the hatch seal. I've found some on my 89 convt in that place. Probably due to the crappy ASC workmanship.

 

Classic industries has the floor pans too. Those I know about. Seeing as there is a 0% chance of fire wall sections comming out I might go and cut a piece out for the future. Seeing as I now live in south Fl the treat of rust is minimal compaired to up north. What I think I am going to do is do the best I can with a sand blaster and ospho and down teh road strip it down again and dip the body. Then I will have new floors, rear fill and firewall section welded in. Who knows it might stay strong enough to last longer then that.

 

Orange Rocket. I made the same horrific discovery last weekend. I found rust along the factory seam under the filler. I then checked every where else on the car and forunetely this was the only spot (whew). It was inside the rear pass. wheel well (the seam infront of the spare tire). And it was not very major.

I POR-15'd it for now and everything seems to have worked out OK. When the car is stripped that area will be fixed correctly.

I had never heared about rust along the seams before (and Im still pretty pi$$ed about it! )

Good luck w/ the resto.

 

Thanks! It seems that the people who thought up some of teh design stuff wern't the brightest of the bunch. They primed the panels then put the putty in and painted over it. Well between heat, cold and flexing it cracks alowing moisture and water in. If they only painted and then applied it. These are the only places I have rust also. For now I guess I will just do a good fix and keep the car comfortable to drive it ie. added power mirrors, engine wired with moster cable, and after market stereo. Down the road when I have the body dipped I will make the car completely original. For now it will get a decent job and down the road I will fix it right when the materials are available. Until then I guess I will have to live knowing there are some patched areas.

 

Speaking of Monster Cable, has anyone else ever wired their L69 with 2 gague wire? Some goofball down in Florida did that with his alternator and some other stuff

In all seriousness, I think with the job Matt is doing here, the car will probably never need to be dipped. If sections are welded in properly, the car should be fine. So much of this car has been sandblasted down to bare metal, I doubt in Florida the rust will come back even a little, if at all!

 

Jason are you saying I am going excessive? Even where paint appears to be perfect I am blasting that down too. The entire car will be blasted and get Sherwin williams etch primer, build primer, 3base, 3clear. With dyna mat on floors and no factory insulation to trap moisture.