I've recently started work on a 1985 camaro. As we look it over more and more the amount of rust damage in some places is concerning. This is my first project car and so I'm unsure what is exactly possible for rust repair. At one part it seems the weight of the suspension combined with the rust completely separated a piece from the chassis. This section is most concerning, but there are other holes/generally rusty sections. Am I in over my head and is this just a waste of time? or is it possible to repair it to working condition? I paid nothing for the car and before I put real money into it I want to know if it's worth it.






Here shows the separation from the body

 

Oh my. Hate to be the bearer of bad news but that might be one of the worst I’ve ever seen. I would not attempt anything with that except remove and sell any worthy parts and scrap the rest. Use that money to move forward with another more solid candidate. Best of luck man!

 

Yeah , that ones WAY too rotted to be practical to repair . Could it be done , of course , and end up costing 5X what the car would be worth when finished . By all means keep all the standard shift bits (clutch and brake pedal assembly and other things related to the manual shift) and give the rest a decent burial somewhere ...

 

Yeah thats trash. Part it out then scrap the body

 

Wow. Just, wow. I'm surprised that still rolls.

Yeah I agree with the others. There's nothing left there TO repair. Looks to me like the carpet is holding it together. I'd be afraid to get under it on jack stands for fear large pieces would crash down on me; or worse, the jack stands would punch through the remains of the floor and the whole thing land on me.

Don't spend a dime on the body. Take off whatever is good; interior, engine & trans, rear axle, brakes, ... whatever else ... and throw the body away. A shame I know, but beats THE CRAP out of spending THOUSANDS fixing a basket case like that, when you can buy a sound chassis in non-Salt-Belt places for a fraction of what that will cost.

 

Take what is good and run away as fast as you can. Its trash!!

 

Thanks for all the feedback, definitely the consensus is she's garbage. I'm going to keep it for the time being as I plan to get another 85 camaro, this time in much better condition. Since it was free I'm not out anything so I get to keep it as a nice parts car

 

What you have there is (maybe) a parts car. Remove anything that might still of possible value, then send what's left to the crusher.

Geez; that car is really rough.......

 

stick a fork in it,sadly its done.i parted out a canadian car last year that looked 5 times better and i wouldn't deal with the rot it had.if you are in the states look for a clean rolling chassis or better car imo.this will cost a fortune,take a long time to repair and never be 100%.dont buy anything parked for years on dirt or grass preferably.

 

pull anything usable and get scrap price for the rest....ive owned 6-7 third gen cars in canada(bad for snow,salt,rust etc) drove one for 8-10 years all year round and never seen a car this rotten.