yay! you're back!

i glanced for a topic of what happened to your car, i remember there was a rust issue with frame collapse fear... so where did you go? what you driving now? pics!

 

Yeah, I haven't done anything yet with the Firebird; I'm just driving an old 4 door for now, nothing to brag about... but I'm going to start looking soon for another Firebird with a decent body- then it's ALL getting swapped over!

 

Tom I bet your car is fine. Easy way to check.

Put the car on 1 wheel ramp in the front and leave it there for a few hrs.
If you can still open n close the door fine............ The body/frame is still plenty strong and you just need some cosmetic repair.

If it aint twisting the door jams, its not bad yet or even close.

 

I'll be parting out an 88 Firebird this summer. I bought it for the drivetrain only. Going to put the SC'ed 350 in my IROC so I'll have to get rid of the Firebird. Not sure if I'll have enough motivation in me to put the LB9 in it or not. =)

Let me find a pic...

Driver fender needs fixed, passenger rocker has a hole, cracked windshield but the previous owner coated the entire underbody and engine bay. Feels like rubber, could that be POR15?, never used the stuff. Anyway, I'd probably just be happy if someone took it off my hands when I'm done with it.

 

WWNF the problem tom has can't be seen from the out side of the car.

both 2nd n 3rd gens have this problem of rusing out where you cannot see it from under the car. You must gut the rear half of the car and then the rust can be seen. No way to see it form the under side. The under side can be coated in all the fancy stuff in the world, it wont help where this rust is. Mine was similar to Tom's. Real nice looking on the under side but once interior was out, the horror was revealed. I fixed mine pretty easy though.

That nasty padding they use holds in water like a spong and rust the car from the inside out. Once you see it from the under side, then its to late.

 

If I lift the carpet will that reveal all that needs to be seen? It has new carpet in it too. =)

 

from behind the drive seat back needs to come out.
rear seats n carpet, plus the rear hatch area.

But id do that to your personal 3rd gen first.

trust me here PLZ

If Tom took my warning about it in 03 when I went through it.
He could of caught his much earlier.



https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/v6/1...ht=back+halfed

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/v6/1...ht=back+halfed

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/v6/2...ht=back+halfed

 

The lack of a full seam weld across the inner wheel panels is also a major factor in the rust problem. GM just used spot welds for the exterior body areas, then they covered the inside of the car with seam sealer. Once the water gets between those welds, it can't evaporate- and the rust starts. Everywhere I found seam sealer on my "new" right-half-of-car, there was rust underneath.

Actually, back in 2002, I had already noticed the rust and decided to replace that rear passenger side with a junkyard piece. (See https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/v6/1...-my-1-4-a.html and https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...nt-i-find.html and https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...y-welding.html ) So for me, there no need to fix what was there; it was rusted too far already.

What ultimately ruined my car was the rust from the hole in the floor - it basically separated the rear subframe from the floor of the car... I had nothing to weld my "new" half-of-car onto. That's the piece I should've fixed right away when it happened (instead of just laughing about it)... (sigh)