Ok here goes trying to describe...

where the front fender bolts to the body right in front of the door, there's a tab that hangs down that it bolts too...

on the inside of the car, there was a weld or something, anyway... it's rusty enough in there that I made a hole in between the top of the tab and the body... this goes into a funny compartment right behing the strip of the front fender that is on the rear side of the front tire... apparently a fairly common place for rust.... if I pull the front fender off, can I get to it, or do I have to hack a piece out to get at it.... I'll have a pic when I can get the digital camera back to it's owner....

 

When i took my fenders off to paint my car on the pass side i had rust in front of the rocker. They didnt seam seal it good from the fatory and the tire kicked up water between the 2 panels. I got it fixed tho. Not sure where urs is tho ill have to see a pic.

 

I have something similar and wonder the same thing. If I pull up the carpet on the driver's side and look all the way forward and toward the outside of the car on the left hand side, where the floor, firewall and inner fender panel all come together, I found that it has rusted a couple of holes in there. There is a seam sealer that goes along the outer edge of the panel between the outer edge of the floor pan and the rocker panel that has some rust. This is the only real rust area on the whole car (and it's a 1984 vintage!). There seems to be no way to reach it to do a repair and welding in metal from the top would just leave a great place for water to collect.

While it is not the best repair, I used POR15 on all the rusted metal I could get to from above and below. That area should not rust again. I then used some body filler to fill the holes and made a small "L" shaped piece of metal as a cover for the one larger hole and used the filler to bond it in place for now. I undercoated over all of it from on top. I will try to undercoat this patch from the bottom. I am hoping it will hold ok until I get a pro to look at it. My local body man has done alot of restore work for me but is not interested in working on rusted areas. Actually, no one in our small town will work on this stuff.

I am unsure if popping the lower bolts on the fender will allow it to be pulled out slightly so a better repair from below would be possible. Does anyone know for sure? Thanks for any insights and YES, this seems to be a common area for rust from what I've seen.

Brad

 

walter if i were u ide just take the fender totally off and check it out

 

Mine is rusted right there as well... get the fender off.. clean the area and weld sheetmetal to it.. then cover it all up with gravel guard

 

ide clean it up with a wire brush or grinder then cut it out and weld in the new. Then cover the weld with some duraglass its water proof then primer it with some water resistant primer then maybe cover it with truck bed liner.

 

Yah, the front fender is ready to come off...

only thing holding me back atm is the hood... have to remove the hood to remove the fender...

I guess i'll drive around a bit without a fender... not such a big deal, I think it's illegal to drive without a hood.

 

not sure it is legal to drive without a fender as well...

 

just remember when you weld you leave exposed metal on the back side of the weld....look into DuraMix, you can push it out of the tube with you finger so don't by the gun for small work....I used it at work all the time and it STONG stuff, we use it for gluing on 1/4 panels, roofs, door skins, etc etc, this way you grind away paint(needs metal to stick to) cover all the exposed metal with duramix then put the parts together and clamp........cover with undercoating, and seam seal it, that is rust proofed....

 

I appreciate all the info guys.... still waiting on the photos

and I need some 'undisturbed' time to work on it all...

 

Ok I got a pic... where i have circled in blue... it goes all the way through...

 

thats between the inner rocker and the floor board

 

waltersb - what are you planning to do - interesting pix...

 

looks like u need to sand blast it and see what u got.

 

I was able to take off my fender with out taking off my hood all i did was losten up the hinge bolts on that side, had a my wife hold up the side of the hood about 2" and lifted and slid the fender out from underneath and bolted the hood back down to the sub fender.

 

Walter - I feel your pain, I had the same problem I would definitely take the fender off because as you will see in my pics it could be worse than you think. It is also next to impossible (IMOA) to do a proper fix with it on as there isn't the room.

Here are a few pics illustrating what I did. I hope it helps. I am very happy with the results as my goal was to do it right, not just a quick fix to haunt you later.

Here is a pic of what I was dealing with (this is why you should remove the fender fo full inspection).

 

inside:

 

next job was to cut out all the crap and then sand blast and treat the surrounding metal (with rust neutralizer).

 

Then I broke out the torches and molded a patch that replaced the inner rocker, floorpan and came out through the body into the wheelwell.

 

Then I made a patch for the outside (thicker gauge steel - 18) and rebuilt the flange for the fender to attach to. I then sealed it and paited her up!

Hope this helps! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

Very nicely done me n my dad restore classic cars and it all about fixin the rust. Its so nice to see the new panels go in its like there reborn.

 

spdfrk1990 - thanks. Yeah, I agree, it feels really good when it starts taking shape. Makes it all worth it.

 

Wow, excellent repair job.

My TA is starting to rust in the same spot. Probably has something to do with my leaking t-tops.

 

Mine had a rust hole in front of the rocker on the pass side i think its cause they dont seam seal them good from the factory.

 

My problem is it's my only vehicle atm....

so I need a plan..