finally managed to take some pictures of my cancer. what do you guys think? is it fixable?
driver side rocker panel
driver side rear fender
I really do not have a lot of $$ to spend at the moment, but I would like to to at least stop the rust from spreading...
car is a 1990 st185 celica all trac
easiest way to fix that cancer is to sell the car to me..
Three Letters...:POR!
Shouldn't be too hard to weld this up. With the rocker panel I really wouldn't try to do anything else.
With the doorsill looking like that, how is the floorpan? I'd guess it's pretty bad. The fenders are easy, but look for more cancer... I'll bet you find some. And I wouldn't be surprised to hear it it's under the seats. And THEN you can sell it for parts to ignorant and move on to other stuff.
Is that a fiberglass bodge in the first photo? I'd certainly be cautious of other "repairs" potentially lurking in your metal.
Luke wrote: Is that a fiberglass bodge in the first photo? I'd certainly be cautious of other "repairs" potentially lurking in your metal.
Looks like coloured duct tape to me 
The problem with rust like that - and as a Volvo 1800 owner, I know that rust all too well - is that what you can't see is likely much worse. A POR-15 (or similar Eastwood products) treatment can slow it, but it's unlikely you'll be able to get to it all without a fair about of cutting and subsequent welding.
maroon92 wrote: Three Letters...:POR!
my three letter replacement for POR:
COR - Cut Outallofthe Rust
cut all the rust out or it will return.
That's not so terrible.
Have access to a MIG welder, a 4-1/2 or 5" angle grinder with plenty of good (Norton or 3M) cutoff discs and flap wheels @ 36-80-12 grit, aviation snips and either a hand or pneumatic panel edge flanging/5mm plug weld hole punching tool, a few dollies and body hammers?
There's loads of info on the intrwbzz, and motorbooks international sells a shedload of books on the topic.
The key is to work deliberately and carefully. No short cuts. Cut it all out, make nice patch panels of 18 or 20 gauge mild steel- (1018, 1020, something like that - McMaster-Carr if you can't get it locally. Sheet metal shops will often give away a pile of off cuts, old appliance doors work well too) Flange the edge of the area the patch is being welded into so there's maybe 3/8" overlap. Fit the patch carefully, tack weld it in several places while pressing it home firmly. Add more tacks, tacks between the tacks, then connect the tack welds 'til it's welded in. Alternate where you're working to avoid inducing distortion due to concentrated heat.
Grind the welds w/ that 36 grit flap wheel. Again-mind the heat; a coarse flap wheel can burn 18 gauge steel blue pretty quickly. Get the high spots off, blend it fairly well, and get the first coat of filler on.
Shape the first coat or 2 of filler w/ 36 grit on a flat board sander. Next coat or 2 get 80 grit. If it's close switch to glazing putty which is creamier filler (and which hardens in like 3 minutes - mix only a little, coat quickly and wash the spreader off with lacquer thinner while it's hardening) which is sanded w/ 180 grit. That gets 3 or 4 wet coats of primer which gets blocked w/ 180, a final prime blocked w/ 400 wet, and you're ready for paint.
I'm sure this seems totally anal-retentive, but I've done a lot of this stuff on both cars and many endurance race motorcycle fuel tanks I've made, and in the long run it produces excellent results (which last) the first time - which is easiest in the long run.
If you just want to stop the rust from spreading, cheaply, cut/grind some access by removing the really bad rust, and slather a cheap rust converter on everything you can get to.
If you want to go a little further and patch it, you can surprise yourself with some hammering and pop rivits. Think aircraft patch panel, or race car patch. Find an appropriate piece of scrap sheet metal on the side of the road, and hammer on it to an appropriate shape. Pop rivit it on. Goo the edges to seal it. Paint it black to show it off.
Yikes...
I hate to say this man, but you need to start looking at vip09's project logs so you can see what you're up against.
Cost shouldn't be TOO bad, but you're going to have metric tons of man hours into this thing.
Kudos if you fix it. My white celica didn't have that kind of rust, and i still sold it because of the rust.
That's not bad. Stuff some bondo up in there and call it a day.
If it's not a show car then that should do it.
I think he'd get crucified by the AllTrac community for a fix of that caliber. Hell, I'M a cheap bastard that doesn't care much about rust on old cars, and i'd be a little pissed about that.
yeah I don't know what I am going to do..
I want to at least take a grinder to it and primer the rusted areas, that way I can at least stop most of the rust from spreading. Just sucks because I do not posses the tools, skills, or money to deal with this repair.
Sell it to me! I can afford to fix it.
give me $6k and it's yours
Wow.. thats actually worse than my s13. Im just going to run the bady into the ground and pull the motor when it breaks beyond repair. Where you cant directly welt, cut it out and weld a junk yard piece in. Although finding that piece may be hard if that model had a rust problem in that spot. So what do you think? Melignant (sp?)?
smog7 wrote: yeah I don't know what I am going to do.. I want to at least take a grinder to it and primer the rusted areas, that way I can at least stop most of the rust from spreading. Just sucks because I do not posses the tools, skills, or money to deal with this repair.
I agree that cutting it out and welding new is the best option, but don't discount what POR-15 can do. The trick, however, is you have to follow the directions to the letter to get results that will last awhile.
Everything is repairable.
A Cabby went to scrap to save my pickup...
Its all good now... it wasn't expensive just lots of hard work by my brothers friend and me rushing around trying to find rust free cars to cut up...
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