How much rust is too much?

[MattWatson]

I have a difficult descision to make, and would appreciate some commiseration and support haha.

during the winter, I noticed that the back end of the the the 99 was clunking quite a bit, so I parked it after noticing that it had ripped the upper locating link bracket from the wheel well. Not a big deal I thought, I can just weld it back on do some re-enforcement, and be done.

Well, I did a re-assesment yesterday since I'd like to get it fixed and sell the car (Just picked up a 08 Jeep Grand Cherokee Diesel to tow the Merkur rally car and can't justify (read: wife doesnt want) having three registered and insured cars for myself) Turns out that both the upper links have ripped out, not just the bracket, but also a portion of the inner and outer fender as well since they look to be integrated with the pinch weld there. I've done some other poking around and the metal on the back wheel wells is thin in places. I'm going to do a full inventory tonight to see what else would need to be repaired.

It sucks since this car's exterior is very nice, and the interior is in great shape too, but I just don't know how much work I am willing to put into it before trying to sell it for what will likely amount to not a whole lot of money, or if I should just part it out



The car looks in substantially the same shape as here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2680 In retrospect, it's probably a good thing that it didn't get turned into a rally car haha

[SwedeSport]

The nice thing about metal work UNDER the car, is that it just has to be structurally sound. You can generally hide the repair with some body seam sealer, and a heavy layer of undercoat.

Most of the time it can be done without compromising the exterior finish.

Do you have any pics of the tin worm carnage?

[MattWatson]

The nice thing about metal work UNDER the car, is that it just has to be structurally sound. You can generally hide the repair with some body seam sealer, and a heavy layer of undercoat.

Most of the time it can be done without compromising the exterior finish.

Do you have any pics of the tin worm carnage?

Yep I hear you. Did the floor on the 900 and it turned out ok.

I'm gonna pull a wheel and take some pictures tonight. Need to do some investigation to see what else might be rusted through.
I need to sell one of the two cars, and the 99 seems to be the best for dollar value (even parted) considering that I just rebuilt the engine, transmission and rad in the 900 and they don't seem to sell here at all (a friend had his 86 SPG up for sale for almost a year for 2k and couldn't sell it)

I want a farm to store cars haha.

[Geoff]

You don't see too many '78 EMSes and that one looks nice on the outside. It was obviously repainted at one point and someone replaced the hatch so it might have been hit in the rear and re-sealed poorly causing those links to rust out. I've seen those links tear off on rally cars but even on real rusty cars I have the links have held on. Usually the upper shock mounts tear out first so take a look at those and see if they've been replaced before or if they're crunchy.

Overall the car looks OK on the outside and that's what really matters.

[MattWatson]

Looks decent underneath, so just these two areas. It's freaking weird though.... there are through holes of rust on a couple points on the wheel well, but the shock top areas seem to be fine ?? the undercoating is peeling pretty badly, so I wonder if it peeled back and then trapped water in weird spots?

The passenger side is what I remember: bracket essentially let go. The Drivers side however, I don't know what was with it, but it was the one with the carnage. On a more detailed look, I don't know if this is going to be THAT hard to fix... humm. We will have to see I guess, I likely will run into some more holes that need to be patched...

[DrewP]

You probably don't need the trailing links anyway, they were probably just there for overkill....

[MattWatson]

You probably don't need the trailing links anyway, they were probably just there for overkill....

Haha. There is TONS of movement in the axle without them. lots of clunking and the tires shift forward and back in the wheel well.

[SwedeSport]

My 89T Sedan is kind of a rusty rat.

I had to rebuild all 4 fender arches, and the drivers side rocker panel. Both front floors are really bad, and the exhaust tunnel is rotted above the cat due to a rotted heat shield.

The rocker repair was the worst part so far. The rear lower control arm was only hanging by a thread. I ended up burning in some metal and reinforcing the corner. It is far from pretty, but once I filled it with mud, it did not look too bad.

Obviously for a relatively rare 99 EMS, You could be a little more careful, shaping the metal more, and using less little pieces. Make your welds a little prettier, and dress the repair before seam sealer and undercoat.

The pictured repair only took a weekend of working 4-6 hours a day.

[paulh]

It doesn't really look like theres enough stable metal around the rust to even make an effective repair. You'd end up having to probably replace basically the whole inner fender structure with a piece from a donor car, or lots of weird custom pieces like SwedeSport's car, but worse. I've never actually seen a car where the rust was that bad in that area, it's not exactly a common rust point. It's hard to say when exactly it will become worth it to repair rust this bad on these cars, but I really don't think that time is now, since you can still usually find relatively solid cars for pretty cheap if you're willing to travel a bit.

Paul

[Geoff]

If the rest of the car is OK I'd guess that's a bodged repair from an accident many years ago. Or someone messed things up putting the mudflaps on/off or tore them off leaving exposed metal (which I've seen before). If they're not resealed properly then moisture gets in and creates a mess. If it were my car I'd fix it but I understand not wanting to put the time into a car you want to sell.

[MattWatson]

If the rest of the car is OK I'd guess that's a bodged repair from an accident many years ago. Or someone messed things up putting the mudflaps on/off or tore them off leaving exposed metal (which I've seen before). If they're not resealed properly then moisture gets in and creates a mess. If it were my car I'd fix it but I understand not wanting to put the time into a car you want to sell.

Yah, this is the big question. I have a 900 parts car that I can steal metal from if it lines up. But at the reletively low money these bring (I'm thinking $1500?) is the large amount of time worth it? It does have almost every sport and rally part on it, but still. Seeing the value people sell cams, S&R exhaust headers, windshields for etc, its almost worth the same or more parted out, which causes me pain. I'd rather sell it in one piece for less money.

[DrewP]

I feel exactly the same way about my rare but nearly worthless Saabs.

[Crazyswede]

As an old boss used to say: "I have thrown away better Saabs than that".