Rust help?

[1990_LX]

Okay, to start out I know I am on a 4 eye forum forum and I know that I have a 90 LX which isn't a 4 eye, but before you move my thread or yell at me for posting in the wrong place hear me out lol. So my 90 suffers from the dreaded car cancer, but not in a conventional way. Before I got it, the previous owner decided to put a GT spoiler on it and not fill any of the holes in the hatch. This cause all of the water to run to the sides of the hatch area floor (over the frame rails) and cause them to rust. The passenger side frame rail is solid (just surface rust and pitting, no holes or rot) however the driver's side didn't fair so well. The back portion is pretty rough as well as a small area of rot down by the torque box where the bolt goes through to connect the driver side LCA to the torque box. The reason I posted in the classic section is because a lot of you guys know how to deal with rust and I'm trying to see what I can do to fix it thus the response of "find another car" is not helpful and that seems to be the tendency of the 5.0 section. So here's a couple of pictures, sorry if they're not the best a lack of a lift makes it hard to get under and get good pictures. So what are you opinions?








This is from the inside down by the torque box.

[tcruise]

Wow, that's bad. If it was not so bad, you could get away with welding new metal over it, but there's nothing to weld to now. I'd get a good rail from a donor car, weld in some temporary bracing to keep things straight/true (make sure they STILL ARE!), cut out the bad rail and weld the new one it. Any adjacent non-structural sheet metal can be cut/welded as needed.

[roush235]

First of all, we are not the type to "yell at you" just because you don't have a four-eye. While four-eyes are our favorities, we are in general Fox-body enthusiasts so we are glad to have you aboard.

Second, I am no rust expert, but I can see you have a pretty bad problem (but I suspect you knew that). That's too bad. I guess anything can be fixed if you throw enough money at it, but most of us don't have that luxury. So I guess it becomes an issue of how much time/money/effort you want to put into this car, vs. finding another. Is the rest of the car pretty solid, and a desirable car to fix up?

[wraithracing]

Wow! That is some nasty rust there! I think the suggestions above are good ones. The biggest question for you is do you have the time and skills to fix this yourself. If not, do you have a buddy that is willing and able to help out. If the answer to both of the questions is NO, then I don't think you are going to be able to repair the rust at a low enough cost to justify it. At that point, I would look for a 4E that needs a good drivetrain and suspension and swap everything over! Or you could do the same with an Aero if that is your thing.

If you answered YES, to either of the questions above, the cheapest option is probably going to be to buy either a rolling chassis and cut out what you need or find a wrecked Mustang with a good back half that you can cut off and weld in where needed. Either way it will take a bunch of time and money to fix it right. Unfortunately due to the extent of the damage, I don't see a simple or easy way to patch and repair without using factory frame rails as donor pieces.

Good Luck!

Trey

[DrewM]

The reason I posted in the classic section is because a lot of you guys know how to deal with rust and I'm trying to see what I can do to fix it thus the response of "find another car" is not helpful and that seems to be the tendency of the 5.0 section.

It doesn't sound helpful, but honestly that is almost certainly the best option. Basically you should fix it if;

• The car is incredibly rare and will be worth saving (ie you have a 1 of 1 type car that everybody wants). And future value don't mean much.
• Or has some kind of sentimental value to you and absolutely want to keep it damned the cost.
• You just want to learn on something cheap and 'disposable', better this than something worth a lot more money.

Otherwise doing a frame rail replacement on a unibody car is going to suck up a lot of time and maybe money, for instance do you have the welding tools and knowledge, do you have the materials on hand to build a jig, once the car is in a jig do you have the tools and knowledge to measure everything so that car is straight, etc. Finding 'replacement parts' at a junkyard will be the cheap piece of it all. And that's assuming you can do it all yourself, or have free labor available (as mentioned above), if you have to pay somebody to do it (or just about any part of it) you'll blow past the value of the car very quickly.

[gr79]

All right. will take the hit of being a hack but have successfully temp. patch repaired
areas like this using off the shelf materials. No one will see it under carpet.
The metal thickness is adequate and similar or better to what was there.
Hack repairs are better than nothing until the time, if ever, comes to do it better.
If one has the resources, having a pro do it is best, especially for critical structural repairs.

Cars with sections that are in better shape are rare at picapart yards.
May be years before anyone reproduces repair metal for these cars like for old mustangs.

Having no garage (me) to do work in does not help.
Cannot afford having the car down for months either.
In any case, has to be a solid tight repair that does not let in outside water/air/exhaust fumes.

Inexpensive galvanized metal brackets and plates are found at the big box home diy in the lumber section.
A couple:
Z-Max PSPN 58Z 16g nail protection plate
Z-Max ML26Z 12g angle connector
Z-Max TA10Z 12g stair tread angle

Sheet metal patch panels can be formed and cut to size from generic plain metal sheet goods found at Tractor Supply, Sherman Parts, or parts stores that get into body metal. Sheet metal specifically for body repair is much preferred.
Flat home ductwork sheet metal is thin but good for making templates or small compound curved pieces that were press formed.

Truck body, trailer fabricators may help with obtaining metal.

A few tools and supplies:
4 1/2" electric angle grinder w/knotted wire cup brush to clean rust areas;
Metal cutting tools to trim off rusty metal and cut new;
Fresh tube(s) of caulk seam sealer for gaps and additional metal bonding;
metal rust treatment materials;
Body hammer kit, gloves, safety glasses;
3/16-1/4 rivets with air riveter, sheet metal screws, to fasten panels, brackets;
A good mig welder, adjustable down to 30a, would be handy too.

[DadBox]

Careful welding galvanized metal there, buddy. Do it outside. You might get sick.

Google is your friend.

[gr79]

Yah, fume fever-all weld fumes not good to breathe.
One advantage of having to do almost everything outside;
Fresh air-oops-not everywhere-correction-
Natural ventilation, although confined spaces in car still exist.

Been resisting buying the HF 80a flux mig-wont go down to 30a
Eyeing the 120v flux wire Lincolns at HD.
May cost more, but would pay after a job or 3 like this.
A once a year tool if that around here.

Patching holes in the floorpan:
I drilled holes and used rivets working with the galvanized.
Feel it is a effective option cost wise, time wize, and skill wise.
Ha, good or bad its easy to see where the repair is.
Supposed to use steel rivets but, well, used some ss and alum ones too.
Gonna keep an eye on them for problems.

[gr79]

Be glad this did not happen to yours.
Mine from about 25 years ago in the 80's.
Pics 2 of 5 separate damage claims from back then.
Repaired by Ford dealer body shop where i bought it.
All is well, with no major rust out problem from repairs.