Some Rust Repair

[massacre]

Pass frame rail, under battery. Worst spot on the car.
Guy I bought the car from was nice enough to give me a piece of frame with the car.
Donor rail is from a later fox though, and has welded on swaybar mounts instead of the bolt on brackets with internal mounting nuts.

Going to have to weld the old front and rear parts of the top of the rail to the new rail section, as the donor rail was not full length



Not going to completely cut the rail, want to retain the stock style bracket

[massacre]

Now that I think of it, I could always weld nuts inside the rail before installing it on the car.

[massacre]

Was able to get some more work done on this yesterday. Once I finish it up I’ll get some pics up

[massacre]

Even though it was windy and half the paint blew away, I was able to get this engine bay primed
it’s not perfect but it’s good enough.



this car is not perfect, but it’s in decent shape.
At this point)t I just want to make it presentable and keep the surface rust at bay

the car sat outside with no hood for a while before I bought it

[massacre]

Couldn’t help myself
just wanted to see the color on the car
once the OG k member is out I will go over all of this again. Going to go with black for the frame rails, everything else red.



not bad for rattle can in the wind
crazy how it seems so bright in the sun, but out of the sun it darkens considerably

[richpet]

Nice!

[JTurbo]

Looks great!

[massacre]

Thanks guys for the kind words
means a lot

[chivaceae]

Hi,
I have exactly the same type of rust issue on my 1978 Zephyr's passenger side frame rail, right under the battery tray (likely due to a leaking battery - the car was barely moved for 10 years). The only other bad spot is the corner of the front passenger floorpan (due to leaking rainwater from the cowl air space- plugged with 1/2 bucket of pine needles). Other than these, the car's undercarriage is in excellent (no rust) shape.
I am planning on getting some square tubing to repair the front rail - a piece that fits inside of the damaged section of the rail, and just weld it in place - very similar to what you have done with the donor rail. I need to buy me a decent, yet inexpensive (limited budget) wire welder from Harbor Freight, and practice some before tackling these repairs.

Thanks for showing your repair.

[massacre]

No problem!
to be honest your way sounds a lot easier than drilling out all those spot welds like I did. That was a PITA.
Mine was also from a leaking battery, and I have a couple spots in the foot wells that also seems to be leaking vents like you said.
Seems like a common thing with these cars, at least around here.

let me know if I can help in any way.

[82GTforME]

Big difference. At least half the paint that blew away never ended up o your garage

From the pictures, you could never tell it was with an aerosol can.

[massacre]

Wow, thanks for the compliment.
When I was painting, I had pushed the car further forward so it was completely outside. And my garage is kind of an unfinished mess so not too concerned about overspray lol
I did move wifey’s Lincoln out of harm’s way though

[Dave9052]

Looking Good

[massacre]

So of course, when putting the pedal box back in the car, I saw what I thought was a pinhole in the cowl above and to the left of the pedal box.
Sure enough, there are a couple pinholes up there that need to be cut out and patched. Well now I know what caused that corrosion on the brake light switch! And the outboard corners of the floorboards. Whoever pulled the rugs out of this car years ago, definitely saved it.
My guess is that salt spray from the roads ended up in the cowl and then it got clogged. And then started to rot.
Just sucks, thought I was making progress and now have to pull the pedal box and booster back out. I guess it just got downgraded from installation, to “mock up” lmfao

Does anyone make a patch panel for this area? I believe there may a similar spot on the pass side.
I’m going to search the web, but I’ll prob end up making patches.
I have a tig welder here but it’s in a crappy spot oh well the joys of car building!

[massacre]

not even sure how to approach this
maybe try to drill spot welds and remove the stovepipe?
then try to make the repair from the bottom?
i don’t want to cut the top if i don’t have to

luckily the pass side looks ok but i will check it by pouring water over there

any advice appreciated thanks

[massacre]

Little better look

[massacre]

Well that didn’t take long
This rust problem is too much, going to sell the car at a loss and get out from under it.
looks like to do this right, requires removing windshield and top half of firewall. Too much for me in my tiny garage, too much $$$ to pay someone else to do.
time to focus on my mustang.

My short time here has been fun! Thanks for everything

[82GTforME]

Well that didn’t take long
This rust problem is too much, going to sell the car at a loss and get out from under it.
looks like to do this right, requires removing windshield and top half of firewall. Too much for me in my tiny garage, too much $$$ to pay someone else to do.
time to focus on my mustang.

My short time here has been fun! Thanks for everything

Well ain't that a shame. Can you fake it to make it? Can you rough patch it and seal it or is the towel really thrown in?

[massacre]

Well ain't that a shame. Can you fake it to make it? Can you rough patch it and seal it or is the towel really thrown in?

To be honest I’m not sure I want to take on the job. Once I start cutting stuff out, I’m committed.
This repair would put me $5k over my budget to have someone else do it.
That money was supposed to go into rearend and brakes and all the little things that always kick you in the nuts at the end of a build.
I’ll take another look at it today, but it is in such a crappy location on the car and I can’t even open the driver’s door which makes it really difficult.
The plan was supposed to be an easy build with a decent car, no major restoration jobs.
If I had a bigger garage with more equipment and some help maybe I would consider it.

But as it stands now, I don’t see this repair going very well. I know I’ll break clips removing the windshield, and who knows what the a pillars look like, which would open up another can of worms with more money spent and more down time.
Feel like I am going down a rabbit hole of rust here, the exact opposite of what this was supposed to be.

[massacre]

Ok sorry I was kinda being a little bitch about this
spoke with a buddy of mine who talked me off the ledge
Funny thing is he didn’t say much but he put it in perspective.

found a fox cowl online so I got busy today



did it break? Oh hell yes. Mostly just cracked. First time removing a windshield by myself. came out in 1 piece though
No power tools just a brass scraper
some clips were rotted and those broke but to be expected.
And it must be OG windshield because it wasn’t safety glass lol

I was really worried about the A pillars. That would be a one-two kick in the nards but that there are only 2 small spots 1 just surface rust



the other spot is more serious, you can see that the factory seam sealer failed and water got by in the corner




then got the firewall side spot welds drilled out



and decided to call it a day.
I’m just hoping I can put this all back together straight lol hood hinges on this portion

can anyone recommend the best way to remove the butyl from the windshield channel? My first thought is a disc or wire wheel but I feel like that would get loaded up rather quickly.

thanks!

also have to vacuum out everything between tiny glass shards and metal shavings, my car is hazardous right now

[massacre]

I knew I jinxed myself by painting the engine bay lmfao

[82GTforME]

I think reducer should break down the butyl. I know I had some black runs from the rear window seal into a coupe trunk jamb (maybe a factory primer for the window seal?) and reducer easily cleaned it up.

[massacre]

I think reducer should break down the butyl. I know I had some black runs from the rear window seal into a coupe trunk jamb (maybe a factory primer for the window seal?) and reducer easily cleaned it up.

Thank you, I’ll give it a try

[massacre]

Thanks 82gt for the tip. I didn’t have any reducer here, but I had a gallon of lacquer thinner. It did work, had to use wire wheel also but I was eventually able to get all the butyl out of the lower channel. Then used wire wheel aggressively to identify the spot welds.
Some of the spot welds were on interior dashboard brackets which I didn’t expect.

i was trying to chisel under the flap from the inside of the car, and was having a hell of a time because of the seam sealer. I finally said F this I’m going to bend it up from the firewall and try to get it from that side. Well when I bent it up the entire piece popped off in my hands!
must be my lucky day cause that stuff never happens to me lmao

here is the cowl panel removed



Pass side doesn’t look too bad



and on to the drivers side



I have some more pics, near the firewall is bad news, will prob have to replace that portion as well

[massacre]

Near firewall



you may have noticed that I drilled through in a few spots.
these areas have become “alignment holes” hahaha

i’ll blow all the crap outta there tomorrow and start cleaning up the area. I should only have to replace the driver’s side lower portion by cutting out the bad and welding in the good.

should I use seam sealer here? I feel like I prob should, what is the best way to prevent rust in this area in the future?

the back side of the cowl top piece
i hope you guys never have to see this on your car lol



this piece is not too bad, but again over the drivers side is worse than the rest. I’ll clean this up as well and try to at least get it into primer to prevent further rust