Rust! Should I sell it?
- Thread starter standup303
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Dale Davies
Well-Known Member
The only way to repair rust is to cut and weld. You have to cut back far enough to find metal that is original thickness. Rust is like tree roots or cancer, with tentacles going everywhere. For some surface rust you can treat with a rust converter, and the apply an undercoat to seal out moisture.
Thats not bad amount of rust , I agree though pull the glass , cut out rust and weld in metal ,,if I still had it I could have sent you that section on package tray , as I cut mine down and installed a rear fold down seat , unsure if I still have that piece now , but maybe someone else has a parts car
Dale Davies
Well-Known Member
For good common sense body repair teaching look up on Youtube, Fitzee's Fabrications. He shows how to build even fairly complex repair panels with basic tools.
You can use the techniques learned to repair that rust through in the top photo. Other areas you will probably need to remove whatever coating has been applied to inspect what is under.
20/20 Vision
New Member
If you can cut and weld, go after it. It's not that bad. Currently doing a ground up on a 66 Barracuda. It's getting floor pans, trunk/tire well, quater panels, front fender corners and other various patches. The Dart would be worth the work.
Dale Davies
Well-Known Member
Watch Fitzee's Fabrications. Before cutting, form a patch using the existing metal as a contour guide/mold.
Dale Davies
Well-Known Member
How much rust is repairable is different for different people.
I know a guy that had a turbo Firechicken that had some rust. He sold the original interior, intending to strip the engine and disc brake rear axle. Then he stopped at a restorer somewhere by Seattle and saw what he was restoring, which was in considerably poorer condition. I had to ask if he was going to repair the rust now and get another interior. Got a couple of expletives in return. He did strip it and scrap the body.
Same guy had a tree fall on a 1940 Olds Coupe. Looking at Olds production that year the coupes had a fair number built out of Olds production. When looked at against the General's total production, it was a fairly rare auto. It would have taken a fair bit of work to straighten the roof out, but with some metalworking skills it could have been saved. He cut the body up and took it for scrap. I have the frame. I got pissed with him over a few more things and refuse to talk to him.
Deltatech
Well-Known Member
This is exactly why I posted the easier and cheaper repair since it's not a rare collectable and neither is mine.
standup303
Well-Known Member
This isn’t too bad, still going through it. I f there is any serious frame rust though that’s where I would throw in the towel. But it just seems like the package tray, trunk,
Oyster60V200
Member
Ditto to all posts saying they love to do serious rust repair! While I’m doing it, I’m complaining, but seriously, there is something majorly therapeutic about reconstructing a tinworm addled car and making it whole again. After a while, it does get kind of repetitive. Oh yeah, another spare tire well… more rockers… of course! This is New York! But that’s probably why I live here, to be a masochistic car welder Frankenstein’s monster repair guy. Then my eyes can go all Gene Wilder crazy after I’ve finished welding another floor pan and say “It’s ALIVE!” I’ve never lived outside the salt belt, so rust free cars are just not a reality with me and my nonexistent budget. So I’d agree with most posters on this thread that your ‘69 looks to be a VERY nice driver that could, with mild effort, be nearly perfect IF YOU WANT IT TO BE! I’m a driver #3 condition kinda guy like my grandfather. He didn’t care what the patina of his car/truck was as long as it ran and drove perfectly. He bought/sold/operated heavy equipment and also owned a Kaiser/Frazer dealership so he was definitely mechanically inclined! But, like most others on this thread have already said, that determination is yours alone. Most of the parts for my project ‘60 V-200 are from my friend from high school’s ‘71 Swinger. 8.75”rear end and springs, the built 225 slanty. Yes, I’m keeping the pushbutton trans. I loved that Swinger. Old lady light green metallic with black top and matching green interior with a green cactus rubber thingie on the antenna. My friend kept on modifying it until it lost its mojo (he had tubbed the rear for racing slicks and jacked the *** up way high with those SS springs since he was dragging it on weekends) so he cut it up saying it had too much rust and moved on to a Chevy square body. I kinda lost touch with him after that. Thought it was a big mistake, but he happily sold me the Swinger’s important parts for my Valiant that someday, I’ll have back on the road. But that’s my journey, and this is yours. I totally understand frustrated rants too. We tend to say a lot we don’t mean when we’re angry. I will inject my $.02 on KBS or POR coatings on rust like your car has. Don’t do it! If all traces of salt and corrosive elements haven’t been completely neutralized before application, these non porous coatings will just trap that right where it’s eating the car and one day, plop! Off pops a chunk of your trunk! I’ve since moved on to oil based paints like Rustoleum for car floors. They’ve held up the best for me in salty western New York winter use. I KBS coated a Jeep Cherokee of mine after doing a thorough undercarriage refresh back in 2014. New rockers, lots of replacement floor sections and unibody frame rail repairs. I used the rust neutralizer, but it clearly didn’t penetrate deeply enough to truly neutralize the salt and rust. The coating flaked off the first winter back in service. By 2019 the gas tank straps fell off from a rusty rear K support (rear shock support mount and floor support rail on the Jeep XJ, not like our ever important K frame on the A bodies!) and there were holes popping up all over the frame from trapped rust. I was done. 231,000 miles and it was “just” a ‘98 XJ, so she’s pushin up daisys now helped on by ineffective KBS. Again, user error may have a lot to do with this, but I’m no dummy, and my observations are that you basically have to completely flush the frame of all traces of salt (good luck with that… ten wet/dry cycles with a pressure washer, sand blasting, and STILL the salt could be somewhere hiding inside the rail… as it clearly was.) if you want this to be effective. But if that was MY ‘69 Dart, yes, I’d weld repair those easy areas, paint the inside and outside of the trunk and enjoy such a solid car. But you probably just discovered this unpleasant condition and were like HUH?! I didn’t bargain for THAT! That’s it, I’m sellin this rust bucket! Then you come back to it a few days later and apologize and say you didn’t mean it. I’ve been there! Enjoy the ride!
standup303
Well-Known Member
Wow good to hear about the KBS. I’m wondering how long ago this coating was put in the trunk. It’s super hard like KBS or POR and has rust under it. And a complete PAIN to remove. I would rather just cut and weld the bad spots, wire wheel the rest off, use a rust dissolver like Rust Mort in the rest and go with more of a paint like you said vs the crazy coating.
Deltatech
Well-Known Member
It's just way too easy to end up loosing $10,000 of parts and your labor in a car without even noticing these days. Once I started billing myself for $120/hr shop time and depositing it into a second account my projects were scaled way back.
I went to Hawaii on vacation instead.
I love getting a new project, finding all the rust, cutting it out, fabbing and welding in new panels, grinding and making it all new again!!! If it is a virgin car, I can see all the dings but if it has been painted before, then lookout!!!!!! You really have little idea of the dings and this filler until it is sanded to bare metal!!!!! Nothing better than a Tx. virgin car that has sat out in the sun for 50-60 years and all the paint is GONE!! There is little worse than an old car that some idiot got ahold of! 
MILO
Well-Known Member
cover it back up
My brother went new school hemi challenger, they have their problems to
Dale Davies
Well-Known Member
Where I live they use Calcium Chloride on the roads. May as well put battery acid on the roads. 5 year old 3/4 ton and 1 ton work trucks get written off due to the frames corroding thin and bending.
BillGrissom
Well-Known Member
The underside rust might look worse than it is from the paint bubbling. You won't know until you wirebrush the loose stuff off. Car shows often strip everything and send for a full acid dip. Even L.A. car bodies come back showing some pinhole rust-thrus. But, that is a $$$$ restoration. After wire-brushing, I soak in Evapo-rust, using rags and plastic sheet to keep body panels wet for a few days. Wire-brush again, then repeat with phosphoric acid (in all rust products) which converts pits to hard black iron phosphate. Buy it cheap as Concrete Etch at Home Depot. Wire-brush again, then a good primer.
As mentioned, the package tray rust-thrus don't have to be repaired since the trunk to cabin is not air-tight. But, it likely indicates rainwater intrusion from poor sealant or rust-thrus around the rear windshield, so I would pull it. Don't try to pry the glass out of the gasket (my mistake, shattered), rather remove the gasket with glass, pulling to the outside. Alternate, at least pry up the rubber gasket to clean and seal with either elastomeric caulk or rolled butyl rubber (used to seal trailer windows). They may extrude out over time, which is good (assured fill). Just cut it off flush with a dull putty knife. To do well, you must remove the stainless trim (watch youtubes, special pliers to release clips). After that effort, you'll likely decide to remove the glass-gasket.
As mentioned, the package tray rust-thrus don't have to be repaired since the trunk to cabin is not air-tight. But, it likely indicates rainwater intrusion from poor sealant or rust-thrus around the rear windshield, so I would pull it. Don't try to pry the glass out of the gasket (my mistake, shattered), rather remove the gasket with glass, pulling to the outside. Alternate, at least pry up the rubber gasket to clean and seal with either elastomeric caulk or rolled butyl rubber (used to seal trailer windows). They may extrude out over time, which is good (assured fill). Just cut it off flush with a dull putty knife. To do well, you must remove the stainless trim (watch youtubes, special pliers to release clips). After that effort, you'll likely decide to remove the glass-gasket.
harrisonm
Well-Known Member
Long post, but very well written.
cudajoedart
Well-Known Member
Real men don't throw cars away they just fix them, may take a little work but it can be done, you need to be optimistic
Good luck
Good luck
When a person developes any skill set, it is always there to be used in the future! Like a good toolbox full of useful tools!
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