pretty serious rust-oration on a 73

[bimmerboy]

my first car, that i bought for 800. i bought it with the idea that i would beable to fix it up in time for my license which i get in a year or so and then id have a car that i could be truely proud of and learn alot at the same time. mechanically its quite good,except a really tricky overheating problem that after all the obvisous such as, thermostat, coolant flush and i took the rad to a shop and had him clean it out, probably hot tanked or whatever, still happens(gladly accepting new ideas) just needs some regular maintence ( brake lines, and shoes probably etc.) because it sat for a while before being bought by the guy i bought it from, and after he didnt have the time to fix it he sold it to me.

well this summer i started on the rust, which has taken over the rockers, one shock tower(the other one looks pretty good even after stripping it, i think ill still take a look inside it) the fenders, the rear bumper mounts, spare tire well and the pillar thing were the door hinges are. its pretty bad. and im the DIYer in the truest sense, equipped with a high end 120v MIG, a really weak compressor that hardly runs my die grinders, and a electric angle grinder and some electric shears that have a habit of breaking blades in a very frustrating manner. plus no previous knowledge. and very little money, so its pretty much a true budget repair by a DIYer, but i will still use oem panels and the best rust inhibitors as to insure not ever having to do this again. so far ive dissasembled everything i need to, made a spare tire well and welded it in, and repaired my rear panel, which included putting the exhaust cut out in the center because of personal preference and most of the work on one of the pillars. its extremely depressing work because of all the patch panels ive had to make and i cant wait for already formed panels of the rockers and shock towers. so this is my project for another few months and if this forum goes thru ill keep updating, and adding some pics.

[jerry]

photos pleeeze.

this sounds like you've come a long way already. would like to see your spare tire repair, and the patch to the door hinge panel.

[bimmerboy]

compound curves are best left to the professionals:D

[bimmerboy]

pillar patch

pillar thats getting that patch

other pillar

rocker by rear quarter

shock tower

new well, its been there a while which is why its getting some surface rust

rear panel

well before it went in the car

old well

[jerry]

wow...., by the time you're done you should be the zen master of MIG. you are really making me grateful i'm not in your shoes wrt to condition. i've much less gutsy work to do on my project. it's kinda training wheels for the 'next in line'.

nice work on the spare tire well. after a bit of smoothing the welds it should really clean up. it's great to see a car like this saved for another life.

[Brandon]

Looks like a fun project..I'm about to tackle the same thing soon on a '74 Tii I picked up last month. By the way, if you ever need any parts (or advice/knowlage) for that project let me now...I've got tons of stuff and I'm not far from you..I'm near Springfield, MA. Good Luck!

[bimmerboy]

(nt)