lol. My car overall is amazingly rust free. However, I have holes about 1"x3" in three of my wheel wells. I discovered this shortly before leaving for DGRR in '10.

I didn't have time to fix it at that point, so I ground them down with a wire brush on an angle grinder, then sprayed them down with Muriatic acid. Rinse, and thoroughly dry. Okay, current rust stopped. Now, how to keep the water out of there until I can get back to it?

Wiped the areas down with paint thinner (left the undercoating nice and gooey), then I applied three layers of Gorilla brand duct tape (so sticky it will take skin off your fingertips). I applied some heat to the tape as I was applying it to assist with contour molding and adhesion. After that cooled down, three good layers of rubberized undercoating.

Over a year later the situation is unchanged. lol. I really should get back to that at some point.

I'm not really sure I buy the whole "structural integrity" argument though, unless you are dealing with a very large hole, or one that affects suspension mounting. I don't think using fiberglass in these areas would be a terrible thing. I admit I'm not an expert, but I am smart enough to know what I'm driving around in (and winning races with), and that's with gaping holes covered in duct tape.




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this is the same route I went. Some people are just scared to get their hands dirty I guess.

 

boss mans hasn't even rusted all that much either...... i have 2 1st gens and and my cousin has one.... they're all 3 going in the same place. not bad but I was wondering what to do as well. Theres a heck of a lot of metal behind what hes got rusting. I think all he needs to do is just get it to stop rusting.... plenty left in there.

 

I haven't found anything better than Muriatic acid for treating rust. Soak it down, let it sit for 15 minutes or so, then rinse with clean water. Repeat if not totally down to bare metal.

Be prepared to treat the surface just as soon as it is dry, otherwise rust will set in quickly on the virgin surface.

I also have two quarter sized spots of surface rust that I treated like this when I first got the car about 9 years ago. The rust has not advanced one bit since then. Not bad.

 

my car is 100x worse then the ones in these pictures, I have a 4x2 inch hole in that area...... I plan on fixing it soon, I will try to remember to take pictures but I can promise It wont look any where close to stock. but it will be strong and it will be fixed. the worse part of my car being rusty in that area is I wanted to put extended upper links for the rear end right about where the rust hole is, and because of that not only does my repair have to be good I have to make sure I can duplicate it on both sides exactly.

 

Never tried that, where do you buy muriatic acid?

 

Any hardware store will have it. Cost is a few dollars/gallon. Be very careful with it...

 

Thanks, I wasn't planning on drinking it... well... maybe a taste

 

fixed mine this weekend, and took pics, when I load them up I will share.