my car has cancer, bad....

[HossV6]

I think its time for some body work. I happened to look under my seat yesterday to find out my carpet was completely soaked. i drove through HEAVY rain all day the last couple of days. nothing but the floors are wet so that leads me to beleive my T-tops are not the problem, i have not seen them leak while i was in it and the seats themselves are not wet. i come to find i have 2 holes in my rear wheel wells. one on each side about the size of my fist. i am guessing the tires are throwing the water in through the holes filling the car with water. i do not understand how the car can have rust HOLES that big. the body its self is in great shape, no rust at all, but the rear wheel wells are terrible.i cannot find replacement inner wheel wells for the car so i plan to grind/cut out all the rust in the wells, prime it, and then fiberglass in new rear wheel wells. then i think im going to undercoat the whole car to prevent this in the future. looks like ill probably be tearing out the carpet to clean up under it, and probably lay down some dynomat under it while im at it. i cant begin to understand how just the wheel wells rotted out on this thing, it was even stored in the winter. anyone else have anything like this happen to their car?

[mrhobbz]

Re: my car has cancer, bad....

I think its time for some body work. I happened to look under my seat yesterday to find out my carpet was completely soaked. i drove through HEAVY rain all day the last couple of days. nothing but the floors are wet so that leads me to beleive my T-tops are not the problem, i have not seen them leak while i was in it and the seats themselves are not wet. i come to find i have 2 holes in my rear wheel wells. one on each side about the size of my fist. i am guessing the tires are throwing the water in through the holes filling the car with water. i do not understand how the car can have rust HOLES that big. the body its self is in great shape, no rust at all, but the rear wheel wells are terrible.i cannot find replacement inner wheel wells for the car so i plan to grind/cut out all the rust in the wells, prime it, and then fiberglass in new rear wheel wells. then i think im going to undercoat the whole car to prevent this in the future. looks like ill probably be tearing out the carpet to clean up under it, and probably lay down some dynomat under it while im at it. i cant begin to understand how just the wheel wells rotted out on this thing, it was even stored in the winter. anyone else have anything like this happen to their car?

Never had that happen, but I've had a few heater cores go on me :) I think jegs can order replacement wells for you.

[Firebirdkid96]

Re: my car has cancer, bad....

I did, but my problem was the firewall grommet behind the PCM. A chipmunk had eaten through it allow water to leak in and absolutely drenching my carpet matting. Unfortunate thing is, GM discontinued the Molded Carpet for our cars...Even if they didn't though, it would've been $765...

[CamaroJeff™]

Re: my car has cancer, bad....

patching your wheel wells with fiberglass is only going to be a temporary fix. the cancerous rust has to be cut out, properly treated, and patched with fresh sheet metal.

there has to be replacement panels available. worst comes to worst get scrap yard panels. youre going to spend the same amount of time either way, why not do it right?

[HossV6]

Re: my car has cancer, bad....

patching your wheel wells with fiberglass is only going to be a temporary fix. the cancerous rust has to be cut out, properly treated, and patched with fresh sheet metal.

there has to be replacement panels available. worst comes to worst get scrap yard panels. youre going to spend the same amount of time either way, why not do it right?

like i said im going to be cutting out the rust, and then spraying sealant on the bare metal. then i am going to make my own "new" inner wheel wells with fiberglass, and then put a nice thick coat of undercoating on the new wells along with the rest of the under body. scrap yards probably wont be willing to cut out the inner fenders, they would make me buy the whole shell because the rest would be worthless to them if they cut big holes out. i only know of one camaro at my yard and the rear of the car is in good shape. they are already outragious with prices so i dont even want to know what they want for the shell. fiberglass should work fine. i will be cutting away the metal around the hole that is rusted, then grinding the undercoat off the rest of the inner well looking for rust and cutting any away, the entire well will be ground down to bare metal. then it will get a layer of rust inhibiter/sealant. then a nice layer of fiberglass over the entire well, finished off with fresh under coat. all the carpet will be ripped out and cleaned along with the floor, any surface rust that will have started will be ground to bare metal and sealed. dynomated and carpet put back in. for the rest of the under body i think a good degreasing/cleaning a run of a wire wheel to clean off and surface rust should be good, and a nice undercoating should get it back to how it should look and keep it soild for years to come.

[T-Mill]

Re: my car has cancer, bad....

JC Whitney sells quality molded carpets for a reasonable price...

[Firebirdkid96]

Re: my car has cancer, bad....

JC Whitney sells quality molded carpets for a reasonable price...

Yeah but the colors won't match OEM at all...lol

[CamaroJeff™]

Re: my car has cancer, bad....

... fiberglass should work fine. i will be cutting away the metal around the hole that is rusted, then grinding the undercoat off the rest of the inner well looking for rust and cutting any away, the entire well will be ground down to bare metal. then it will get a layer of rust inhibiter/sealant. then a nice layer of fiberglass over the entire well, finished off with fresh under coat. all the carpet will be ripped out and cleaned along with the floor, any surface rust that will have started will be ground to bare metal and sealed. dynomated and carpet put back in. for the rest of the under body i think a good degreasing/cleaning a run of a wire wheel to clean off and surface rust should be good, and a nice undercoating should get it back to how it should look and keep it soild for years to come.

good luck with that. ive seen a large number of fiberglass "repairs" done on quite a few cars (i do restoration for a living btw) and have yet to see one properly stick. only suggestion i can offer is to find something the resin will actually adhere to. its probably going to depend solely on what sealant you use.
ever try por-15 or eastwoods rust encapsulator? ill bet of you glassed to that stuff while its still tacky itll stand a chance of sticking...