Today I've looked at the lower mounting area of the right front fender discovering rust. After a first, coarse removing of the rust (some previous owner already put epoxy or similar stuff there). What would you do now? Remove the fender an welding? Filling it with liquid metal or similar stuff?
I would remove fender and patch the hole. Once you get it out and start working on it you will probably find other weak spots to patch. Filling the hole with anything will just make it worse (trapping water leading to more rust).
Cheers!
Engine Test Stand Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwoxyUwptUcdqEb-o2ArqyiUaHW0G_C88 restoring my 1968 Firebird 400 HO convertible (Firedawg) 1965 Pontiac Catalina Safari Wagon 389 TriPower (Catwagon) 1999 JD AWS LX Lawn tractor 17hp (my daily driver) 2006 Sequoia 2017 Murano (wife's car) 202? Electric car 203? 68 Firebird /w electric engine 2007 Bayliner 175 runabout /w 3.0L Mercuiser__________________________________________________________
Very common area to rust out on these cars. (actually there are MANY common locations)
I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure. I feel like I am diagonally parked in a parallel universe. 1968 400 convertible (Scarlet) 1976 T/A - 455 LE (No Burt) 1976 T/A New baby, starting full restoration. 1968 350 - 4 speed 'vert - 400 clone (the Beast!) 1968 350 convertible - Wife's car now- 400 clone (Aleutian Blue) (Blue Angel) 2008 Durango - DD 2008 GXP - New one from NH is AWESOME! 2017 Durango Citadel - Modern is nice! HEMI is amazing! 1998 Silverado Z71 - Father-daughter project 1968 400 coupe - R/A clone (Blue Pearl) (sold) 1967 326 convertible - Sold 1980 T/A SE Bandit - Sold
Hood should come off first. Save and mark all the shims, likely everywhere. Lots of bolts, some may be rusty and hard to remove. Don't be surprised if some break. You will need to decide if you unbolt fender from extension, or extension from valence.
I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure. I feel like I am diagonally parked in a parallel universe. 1968 400 convertible (Scarlet) 1976 T/A - 455 LE (No Burt) 1976 T/A New baby, starting full restoration. 1968 350 - 4 speed 'vert - 400 clone (the Beast!) 1968 350 convertible - Wife's car now- 400 clone (Aleutian Blue) (Blue Angel) 2008 Durango - DD 2008 GXP - New one from NH is AWESOME! 2017 Durango Citadel - Modern is nice! HEMI is amazing! 1998 Silverado Z71 - Father-daughter project 1968 400 coupe - R/A clone (Blue Pearl) (sold) 1967 326 convertible - Sold 1980 T/A SE Bandit - Sold
Does the inner fender has to come off, too? I watched a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHFlfnTPBb8 but they needed to explicitly remove the inner fender to install an AC there. From another video pertaining to a Firebird - however of a hobby race car and, thus, the treatment was a bit rougher - I assume it isn't. And a potential area where there might be rust is between A-pillar and inner fender requiring removal of the outer fender to see what has been going on over the years. From what I see how the sheet metal pieces on the underside was welded in place with all the gaps in between them giving easy access to water I'm wondering myself that there are still FBs out there with original metal. Furthermore, if the FB hasn't been in a complete dry climate during all of its life I doubt that there is an unrestored one out there without rust holes (at least minor ones).
No, the inner fender does not need to come off. One overall warning: once you start taking some sheet metal off your car to fix a "few" rust issues, before you know it, your car will be in a million pieces. Trust me on this.
I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure. I feel like I am diagonally parked in a parallel universe. 1968 400 convertible (Scarlet) 1976 T/A - 455 LE (No Burt) 1976 T/A New baby, starting full restoration. 1968 350 - 4 speed 'vert - 400 clone (the Beast!) 1968 350 convertible - Wife's car now- 400 clone (Aleutian Blue) (Blue Angel) 2008 Durango - DD 2008 GXP - New one from NH is AWESOME! 2017 Durango Citadel - Modern is nice! HEMI is amazing! 1998 Silverado Z71 - Father-daughter project 1968 400 coupe - R/A clone (Blue Pearl) (sold) 1967 326 convertible - Sold 1980 T/A SE Bandit - Sold
No, the inner fender does not need to come off. One overall warning: once you start taking some sheet metal off your car to fix a "few" rust issues, before you know it, your car will be in a million pieces. Trust me on this.
+2. Take a good look at the entire car for rust issues. Find out what the scope of your problem is before you get started. Firebird's have a beautiful design but if exposed to moisture they rust. I don’t think GM ever expected them to last this long.
Check these common areas for rust: lower fenders, rear quarters, rear wheel wells, trunk, lower doors. Also, you need to look underneath the car to verify the floor panel and pinch welds. There can be lots of issues with a car with no exposed rust. Have a look at my "10 footer below". I had to strip this car down completely (frame off, rotisserie restoration). The pic below is the before pic!
Good luck!
Engine Test Stand Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwoxyUwptUcdqEb-o2ArqyiUaHW0G_C88 restoring my 1968 Firebird 400 HO convertible (Firedawg) 1965 Pontiac Catalina Safari Wagon 389 TriPower (Catwagon) 1999 JD AWS LX Lawn tractor 17hp (my daily driver) 2006 Sequoia 2017 Murano (wife's car) 202? Electric car 203? 68 Firebird /w electric engine 2007 Bayliner 175 runabout /w 3.0L Mercuiser__________________________________________________________
I have thought a lot what to do .... I won’t go the way and remove the fender and replace the rusted parts but remove all the rust, seal the area useing an oil that creeps in the rust then apply a rust prevention paint. Then epoxy, rust prevention paint again. Furthermore, I’ ll spray a rust prevention fluid in all the gaps around that also creeps everywhere. You might wonder why I don’t follow the recommendations here but do the quick fix. However, I’m not ready for a restoration since most probably more stuff will show up as alreay mentioned here. I would have to have it done by a restauration shop, because I lack the knowledge. This would require quite a lot of money ... more than what the car would be worth. When I bought the car 5 years ago the intention was to drive it exept in winter and very bad weather. Then I saw areas that might rust when driving in rain so I changed my intention and have been only driving when the sun is shining and the weather forecast says the same. So I would say that this quick fix is the best solution in my personal situation. I’m not happy with this. Maybe in the future when more shows up I’ll tackel it the professional way.
I agree with you 100%. Once you take that fender off your pulled into restoration. Lots of products out there that will convert rust to hardened material.
Ok ... here’s an update ... I fixed the area as I mentioned ... remove rust, applied rust converter, rust-preventing paint, epoxy, ... I also removed the moulding and the mounting rails on this side. Only few, superficial rust on the rocker. The rails were ordered and I’m still waiting to get them ... takes a while to get them to Germany. This waiting time led me to the idea to remove the rocker moulding on the driver side and do some rust removing and preventing as on the other side. As I removed the moulding the paint peeled off like scoles falling from the eyes. The sheet metal is crater like - some really deep but no holes. The front fender has a crack and rust below where hidden by the moulding. There had been a fix long ago - similar to the other side. Since I’m not inclined to start a restoration (neither knowledge nor resources) ... as mentioned ... I’ll fix it as done on the other side.
68 said "You will need to decide if you unbolt fender from extension, or extension from valence."
What does that mean? what are you calling the "extension"?
bill v
The fender extension is the triangular, bottom piece of sheetmetal that forms the bottom front corner of the car. It houses the front turn signals. The valence attaces to that across the bottom front of the car.
I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure. I feel like I am diagonally parked in a parallel universe. 1968 400 convertible (Scarlet) 1976 T/A - 455 LE (No Burt) 1976 T/A New baby, starting full restoration. 1968 350 - 4 speed 'vert - 400 clone (the Beast!) 1968 350 convertible - Wife's car now- 400 clone (Aleutian Blue) (Blue Angel) 2008 Durango - DD 2008 GXP - New one from NH is AWESOME! 2017 Durango Citadel - Modern is nice! HEMI is amazing! 1998 Silverado Z71 - Father-daughter project 1968 400 coupe - R/A clone (Blue Pearl) (sold) 1967 326 convertible - Sold 1980 T/A SE Bandit - Sold
After cleaning the rocker mouldings, which aren’t that nice anymore, there are two small holes. Since they are off the car I decided to order new ones. They will give a bit brightness!