WOW, my "solid" car aint so solid, but now it is solid!, It is off jack stands!!! Options

[wayne1234]

Well, I decided to look into the new car more that I got from a member on here. there was a trunk floor repair that left a little to be desired. I tried using flux cored mig welding and didnt have much luck, so yesterday I got a tank and some gas @ $200 (ouch) and I was doing some survey work on the front trunk. Let me say I was way too excited to get my car and I looked underneath and saw a couple of rust throughts on the passenger side near the rear but the "longs" where I spent most of my 5 minutes looking was solid. and I though no big deal just a couple of pan spots. and under the new battery tray looked solid from the engine compartment. well under the battery tray "hell hole" was described as" not perfect". there is a piece of metal screwed over the bad stuff. making it appear solid. Then the big suprise, there has been por15 used on the motor mount I thought it looked real rough and when i pushed on it with my finger oops a hole. some poking with a screw driver resulted in the hole you see. the I looked further back at the arm that goes to the rear suspension and it is also por15 with a odd look . more poking and you guessed it a hole. I guess some one thinks por15 is structural. NOT,,, Well I dont mind documenting this because I will fix it right. but hopefully my eagerness to finally get my 914 will make someone else take a second look at the car they are looking at. Mine look great in photo's and even pretty good in person. but it had a dark secret. Now the Real question on the motor mount and (trailing arm mount?) guess that's what its called. what should I paint the back of the metal with and what gauge should I use, should I make drain holes so It wont hold water in the future? Im gonna try to do all this welding with the motor in the car. I fear I will never get the car back together if I take out the motor. Thanks for all your input. Wayne

[charliew]

You need to move back and manualy focus your camera. Maybe it needs to be on macro. Those are pretty bad spots. There will be more I'm sure that you haven't found. That will not be a few simple welding jobs in the evening. I'm afraid by the way you are communicating your skills this is way beyond what you can accompolish. Do you have any sheetmetal working tools? There is no way you are going to work in the engine compartment and do a reasonable job with the motor in there.

Tools you will need:
face shield and gloves, fire extinguisher
4 inch electric grinder with grinding wheels and sanding disks and some cup shaped wirewheels
electric shear, or cutoff wheel air tool, tin snips, compressor? I don't use one but maybe a sawzall will help
at least a ballpeen hammer
6r and 11r visegrip clamps, not hf for the clamps, maybe some other tools but not the visegrip clamps
chipping hammer for the flux removal
I would consider these tools bare essentials for a beginner.

Some of the sheetmetal is about 17 ga. the motormount is thicker but you will not be fabbing that you will need another one.

That rust needs to be sand blasted to properly get most of it out. Sand gets everywhere. It will ruin glass. The car really needs to completely be disassembled to do the blasting.

Check it out real close and think about it before you start and decide it's more than you can deal with.