So I'm about to park the '82 Brat and get down to some rust abatement. The fenders in the bed are not a concern, that's documented pretty well. My biggest area of concern is right here:

 

 

Not really sure how to tackle that one!! Anyone got some advice?

Sand it to see how far the rust goes. Then cut out a nice square section then replace with a piece of sheet metal, if you have a welder. You can tack weld the piece at the top then slowly work it down, contouring the metal to make it look good.

Also beware if youve not much practice at welding sheet metal.

 

Steel that thin can pull out of line... badly. I always build a little overlap into what Im doing.

Thanks for the advice!

I've not had any experience on sheet metal at all, I do have a trusted friend at work who is a master welder so I'm going to con him into doing the welding for me.

My worry is that that particular part of the body has a small return into the wheel well that is now rotted through and I wasn't sure about duplicating that detail.

In terms of patch piece fitment I was planning on cutting the patch about 1/2" larger than I actually need and then flanging that excess so it will sit inside the existing metal (hope that makes sense!!) I figured it'd give me better coverage and less to have to fill with body filler (although I've also toyed with doing some body soldering on it just for old times sake)

The bad thing about rust is its always a bit worse than you expect...well almost always. You have to cut that back to good metal and then get some steel and form a patch and weld it in. Backwoodsboy is the master welder around these parts so he can probably help you better than i can but ive been taking a welding course and am good as long as i dont have to do sheet metal on a car.

The welding shouldn't be too much trouble if you stick to the spot welding method and tack as you form it. If you have a master welder at your diposal by all means use him. You could always fall back on the expanding foam and pop-rivets . Just kidding however I have seen it done before.

Firstly with rust issues, make sure you cut about 1" beyond the last bit of rust that you're cutting out. This will help prevent the spread of it. Secondly, I'm willing to bet that there's rust on the strutural part of the body behind the sheetmetal so some sort of rust preventitive would be best or something like Por-15 or the like.

there is a product called ZRC Galvilite zinc paint that is 95% zinc content. if you paint over your repair with that, the zinc in the paint will corrode isntead of the steel turning into rust, it will alt least prolong the whole corrosion process

Dont they dip new car bodies in zinc now? My dad had a 96 lincoln Continental and by the time we sold it it had over 200,000 miles on it and no rust. I thought that was amazing.