so many subarus die in the rust belt because of "frame rust" this 86 subaru wagon was considere frame damaged. so i got it for 250 bucks. 180 thousand miles, runs great, dosnt leak much oil, has been well maintained, thisa was considerd a parts car....I refuse to let it die, the only rust is under the front frame rails. im going to attempt to make a patch pannell and use carriage bolts and body epoxy , im using 12 guage steel to fabricate the patch, thats the capacity of my brake , it seems to be thicker than the stock rail, this ia a very common spot of rust on these cars in the rust belt.. i have pics of my progress so far , which isnt much.. any comments / ideas would be much apreciated

 

 

 

I dunno about you, and I understand wanting to save a car. but time is not worth it for me to fix these rusted that badly. Spend some time, find a car from west coast, fork up the dough, ship it and be done.

 

Ummmmmm, I'm glad you have the money to fork over for a rust free car and then the expensive shipping, but many don't!! I had to do some patching on my Brat and it was well worth it, and FREE!! Yeah it took some time but I got to learn a lot about my car and learned a lot about welding sheet metal, with a 220 mig even!! That's a challenge! But yeah, I'd love to get a car from the west coast, but until I have that much money to fork over, than I will continue to do rust repairs like the one above!

me tooo. grinder,cutoff tool, metal, welder and all good again. i am putting new rockers ona brat now. oh forget ill junk it and buy one from west and pay to much , then when all the rubber is cracked and paint is faded i will junk that and buy something new like all the fools with car payments, blahblahblah.fix your car and enjoy!!!!

i do understand the time issue, it is very time consuming, but to me its relaxing, just me in the shop doing welding and fab work, alone with my thoughts and dreams. oh ya

Edited March 25, 200917 yr by ivantruckman

I'm looking forward to further photos, keep up the 'relaxing' work.

myhilo

i do understand the time issue, it is very time consuming, but to me its relaxing, just me in the shop doing welding and fab work, alone with my thoughts and dreams. oh ya

 

I can relate to that, just don't have a shop to work in anymore. :-\

interior dismantle..dont want to catch fire inside, remove seat,carpet ,padding

 

 

 

have to remove factory rust proofing, my buddy burned his shop to the ground welding in floor panels, went to lunch car caught fire, and tadaa, no shop

That is a huge hole. Glad you know what your doing:)

Boy and I thought I had rust:eek:

Boy and I thought I had rust:eek:

 

this car isn't the worst Ive driven, i was thinking man this car isn't too bad. I'm rust belt conditioned, Iron oxide sucks

Aye!!!

 

this car isn't the worst Ive driven, i was thinking man this car isn't too bad. I'm rust belt conditioned, Iron oxide sucks

this car isn't the worst Ive driven, i was thinking man this car isn't too bad. I'm rust belt conditioned, Iron oxide sucks

 

lol i once had a range rover with absolutely no floors except some 2x4's and plywood. i lost so much out of the floor of that truck but as stated in the begining there are people out there just toooooo broke to buy something that's 100% perfect. besides whats the fun in that?

 

good luck man! glad to see someone taking the extra steps to keep a suby on the road!

Yeah, mine started the Exterior rust thing this winter. HUGE difference between last year and this year. Bummer. Do they make crash-panels for these things? I pretty much rebuilt the body on my F150 piece-by-piece for $1000 bucks from JC Whitney - I'm talking fenders, rockers, corners, floor-pans, Doors... the whole shmeal.

 

But then of course ... they made a bazillion of those.

 

I'd have to look, I bought my Soobie for like $500 bucks, but I have a couple three grand in it making sure it starts every time, so I don't mind spending the money. But I'm clearly in the bratman18 camp in that I think it's a shame to let a car go to rust .... maybe I'm just not being realistic. I suppose if I found a rust-free AWD Turbo wagon from the South, I could just switch motors & call it a day ... I'm sure it'd be cheaper than trying to chase all the rust, and not good @ fabricating.

Saturdays progress

 

 

 

 

all the repair panels are made by hand , cut -bend -weld- repeat

i dont know about you but my car keeps the undercoating "fresh" the bottom is like new but shinier

Just like the rest of the comments.Cleanup all the surrounding undercoating.After welding brush on rustoleum rusty metal primer,2 to 4 coats. then re undercoat.will be stronger than factory.used to do Beetles,Things,Karmann Ghias and Those ratty 356 Porsches.