How much is too much rust

[mtnmort]

I bought this 76' this weekend and started tearing out the interior, and found more rust than expected. the rear body is sitting on the bumper because the body mount rusted, in fact most of the body mounts have rusted. Here are some pictures.

this doesn't show all the rust. I was wondering about lifting the body, if I can without it falling to pieces, and replacing all the structural cross members and body mounts with some kind of tubing or channel steel. Then replacing the floors. the question is where do I start? I though about starting with 2x4 sliders so that I would have something to place it on, but am not sure the rest of the body would support itself. Has anyone repaired this much rust, and was it worth it. I have a 110 lincoln welder at home where the project is, and my work has welders, plasma cutters and such if I had to take pieces to work to weld.

Advice please

 

[n2666s]

pigs are continuous works of love........ is the frame good?......pillars?... floor pans and supports can be fabbed........lots of threads on this topic here......lots of lovely restorations and some looked a lot worse than yours.......; things that to me are a no go are pillar rust......just my 0.02;

Lou

 

[mtnmort]

Lou
thanks for the advice. the pillars are good, but everything from the bottom of the doors down is rusty. I have been reading about the rust repair on here, but have found nothing about repairing the supports. I did just find a great thread about repairing the body below the doors, and will probably start with sliders and below the doors. Do you know of any threads about replacing the supports?

 

[Southeast Overland]

Is this the $250 Pig?

If the rust is as bad as it looks you are going to spend a ton of time and money cleaning up all that rust. Rust is almost always worse than you originally think. You could easily get bogged down in your project or love it - depends on what you want.

Personally, I would pull every single good part from that Pig that you want and keep them, then sell everything else and make your $ back, and use the parts you kept plus the drivetrain you have to build a Pig with less rust...

or...

sometimes Pigs go up for sale with a good body but nothing else. You could keep this Pig plus your drivetrain and drop one of those bodies onto there...

or...

I had fun cutting out a ton of rust from my Pig. I'm almost done and it is two years later. I had to replace 3 body mounts, front floor boards, rear floor board, wheel well, front quarters and a couple of other small places. I had fun doing it and learned a lot but I'm glad I don't have much more to do b/c I'm about tired of patching rust.



PS - post a ton of pics of all the rusty areas and we can give you some specific advice.

My passenger front body mount (right under the front passenger floor board) was rotted to hell. Lance @ IPOR made me one that I welded into place.

I replaced my rear body mounts when I replaced my rear sill. The sill was actually OK but it was easier to cut out the sill, weld in 2x2 square stock with 3/16" plate off the back to serve as body mounts.

 

[Michael Hanson]

Will have to be a labor of love. MIKE

 

[Gumby]

Wheel it or use it as a parts rig.

That one isn't worth restoring.

 

[cruiserbrett]

as gumby said, not resto material. you'd be way ahead finding one for a few grand and not having to hammer out all the work... thats rusted worse than the parts rig I had from Alaska.

With that said, with some quick and dirty rust repair it could prove to be a great wheeler.

 

[n2666s]

just about any pig needs love............some need it a lot more than others...........see "eventhough, cruiser_guy's and my body transplant threads..........many many more restore threads here that have inspired me ..........."trollhole's and Nat's are others...........OTOH you can pick up a decent body with a blown engine fairly cheaply; close to me there is a decent 71 minus axles and tranny for 400$...........I bought a pig that had a "blown"?!.. engine practically for free; turned out it was only the sending unit for the oil pressure gauge + a bad throwout bearing..HTH
Lou

 

[CandyPants]

Too much rust IMHO, but if it's mechanically sound, then mabe a body transplant or as Lou says, flip the drivetrain into one with a better body. Or wheel the crap out of it. Always an option.

 

[LC_Hamma]

I had a feeling that rig was gonna be mucho work. Sounds like you already went over it pretty good & know where the problem areas are. You gotta ask yourself how much effort do you wanna spend on a rig that won't be another good investment. And, how good are your sheetmetal & welding skillz? Is the frame riddled w/ rust too? You don't wanna start building up on a weak platform. I try to cut out as much time consuming rust repair as possible. That being said, it's a very good candidate for a chop behind the rear doors & tubing out the bed Sorry had to say it

 

[mtnmort]

The frame has only surface rust. I want to learn how to do body work, and this could be the project. I am currently cuttin up an fj60 that I am sending to the scrap yard, and was going to save the sheet metal off it to rebuild the 55. The fj60 has very little rust. I am hoping to get away with not having to buy too much steel. I really enjoy learning these types of things, so I would like to do the project, but just wondering if I am in over my head. if I am not out much money, and only time I am fine with that, it is just the money that I am concerned about. that is why I was hoping to use the steel from the fj60. Again, I have the resources, welders, plasma cutters that I can borrow from work.