Pics under my Spiders. How bad is the rust?

[Klayfish]

A little while back, I found the correct jacking spots (under the oil pan, right? ) and took some photos of the undercarriage of each car. I know common rust issues for the Spiders are around the strut towers and subframe. I wanted to get your intake as to how rusty you think these cars are.

The orange car got the deluxe Ziebart Tidy Car rustproofing package sometime during it's life. So it has their rustproofing goo all over it. I can see it everywhere, inside the engine, trunk, etc.... I think it really helped preserve the car. Here are pics of the car. What do you think? I tried to get some close ups of the strut tower behind the tires...

http://s1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa4 ... rcarriage/


Here are pictures of the red car underside. This is the car that is much more rusty on the outside. Here's the underside. The hole in the floorpan is on the drivers' side, right near the sill.

http://s1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa4 ... rcarriage/

[azygoustoyou]

Rust can look bad if all over everything. Until you start working on it and notice it was only on the surface. I see around the shock towers it looks to be worst than surface rust. It looks like it's pretty much all the way through. You'll have to clean it up some to really see how bad it is. Looks like the red car is more noticeable where the bad spots are.

[Klayfish]

I'm almost afraid to clean it up.... I initially bought these cars with the intention of doing nothing more than learning to turn wrenches. But I've quickly grown attached to them, especially the orange one. I'd love to be able to be able to say that I put it back on the road. Don't want to (and the wife probably won't let me) sink huge money into repairing significant rust.

[Kev659]

You never know how bad the rust is until you dig into the car. I just got mine back from the body shop and paint and before the car went in i thought the rust was very slight but there was allot more under the surface.

[Redline]

Typical process at the DMV inspection here in Switzerland each two years is for the mechanic to go at every suspicious spot with a hammer and big screwdriver. Bang, bang, poke, poke. It's merciless, but it's the only way to know (either the good news, or the cruel truth). Start poking!

[azygoustoyou]

Just jump into it. There are several ways to fix the rust. Cut it out and weld in new metal is the best. You can treat it. You will have replace metal where the holes are.
Here's what my car looked like. It took a while. But There's no more rust.