1977 Spider - Restoring my father's car

[rabeast]

THE INEVITABLE EVIL - RUST
I stripped the car down to bare bones, just the body and wiring. The car sat for 22 years, and the body is in pretty good shape, but there are some places needing rust repair like the drivers footwell and between the drivers seat rail and the door sill. I would like to hear from anyone who has repaired these areas and can provide suggestions on the best method to sure them up whether this means purchasing pre fab pan replacement pieces or custom patchwork using metal stock.

INTERIOR/TOP
It is in fairly good condition, worn, with a few small cracks and holes, and i am thinking about whether to take it to an upholsterer to repair it, or recover/rebuild. The convertible top is in excellent shape, except for one small problem -- rodents ate a fist sized hole thru it, so will need to get this patched up as well. Suggestions/recommendations are welcome.

RUBBER SEALS
Also hoping to locate rubber bits for reassembly. Apologies if some of these items are impossible to get and I am dreaming, but here is a list of the damaged rubber which i would really like to replace if possible:
1) Tail light lens seals against the body
2) Rear bumper seals - big round grommets on the bumper strut which seal on the body
3) Luggage rack seals on trunk lid - 4 round seals where the rack mounts thru the lid
4) Rear fender marker light seals
5) Door sill seals
6) Windshield Wiper drive shaft seals
7) Hood seal - straight seal across the top/rear of the engine compartment

Thanks in advance for any assistance provided.

Kevin

-- 77 Spider Under Construction in VA

[Ptoneill]

Welcome! There is an incredible amount of knowledge and advice on this site. As for your body work it really depends on your skill level and the type of damage, floor pans are much easier than shock towers!

Price out the cost of replacement interior pieces vs the hourly rate of a repair that you may not be happy with.

The same for the top, they are not that expensive and you will not have to deal with it for a long time. PS. The header bow on the front of the top is a common rust area make sure you check it. You can press around the leading edge near the latches to feel for holes or soft spots.

You cand find most of your parts thru the various vendors, there is a list in the forum.

Good luck, PS....everyone likes pictures!

[MrJD]

pics or it didn't happen!

[wizard124]

Door sill rust like this?

My body shop had the piece fabricated and replaced.

[racydave]

I cheated for some seals and used a black anti freeze jug to cut some gaskets like the chrome top cover hooks, gaskets for luggage rack and side markers. As far as the floor, you can patch that without too much trouble and it will not show. I would do some spot welding and use sealer along with a rust inhibitor. Happy trails!

[rabeast]

Thanks for the replies.

OUCH on the door sill! My rust is the floor section between the sill and the seat rail.

I will review the list of vendors for finding the rubber seals, and make due for any seals that seem too expensive for what they are. (frisbees have worked well for me, but may test a coolant bottle too, thanks!)

All the rear interior pieces appear workable as is (side panels, seat bottom and seat back), been cleaning them rigorously and they look quite nice actually. Mainly the front seats which need help. Speaking of the front seats, the locators for the 4 screws which fasten the seats down in are not fixed in place (is this normal?)

The convertible top is in great condition after being cleaned, the frame is spotless, material is in good shape, I think a patch may not look too cool, but will have to do for now. The rear plastic window looks sketchy, any ideas on trying to clean up the hazing and badness is appreciated.

Glad I need to fix the floor then because bodywork is not my thing - needs to be where people can't see what I did.

Sorry about the lack of pics so far. I have a bunch of pictures but need to dive in on the photobucket thing. If I could attach pictures to the postings, everybody would already see exactly what I am up to.

Just got done stripping out the trunk, and about to refurb the gas tank with POR-15 product (box full of that stuff waiting on me) and then fix up the trunk floor, and do a new seal (saw some good postings on trunk repair and fuel tank action, got me motivated). Also need to sort out the fuel lines (nasty looking stuff).

Updates to follow, hopefully with pics on my next forum visit.

thanks,
Kevin

[Ptoneill]

Kevin,

I used the POR15 on my gas tank it works great just make sure it is absolutely dry inside I put it in the sun with the vacuum attachment blowing air in it for half a day after using the marine clean and metal prep.

[rabeast]

Ok, trying to post some pictures. Apologies if I don't do this correctly, but here it goes:

1) Profile


QUESTION: Can somebody identify these wheels?

2) Rear View of Dust Bowl


3) Interior


More updates and pictures to follow.

thanks,
Kevin

[RRoller123]

They came through fine, but remember that pics need to be about 720 pixels or less in width or they get cropped here in the forum. You can pretty easily modify your pic with windows software to resize it.

[rabeast]

Will work on reducing the picture size for the next ones, saw they got truncated a bit.

While cleaning the dust and cobwebs off the wheels before bringing them inside the house, noticed they are O.Z. wheels (didn't know they made wheels back then), 13", and in good shape, but no idea how they are referred to (model/style). If anyone is interested in these wheels, please let me know. I will be changing to a different hub with bigger wheels and brakes, so will not be using these. I can take a picture of all 4 wheels together, and up close shots of each, but the rim beads are smooth, and there is no obvious damage to any of them. If someone wants them, I will clean them up really well so any imperfections show up clearly.

thanks,
Kevin

[spectorbob]

Don't know if you started on floor pans yet. I'm deep into replacement of all my floors. I ordered pans off eBay, and seat rails from wolf steel body panels out of Canada. I removed the floor all the way to the door channel.it is spot welded and was rusted all along the seam. Also, the nuts for seat rails do float. Good luck.

[fredguaz]

I'm sure you came across this but make sure you pull up all the soundproofing rubber that is on the interior floor. It absorbs moisture and rust is certain to lurk beneath.
I'm with spectorbob patching metal (butt welding) several areas and replacing 2 seat rails purchased from Wolf Steel. Also I just cut out cancer behind pedals and trying to negotiate the hump with a patch. POR15 and the prep stuff is waiting to go on.
Good Luck!