How the flark did I miss THIS??? Rust holes! Driver's side Passenger side I am definitely paying for my inexperience. So do these look fixable? Wire mesh/Bondo? Patch panels? Or will I be looking for a donor car someday?
It would be very hard to patch those panels because of the texture. Do not fill with bondo!!!! If it were me I would look for a couple new/used doors. Check out craigslist in your area or place a want add on criaglist. I've had good luck with that approach for these types of parts.
If the car is painted then I would just weld them. It's on the bottom of the door so that texture point is somewhat moot since you really can't see it unless you look for it.
It can be fixed, as shown in the pic of a 70 Cougar BOSS 302 door below. You will lose the texture, although careful patting of high-build primer with a peice of seat upholstery can approximate that. What you have to ask yourself, though, is if this part of the door is rotted through, where will it start pinholing through next? That's what happened to me when I repaired the same spot on my 66. My solution is I'm switching to repro doors.
Since your doors have already been hacked for speakers, I would say they're not really worth saving, rust or no rust. Start looking for better doors.
I had the same problem, I put a wanted ad in our local on-line used stuff site and ended up with near perfect doors and fenders for the price of one re-pop door.
Yeah, it looks like they cut the dash a bit too to put in a CD player. And there are 6x9s in the back, and the PO said that the guy who sold it to him had a bass box in the trunk! All the wiring is still there. But getting back to the doors, the repros you are referring to are the new aftermarkets, correct? I have read on here and elsewhere that those doors fit horribly and are a nightmare to get just right. Is there a specific manufacturer that has nailed it? Also, good call on Craigslist for the used doors. Could probably find a decent pair for cheaper than the repros (even if they fit), if I keep my eye out. With either of those, though, I would have to repaint. And I really like the current paint. (Although I haven't fully assessed the body condition of the car. I may decide to tear it down and clean it up if I have to.) Besides, the $$$ I'd spend on the new paint job might be put to better use right now in the bay. I DID notice there was rust between the hood and skin(?), and some surface up underneath the dash as well. I'm going to pull up the carpet today, check out the pans. For those who haven't done a full tear down and body restoration, do you just put up with a little surface rust here and there until the time comes for the BIG project?
I tried the used door route, got a few "clean" doors shipped in, and they were crap. Refunds on used parts are a MAJOR pain. I got a Golden Legion door from Glazier Nolan, and had the old door off, and the new door on with latch, riser, and vent window installed in about 2 hours. Just a trial fit, of course, no painting. The top of the door at each end is not quite as good a gap curvature as the original, but easily fixable, or could be ignored if you don't care. Otherwise, an excellent fit. The car in the photo I posted has the same door, although it's (sadly) not my car. The GL door may have some minor waves in it here and there, easily corrected with a long board, and certainly better than 40+ years of beating around on a used door.
Depends on the door, here's a pic of my 40 old used door, didn't have to do any beating, it's never been hit I did buy it locally so being able to see it in person sure helps. You do have to strip it which isn't the most fun
I paid $285 Cdn for the lot, both doors and both fenders Quite literally the price of one re-pop door. Got lucky for a change, the guy didn't need or want them. He replaced them all with re-pop pieces, I have no idea why given the near mint condition.
In a word, yes. I want to enjoy my car as much as possible while I'm restoring and upgrading it. Had the rusty floorpans done and the trunk will be next, then the body. The advantage of doing it this way, even though in the end it will cost more, I'm sure, is that I get to enjoy the car and save up money for the next bit of the project while I'm doing it. If it's performance upgrades, you learn about the individual effects little changes will have on the car, rather than having it all done at once. The car doesn't look rusty at all to the casual observer, but if I open the trunk, there's some ugliness in there . . .
Well I pulled the seats and carpet today and got a first look at my floor pans. There appeared to be minor surface under the pedals, maybe a little of the same on front passenger and rear driver, but then the rear passenger was really, really flaky. Maybe I'll throw up some pics for assessment when I get it cleaned up more. I could see that all the pans had some surface rust underneath as well when I was unbolting the seats. I know rust is inevitable on cars this old. But I still hate knowing that it's eating away at my new Stang. Might as well be eating away at me. What is the general approach? (Sticking with the pans for now.) If it's surface rust do you sand it down and primer/paint? Do you just put POR 15 over the infected areas? What about when it's really flaky/pitted? Are replacement panels the only solution then? And what about undeneath? Do you just pop those plugs back in and forget about it? And how costly is floor pan replacement? The extent of my welding experience ends with my soldering iron. Sorry for all the questions/long post--this is a bit overwhelming right now.
In regards to the doors, what year is the car and where are you from? I come across doors all the time, but am located in Sacramento.
If you are that frustrated with the purchase and you feel the seller was not as accurate as he/she could have been. contact ebay and see what your options are. good luck.
Rear passenger rust - was it an East Coast/cold weather car? I ask because mine was bought in Philly at the age of 15, before I could even drive. It had some rust under the driver's feet and firewall, but the right side rockers and under the rear passenger seat there was rust, and it was explained that parking on a snowy, salty street led to that - the snow accumulates on the right side of course. As far as floor pans, some firewall, rocker panels, on a convertible, where there's extra work . . . get ready for it . . . $6k. You might also think about some of the convertible reinforcements like stouter one piece seat boxes that go from rocker to rocker and even the under floor reinforcement. But it's a fastback, so you might want to keep it as original as possible. Fastbacks are worth the work. It still seems like a great car you can drive and enjoy with a detour here and there for some body work underneath.
Ryans67 --it's a '65 fastback and I live in OC. Probably lots of doors available around here and LA, if I keep my eyes open. hipo --I read way too many threads about rust and the main thing I took away is There is no such thing as a rust free classic mustang! The seller described it that way, but now I know better. I don't know if he knew about the doors (likely), but he probably didn't know about the floor pan. Ultimately, it's my fault for not conducting a more thorough examination. But how exactly can you pull the whole carpet when you're looking to buy a car? I'm not as much frustrated (though there IS that too) as I am overwhelmed at the tasks I have before me. I was not expecting any body work. Still love the car, though! 70vert --I don't think it lived on the N/east coast. I imagine there would be a lot more rust. Can I run the VIN history? I hope this isn't one of those cases where the deeper I go the more I find. Eventually, I would like to tear it down for media blasting, but for now I may just sand that rear pan and whatever other rust is in the interior and use a rust encapsulator/converter on it so I can get back to my head gasket. Like you said earlier, little bit at a time so you can still enjoy it the whole way.
