Since I have lots of time off from work this week & next week, I figured I'd work on redoing the interior. I'm going to replace all the dash panels, carpet, get all the wiring in the console hooked up (not originally a console car), fix a few minor rust holes in the floor & POR15 it, and start repainting the interior (currently 2-tone turquoise and will eventually be black & grey). I'm not going to do the headliner yet because I'm not ready to pull out the front & rear glass, and I'm not doing the seats yet because the covers are going to be custom made by me & my mom (if some of you may recall, I'd started some covers for my previous mustang - I'm going to reuse the center cloth part, but we have some better black vinyl so we're going to redo that part).
This afternoon, I got the whole interior pretty much gutted:
Apparently my temporary fiberglass patch on the cowl has started to fail (either that or my window seals are pretty much shot - quite possible) because the carpet & underlayment here was just soaked. But luckily, it's just surface rust - bad surface rust, but no holes and the metal doesn't seem horribly thin.
Under the back seat (arrows point to all the rust holes). I'm just going to cut out the bad part and use that as a template to cut a new piece of sheet metal to weld in there. On the plus side, the frame rail under this part looks really good.
Front passenger seat floor. It's actually more of a crack with a hole at the bottom. I think it was actually made worse by the car being up on jack stands so long while I was replacing the engine. But again, I'm just going to cut out the bad stuff and weld in a new patch panel.
This is a welcome site, though. Nice, solid, pretty looking rear floor pans.
And on a little side note, I'm not ready to tackle this just yet, but there's a small chance I may be able to get the car repainted in the spring. Before I do that, I'll have to fix this:
I know the best way to fix rust is to cut out all the old stuff and replace the sheet metal, but I've also read that when you're dealing with the sheet metal around the windows, if you don't get it perfect, the window/gasket may never seal properly again (plus, they don't make patch panels for this).
Would it be an absolutely horrible idea to sand the area down, POR15 it so the rust doesn't spread, then fill the holes with some fiberglass resin?
-Chelle
This afternoon, I got the whole interior pretty much gutted:
Apparently my temporary fiberglass patch on the cowl has started to fail (either that or my window seals are pretty much shot - quite possible) because the carpet & underlayment here was just soaked. But luckily, it's just surface rust - bad surface rust, but no holes and the metal doesn't seem horribly thin.
Under the back seat (arrows point to all the rust holes). I'm just going to cut out the bad part and use that as a template to cut a new piece of sheet metal to weld in there. On the plus side, the frame rail under this part looks really good.
Front passenger seat floor. It's actually more of a crack with a hole at the bottom. I think it was actually made worse by the car being up on jack stands so long while I was replacing the engine. But again, I'm just going to cut out the bad stuff and weld in a new patch panel.
This is a welcome site, though. Nice, solid, pretty looking rear floor pans.
And on a little side note, I'm not ready to tackle this just yet, but there's a small chance I may be able to get the car repainted in the spring. Before I do that, I'll have to fix this:
I know the best way to fix rust is to cut out all the old stuff and replace the sheet metal, but I've also read that when you're dealing with the sheet metal around the windows, if you don't get it perfect, the window/gasket may never seal properly again (plus, they don't make patch panels for this).
Would it be an absolutely horrible idea to sand the area down, POR15 it so the rust doesn't spread, then fill the holes with some fiberglass resin?
-Chelle
Silicone is bad for future painting... 
The window channel area is a bit more forgiving (with respect to achieving the perfectly smooth finish) than your problem area. Thus, I would skip the fiberglass cloth application, unless you can access the back side of the metal in that area to clean - Por15 - Fiberglass cloth - Por15 it. Note: If you're going to use fiberglass cloth, buy it from Por15, as theirs is very different (stiffer and easier to work with) than the stuff you buy at the autoparts store.
