More on Rusty Frames

[AlbanyZ]

77Datz has my sympathy. We're only a couple of hours apart, maybe we should meet and compare. At any rate, I have some basic questions regarding my 75 280z, and was hoping the board might provide some advice. It might well be the same as offered to 77Datz, but I'll hope not. I am enclosing photos.

My original questions:

1 - Can these be covered with the Bad Dog parts without removing the engine, transmission, etc.?

2 - Is this something any competent body shop or welding shop can do, or should I be looking for a specialist?

3 - Is there someone you would recommend in the upstate (Albany side) of New York or western Massachusetts?

Thanks very much in advance for any light you can shed on this.

[Patcon]

If I am looking at these right you have heavy rust in the flat areas of the floor pans. It also looks like you may have some significant rust up near the tie rods in the front frame rails. You will need new floor pans to fix the first correctly. I don't know what you will need up front, but on one of my cars the frame rail metal behind the reinforcing plates and the bumper brackets was completely gone but it looked fine from the outside. If I were looking for someone to do this work for me I would look for a shop that does work on old cars. Many shops only want to work on late model stuff. Bear in mind that these kinds of repairs are time consuming to do right @ $50+ an hour or better, that can get expensive. Good floor pans are $350 or so a set and frame rails are $450 or so a set. I am putting floor boards in my 73 right now and it has taken me quite a while to do the one side, 20 hours or so, but the rocker had to be patch and the seams are all butt spliced not plugged and lapped. I would survey the whole car really well, under the battery, around the sway bar to frame connection, dog legs, wheel arches, inside the rear wheel arch near the rocker panel, front fenders near the bottom and rear edges. I suspect with the other rusted components like springs and springs seats etc. there is a lot more rust you haven't found yet. At some point it becomes cheaper and years easier to find a better car and pay the shipping. Just trying to save you the mistake that I have made more than once, and I have all the tools to do this king of work myself. I have a 73 mach I rustang for one of my sons, with what patch panels cost I could have bought a much nicer project and that doesn't count my labor at all. That's my 2 cents...

Charles