I did a bit of poking around the rear quarters of my square in an area I knew had some rust. Wasn't quite expecting this...







Is this beyond reasonable repair? I imagine the rust goes a fair way past the areas I exposed. I'm just after some opinions before I start throwing good money at a bad problem.

Cheers,

Paul

In my opinion, I would not repair it, as there would be most areas you cannot see underneath that are also 80% or even 99% rusted through. They will come through in the next few months or years also.

It is not so much of a repair, but more of a remanufacture the body, and the time and expense, another body could be found.

Hell's teeth! That's pretty rusty. I would definitely be looking for a better body. Do you know if there are any other rusty areas? Maybe have a good look around the rest of the car. If everything else is really solid, you could repair just that area. But if you're going to be redoing multiple sections of the car which are this far gone, then it won't be worth repairing I don't think. Type 3 Squarebacks are not really worth a lot of money, so you could probably find a better body or whole car fairly cheaply.

Thanks Pete. It's a real shame because the rest of the body (apart from the box that hangs inside the front pssenger wheel arch) is in great nick. Its been a pretty dodgy repair because the area was filled with expanding foam, which would have worsened the problem. I reckon I'd have to replace the metal about 100mm each side of the visible rust, which makes the section pretty large. I'll keep stripping it down, but I'm agreeing with you ATM.

It did cross my mind to get the grinder out and create the first Type 3 dual cab (abliet with only two doors) ute!

volksrecycle in melb is the place for another body, prices are great i have collected a couple cars from there the last one i picked up was even in too good a nic to pull apart, was only missin an engine and is now almost back on the road, it had very very minimal rust none in the heater chans or floor the bulk was surface rust on the roof wich is now gone

drop rick at volksrecycle a line

some blu-tac and buffing will bring that to show room condition

RIP T3 body
get anothery

Sometimes a horrorshow like that is a result of a previous repair and the rest of the car can be okay.
I would have a real good look at the rest of the car before making a decision, though.

shit! those yanks would never throw away a car with that rust.

Have you seen what those Americans can do with a bit of skill and enthusiasm? A lot better than fellow aussies, just chuck it away, its the aussie way lol

Don't let it be another statistic, fix it up Paul

Yup! they have to learn because they wouldn't have any cars left.

In Britain cars just rust away like no tomorrow.

That's 'cos they put salt on the roads to melt the ice.
Can you imagine what a slushy mix of snow, salt and roadgrime is gonna do to the underneath of a car in a damp climate?
In Northern USA they usually own 2 cars. As soon as it looks like snow the good car is cleaned, serviced and stored. The rustbucket is then pressed into service.