curiosity 86 monte ls

[1986montecarlols]

I am wondering. I was giving a full look around under my car yesterday when I did the oil change. Now i dont work right now, im a broke college student. But back to story at hand.

I noticed some rust on the floor panels. There is some in the front driver area floor pan, a hole about the size of a quarter and on other side some rust around the drain plug which is now decinigrated. Some rust around back seat belt too. I have the rust around back wheels in front and behind them not too bad though. The rust in back of wheels extends into trunk. None is very bad yet.

Now my question is: what takes presidence. the rust on the floor panels or fixing the 1/4 panels. Is it ok to patch floor panels or do I need to scoop out 500 bucks when I get it for new ones.

Body shop said 300 for rust repair in front of back wheels. Dont know the price on behind the wheels. Or a price on replacing the floor boards, im sure its not cheap. My friend said he might help fix floor boards patching them that is. What is my best outcome. Someone told me skip it all, drive it till it dies. I dont believe that theory at all. I figure fixing these problems, painting it, and droppin a 350 one day will be around the 3K range not too bad I think.
Someone also said just get a SS, WHY they are not anything over my LS, actually according to specs the LS is rarer and there are fewer out there. I think modding an LS would actually be worth it more then an SS in the longrun. Sure I might be able to find another Monte for 3K but it also prolly will need work. Mine only has 75K on the dial.

Just give me your opinions, answers, the whole matter and bare with my long writings. Sorry I cant narrow it down much. Have a good day to all who reads this. 😀

 

[megaladon6]

well i'm in the same boat with the lower body rot. look very closely at things like the body ribs and mounting points to see if they are rusting also. that will help you determine if you need a new body or it can be fixed.
as an SS owner i say that the only real reason to buy an SS is because you feel it looks better. honestly i don't think the "rarity" of the LS or the SS will make a difference in value. especially when modded.

 

[1986montecarlols]

Exactly

my friend who just got a 94 Camaro Z28 which are ok cars now has the balls to say oh I wouldnt fix that car, its a you know what pusher anyway, black person car. My reply is umm no it didnt choose to be a N bomb car in the first place. i like it because its the most comfortable car I have ever ridden in. Plus work is so easy to do on these things. God I wouldnt go back to the 97 GP GTP I owned once upon a time. Total heap of you know what.

As for the body ribs>? I dont really know what you mean, are you talking about the ribs on the floor boards or are you talking about the unique design along the sides of the car, if thats the case, no they are fine. The rot i have is very little. Sounds like I need to post some pics. the digital cam i have is a hunk of crap but it does work. the mounting points are good too I believe.

I tried to explain to the goof ball, listen moron the SS and LS are the same thing 85% at least. ive often wondered on the future of our cars. Since they are so prone to rusting, I doubt they will ever decrease in value, lol yeah KBB says 1200 bucks. I often wonder where the value will go?? I know they wont touch the 70-72 Monte but how would they, they are much older you know? 😀 I Ill post some pictures on here in a few days, im so busy with school, ill show the rust spots off a bit.

 

[megaladon6]

i meant the ribs that are under the body/floorboards. they strengthen the body itself. i just don't want you to fall into the pit i did. i thought the car was pretty rust free when i got her but now when i'm working under the car i see more and more problems.
sounds like you're fine though, in which case you can patch the floorboards and everything else with no worries. if you are concerned with maintaining the collecter value of the car then you must use proper panels. if not then if it works, then it works, especially if you can't see it.
since they are being junked and crushed and the older "true"musclecars are getting rarer their value will go up as more people build them, but i don't think they'll get like the million dollar gen1 camaro's, hemi cuda's and so forth.
as to your buddy, he really can't talk with a 94 camaro! i got a similar response from a friend of mine and my brother about monte's being a guido car. ignore it. i'm sick and tired of hearing about the f-bodies. everyone and their brother has one. it's getting a little tiring.

 

[1986montecarlols]

dang right

i agree, I like the camaros and what not but everyone on the street has one I agree. God the site I am from in bay city michigan, 50% of the people drive one or have multiple ones. I owned the GTP, it was cool a pain in the *ss to work on though plus it had 285K on the clock and I wrecked it air bags went off, and I was dumb enough to fix it. I finally sold it to the idiot who has the camaro lol. ahha then his engine blew up in it. Ill never drive a new car again. As a matter of fact I agree with my dad now new cars are complete piles. ahha
As for why I got this car even though your not asking, its because wow how many of these do we see these days rollin around. I have had people gawk and stare at my LS all the time. heck a guy in the road asked to buy it, yes it was a black guy lol. But I love being the only guy in town with one. My friend has a 76 Camaro, hes in the same boat. Everyone gawks at it, mainly I think noone wants one of his years.

As for restoration, I think ill listen to my dad even though I havent been lately. im 22 buy the way I dont know a whole lot about cars. I can do maintence though, im also unemployed. He said we will just bondo it and fiberglass it. I think its actually a good idea based on what i read on the these boards. Many people do it because of the cost. Maybe when ive got my degree though ill fix them to the specs they should be done in. Its not like you cant remove the bondo and fiberglass right lol.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Well, I am doing the floor pan problems right now too, but I will say that you need to address the cause of the water leak that killed the floors before you fix the holes. Otherwise, you will be doing it all over again within a year or two. As for weather or not to do it, it all depends on if you can find good, rust free cars like it in your area. If you can, start with a rust free shell instead. Rust repairs are expensive and time consuming to do right-and most shops don't do them right. I have over 20 patches in my car's floor, roof, quarter panels, trunk lip, and windshield pinch weld. I can tell you it is not easy, and I probably will have to do it again in 5 years for something I missed. I have even gutted the whole car, and cleaned out all of the body drains and even the area behind the seatbelt inertia reels in an effort to keep moisture from sitting on steel for long periods of time. I also rustoleum'd inside the box sections after blowing them clean in areas I could not reach with sandpaper and acid to remove the rust. I have also run thinned rust preventative paint in all the nooks and crannies to try to get paint between the pinch weld seams using a gun. A shop won't go to the pains I have. I kinda wish I hadn't either, and had started with a better car in the first place.

 

[1986montecarlols]

well

I am sure I know where my leak is from. Back seat pasenger side floor board the stupid drain plug gasket went. BAM, my carpets soaked. I think it just evaportated several times over and got all over the car. Whats the best i can do. Just paint over the drain and prolly bondo the hell of out of it to cover up the broken seal? I know its better then leaving it the way it is. I need warmer weather though. Its still only 50s and 60s here in MI my dad said he wants to wait a little bit longer. hes not a car guy, he hates them actually. 2ndly underneath my car there are like little plates of steal rusting under the floor board on driver side. they are right next to inner rocker panel which also has a nice rust spot wedged like underneath where the silver plate is as you step into the car. Actually that might not be the rocker panel at all?? 😀 im happy overall though man, i know this car is gonna cost a lot of money to fix, im happy it was a one owner car driven by an old granny that i got it from. lol to sum my message up yeah im sure its from the drain most of it anyway, and 2ndly could be from the door opening silver plate thing, cuase its sulfated to hell as well, some of the aluminum is not even there anymore lol. Thats saginaw michigan for you.

 

[Silent viewer]

do NOT scrap the LS! they are more rare and i personally like the LS over a ss but i have much love for them both. fix your stuff the right way and scre what the rest of the world says about drive it till it dies and get a ss. most of the people saying that stuff likely do not know much about these cars. do make sure that the rot has not spread into stuff like body mounts. i did not read all of the above comments so if it was already covered disregard whatever i said. just dont scrap it!

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Well, is the rust just confined to that area, or is it all over the floor? If it is, I would look for a windshield leak or firewall leak as the source. That is part of my problem as my car seems to now be leaking from the stupid A/C "suitcase" on the firewall. It previously had leaked from: The windshield, The electrical bulkhead connector, the steering column, and probably somewhere else too. I am probably going to butcher mine into submission Thursday (April 10, 2008) with panel bond as I can not wait any longer for a wind free day so my neighbor can weld it into place and not have the shielding gas blown away from the weld points under the car. If I do, I will post it in my "Ghetto Floor pan Repair II" thread in the body section of the forum, with pics. It will then be taken down to bare metal, acid etched, and slopped with fiberglass resin and mat. If you want, read that forum post to see what I am up to. My Myspace page has all of my rust repair pics if you are interested in seeing what my car has required to get it to what I consider a usable state again. To me, usable means no rust or water leaks, or imminent corrosion problems, in addition to being fully functional. More on the fully functional later...

 

[1986montecarlols]

yeah

man post up them pics. what is your myspace link. mine is http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... d=36798181


sorry about the music lol ahhah its great.

Anyways im lucky, my car didnt come with air conditioning and from what i hear that is also another rare option on our cars. I used to be part of montecarlocity.com but I guess that site went out one day I went to go to it and it was out ?? Sometime this week ill post some pics of all my rust man. That way we can get into better detail. This website is fantastic, I really can count on tips and pointers on almost anything. God other forums ive been on stink. This one rules. I guess im not the only one phenatic about rust lol. Go ahead and also post that link about your rust fixing methods and pics. that would be cool man. 😀 🙂 🙁