M3W2
Member
Just bought my first van, it's a 92 GMC Vandura 1500. Everything seemed good on it, new transmission, engine heads redone, suspension good, the guy told me there were only two little rust spots at the doghouse bolts and I saw them and they looked bad but were small. I got underneath it and checked the whole body, saw no rust really at all from underneath.
Well I took it home and started ripping out the floorboard and found that the whole area around the doghouse and in between the front seats up to the start of the cargo area has rusted pretty bad. Apparently the windshield has been leaking for a long time and it's rusted from the inside out. I started cleaning it up and have grinded out most of the rust. Now I'm just not sure how to proceed. I've seen some people's recommendations on how to patch hole but that's usually in small flat square areas and this hole is bigger, right over the transmission, shaped strangely and the metal has those corrugated dips.
Here's a picture of the rusted area
[img=150x150]
And after some grinding
[img=150x150]
If you zoom in on the second picture you can see where I've made sharpie marks where I think I need to cut out the metal. I've never done anything like this before so I could really use the help. Do I need to cut all that out? Or more? How should I repair it afterwards? I was planning on renting a welder and welding some sheet metal onto it somehow. I've never welded before but I want this job done the right way so I don't have to worry about it in the future. Does anyone have advice?
Well I took it home and started ripping out the floorboard and found that the whole area around the doghouse and in between the front seats up to the start of the cargo area has rusted pretty bad. Apparently the windshield has been leaking for a long time and it's rusted from the inside out. I started cleaning it up and have grinded out most of the rust. Now I'm just not sure how to proceed. I've seen some people's recommendations on how to patch hole but that's usually in small flat square areas and this hole is bigger, right over the transmission, shaped strangely and the metal has those corrugated dips.
Here's a picture of the rusted area
[img=150x150]
And after some grinding
[img=150x150]
If you zoom in on the second picture you can see where I've made sharpie marks where I think I need to cut out the metal. I've never done anything like this before so I could really use the help. Do I need to cut all that out? Or more? How should I repair it afterwards? I was planning on renting a welder and welding some sheet metal onto it somehow. I've never welded before but I want this job done the right way so I don't have to worry about it in the future. Does anyone have advice?