My Oldsmobile 88 is very clean in and out and if I were to pass by you would swear it is a low mileage car. It now has over 157k miles and the rust is getting bad. I knew the rockers were gona but some investigation yesterday led me to hidden rot holes. I thought about maybe selling and getting another with no rust but I am kind of attached to the car. Plus, in the 18 months I've owned the car I've done the front struts, pads, rotors, 4 new tires, water pump, rear springs, front end links, ball joints, muffler and probably some other things I am forgetting. I am asking either for hands on help fixing this or just ideas on where to start.. Here are the pictures.

Driver side looking toward the rear



Passenger side looking towards rear



Passenger side showing engine cradle mount



Drivers door jamb



Passenger door



Passenger side rear sway bar mount



Driver side rear sway bar mount



Rust spreading from rot hole on top of the wheel well in trunk



Rear of the backseat



Inside passenger rear wheel well



Under backseat on passenger side



Driver side backseat floor rust spreading from the rocker



Surface rust on the trunk floor

If you grind down the surface rust and throw some paint on you can save a good bit of the body. The problems are the holes you already have are just going to let moisture in and cause more rot from the inside out.

We're dealing with the same thing over here with the trofeo and it's not worth the cost and hassle to fix on a car that's only worth a grand.

Gotta agree here. Once its there your done.
2 choices.... any others your kidding yourself
1) Sell it for as much as you can. If your going to take a big loss see 2)
2) Drive it into the ground without care for the rust.
If 1) doesnt work, just pack plastic & foam in areas that the water sprays in & get as much time as possible.

Yeah, that doesn't look good, esp. with a unibody vehicle. It would cost a lot to fix all those little areas, and I think they might come back again. The main enemy is water getting into the car after it makes a hole first to do so. Water always finds a way.

However I think you can wire wheel/grind down/pick away the loose rust on everything you see, treat it the best you can with some sort of rust converter (I've seen this stuff used called One Step that seemed pretty cool), coat it with something like the Chassis Saver or even Rustoleum red primer in the brush can and then black top coat if you do it on the cheap, then seal up all the holes best you can. Then paint over that, then use rubberized undercoat, preferably 3M. I've done ghetto repairs using black PL urethane sealant on rust holes after treating/sealing the rust first with a good paint, then sprayed rubberized undercoating over the whole problem area, and it stayed flexible and never came apart. I think bondo might fall out of holes like that because it's so brittle.

Then just drive and maintain it the best you can while it lasts!

I found full length replacement rockers from www.fixmyrust.com. They are about 80 each I can cut the section out myself and have it welded in.

I am not going to give up on it and run it to the ground and I really don't want to sell it because it has been very good to me. Only thing that ever let go in the 40,000+ miles ive driven it is the water pump.

I am going to start in the trunk wire wheeling off the rust. I will try and bring it down to some good metal and then spray it with some paint to try and slow it down.

Put full coverage on it and roll it off a cliff.

I have full coverage but I am not doing that.

yup....ride it till the grave save your money.... you can spend 1000 on repair and the cars still only 500 bucks ......its new england it happens

I can get pretty mean with a can of Great Stuff and some Krylon

Expandi-foam and a cheese grater and some undercoating and you'll get a couple more years out of it.

It's just not worth the effort, Tim. Sorry.

Take Bills advice. Fix on the cheap and drive. Not worth putting money into when it has gotten that bad.