I've got an 85 se with rust in the storage compartments going all the way through to the brackets holding the upper control arms on the rear end. A body man said to get new inner fenders and weld them in instead of fitting new metal to patch the problem. I looked a little closer and I can't tell if it has " inner fenders" or if it is one piece of stamped steel. Any one been down this road before?

 

Many have been down this road before.



What I did was cut out all the rust I could find then cut out the same shape "patch" I needed from my parts car then welded it in. Almost looks factory... almost...

 

good to know i'm not alone. how did you handle the bracket side of the patch, where the bolt runs through the control arm? that looks like the hardest thing to do.

 

There are no panels on the 1st gen, its all one piece for the rear and roof, and one piece for the front end.

You'll need to patch, or get a rear half in good nick and weld it on (big hassle!!)

 

My rust wasn't to that point yet. It was from the floorboard up.