As I was beginning to finish up the floor pan painting I noticed that a part of the driver’s side sheet metal (near the rear firewall) was bulging up in one area. So i took a closer look, and then i pushed down on the sheet metal to see what would happen – I heard crunching.
Uh oh. :S
First thing I though was rusting and/or complete rotting of the sheet metal. So i did a few cuts and found out that there was some slight rusting where one of the rear supports is spot welded onto the bottom of the Fiero. It is pretty much just surface rust that has flaked off – but I can’t believe how much DIRT has collected in there. It looks worse than it is, and frankly I could have just left it alone – but I like to do things right :)
Also, I have all the interior pieces out – so now is the time to do it. I am going to grind down the rust, apply a rust converter over EVERYTHING, and then paint rocker guard where it is needed. I will then weld in a new plate to cover it up, and then do a final coat of rocker guard to seal it all up. Should be better than new (and stronger) when I am done.
However this is a pain in the ARSE, because I was all ready (and excited) to put in the new carpet tomorrow – now I have to wait until this process is all done, which should be about a week based upon my schedule.
