Yesterday (Thursday, Oct 1st) I traveled by Amtrak train and LIRR commuter train to Long Island NY and bought a cheap 1989 Vanden Plas car.

Front 3/4 view

Rear view

Interior front

Interior rear
After looking it over for a few minutes and speaking with the owner for maybe a half hour or so I got into the car and drove it from Long Island NY to Youngstown Ohio. The car was very cheap and came with a bunch of spare parts in the trunk. On the trip home it drove quite well except for a lot of wind noise coming from the passenger’s footwell. I knew the car was rusty but this evening I pulled back the carpet that was covering a VERY large unsightly lump in the passenger’s side front floor.

Lump in passenger's side footwell from pushed up jack point
After I removed the riveted in patch panel I found this hole in the floor. I managed to move the dislocated jacking point back down into place so tomorrow I can try to fabricate a better patch for the floor to eliminate the wind noise whistling through this hole.

Rust hole in passenger's front floor
This are also rust bubbles on a few spots of the hood.

A few different spots of Rust bubbles in hood

Rust in rockers

 

Looks like quite the project! gotta love the picnic tables...

 

Steve,

That looks like a car well worth saving, and with your skills I'm sure you will get it done. Can't wait for your photos as you make progress!

Cheers,

Don

 

Working on cutting out the rusty thin meal in the passenger's side front floor this evening


Still more to cut

 

Got all of the thin rusty metal cut out tonight in preparation for making and fitting patches tomorrow.


Think I got all bad stuff cut out

After I took this photo I cleaned up all of the edges where new metal will overlap and be welded.