Found rust on my supposed rust free 89 sierra

[Tractor joe]

Old owner said no rust.. the floor underneath looks mint.. I noticed some very slight bubbles on the cab corner on the passenger side and poked it with a flathead.. went right through! About a quarter size.. metal inside looks really good though..

Driver side.. ha... lots of bondo! Gurr.. stupid @$$ could of easily fixed this but let someone go bondo crazy and made it worse.. ordered some cab corners.. should be a easy, just time consuming fix.. I have ALOT of experience fixing rust from the 50s and 60s caddys I've had over the years.. spent alot of time making peices and welding them on.. use as little filler as possible

 

[stutaeng]

Yikes! Do you guys get rust from the coast around there? Or is truck from another state? I wonder if PO was actually aware of this? Was the he the original owner?

@kennythewelder did a repair to his truck very similar to this. Guys from the North will look at these photos, and say it looks beautiful! LOL.

 

[kennythewelder]

Yeah, and that's why I didn't use bondo. I cut metal plugs to fill the 3 holes I had. I welded the plugs in, ( no pics of that) grinded down the welds. Then my coworker ( the other welder) who has done a bunch of MC repairs, said, He used some JB Weld with metal in it, as body filler. Well I don't care about the metal in the JB weld, I am not concerned about the repair pulling a magnet, ( that's why he said the one with metal in it) but I also know how strong JB weld is, and it wont fall out, so that's what I used. It sands good and blends well. The repair came out good, I still need to paint blend sand it but its almost perfect. In doing this repair, I couldn't under stand why the cab corner rusted out. It rusted from the inside out. The drain vents were not blocked, and I am meticulous about cleaning my truck so WTF. After cutting out the rust, the 3 holes were big enough to see in there. There is some insulation in the cab corner at the top, rite where mine rusted out. This has to be holding condensate water. There is no leak there. I also rust inhibitor treated everything inside before repairing. I will redo or recoat the inside of the cab corner, in the near future.

 

[Tractor joe]

He was the original owner, his son sold me the truck, a local sherif. The owner was 88, and had it restored in 2012 or so.. New crate 350 and 4l60 teans from jasper, still have the stickers on the trans..truck shows 344.000 miles, which I know the gauge cluster is not original.

I called jasper with the number on the sticker and they said the truck had 97000 when installed in 2012, engine and trans are way to clean to have many miles, his son told me it might have 15.000 on the engine and trans.. it was his dad's baby, bit he can no longer drive and it sat around for the last 8 years.

I rebuilt the tbi and new cooling system recently.

Truck was originally silver, and when it was repainted was taken apart completely, inside the cab and firewall and some of the bottom was painted to match, even inside the doors..

whoever did the work liked bondo.. gurr

I'd say the bondo got wet from the factory drain holes on the cab corner, from the moisture in the air, and rusted the metal it was attached to.. or something.. once I have the new cab corners I'll drill the spot welds on the cab and pull the bad parts out and replace with new, and clean the inside metal and paint it with weld able primer.. use some panel bond, and a few spots welds etc

Few pictures of the truck , and 2 of the passenger side rust hole

 

[kennythewelder]

He was the original owner, his son sold me the truck, a local sherif. The owner was 88, and had it restored in 2012 or so.. New crate 350 and 4l60 teans from jasper, still have the stickers on the trans..truck shows 344.000 miles, which I know the gauge cluster is not original.

I called jasper with the number on the sticker and they said the truck had 97000 when installed in 2012, engine and trans are way to clean to have many miles, his son told me it might have 15.000 on the engine and trans.. it was his dad's baby, bit he can no longer drive and it sat around for the last 8 years.

I rebuilt the tbi and new cooling system recently.

Truck was originally silver, and when it was repainted was taken apart completely, inside the cab and firewall and some of the bottom was painted to match, even inside the doors..

whoever did the work liked bondo.. gurr

I'd say the bondo got wet from the factory drain holes on the cab corner, from the moisture in the air, and rusted the metal it was attached to.. or something.. once I have the new cab corners I'll drill the spot welds on the cab and pull the bad parts out and replace with new, and clean the inside metal and paint it with weld able primer.. use some panel bond, and a few spots welds etc

Few pictures of the truck , and 2 of the passenger side rust hole

Once you cut out the old cab corner, look for that insulation, you cant miss it. Get a razor knife, and cut it out of there.

 

[Tractor joe]

Yikes! Do you guys get rust from the coast around there? Or is truck from another state? I wonder if PO was actually aware of this? Was the he the original owner?

@kennythewelder did a repair to his truck very similar to this. Guys from the North will look at these photos, and say it looks beautiful! LOL.

I'm about 15 miles west of west palm beach.. flatland, so I'm sure some salty air makes it here.. plus it's very humid, 85% humidity sometimes. Po bought the truck new..

 

[Moparmat2000]

Still a real good looking truck. $ucks about the cab corner repairs. Still the anti corrosion coatings and zinc dip the sheetmetal went through when new prevented it from being much worse. Years ago when I changed out speakers in my 94 I pulled all that foam insulation out of the corners. It so helps that i live in a dry climate and she slumbers under a carport these days. I have a friend who lives down in Florida. The stuff he parts out is from the 60s and early 70s. This is the last one he got. Lookit this car. It's got the worst case of jungle rot I have ever seen.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

This is the last one he got. Lookit this car. It's got the worst case of jungle rot I have ever seen.

What is that, a 68 Dart with a slant 6?

 

[Tractor joe]

Thats what I call a swamp barn find.. leave anything metal in the damp dirt with trees around to block the sun and that happens around here.. my new trailer had rust after 2 years..

 

[Moparmat2000]

68 barracuda coupe. 225 slant sux. Dude that gave it to him said he drove it there and parked it. I'm thinking ummm 30 years ago maybe. I have never seen rot thru on a valve cover and air cleaner lid like that.