Suspension Rotted strut towers 98 wagon

Is that to say that I’m just scratching the surface or that it’s a big hole compared to the first hole I posted? Either way, I know I’ve got some more work do do getting down to bare metal...

Possibly. I would sand down to metal the surrounding area until you hit clean metal.

John

Honestly, flux core is really forgiving on dirty metal. Once you get an arc, you're golden. Especially for a bunch of little spot welds.

Safety would be my #1 concern, there's probably a dried out filler neck near that left tower.

After having taken a closer look at your pics it looks like the rust is running through a good portion of the wheel well. In the picture you can see where the factory spot welded the tower panel to the rest of the inner sheet metal. I would remove that panel and find a rust free wagon that you can get that panel from.

Having seen what east coast and mid west winters do to cars, I would think your best bet would be to secure that part from a southwestern state like California, Nevada, Arizona or Texas where rust isn't as much of an issue but cost is where you need to make your decision as to whether it's worth it or not.

John

I'm starting to think it's toast. The whole wheel well is shot. The fuel filler neck is essentially hooked up to nothing, and there are just too many holes I think for this to be salvageable. I might be able to weld this one hole, but there are like ten holes in total and I keep finding more the more I poke around. You guys honestly think this thing is salvageable??

I mean, sure with enough time and money and surgery, but I think by the time I buy everything to keep it running it will be worth buying something else... Is there any hope?? I did find a ZX2 here in town that appears to have reasonable looking rear towers that with some modification would fit into my car, but I don't think there's anything left to weld the towers to...