The rusted out section you mention is an INTEGRAL part of the structure of the car, The lower A Pillar (located at the aft fender area from the rocker panel upward to the firewall/wheelhouse) is where virtually the center of strength of the monocoque design upon which the e9 is predicated. The top does NOT add much strength to these cars due to the slender pillars and postless design.

Quite seriously, I would get in there as soon as possible and scope it out. That is the number one spot that absolutely puts an e9 in the scrap heap for safety reasons.

I am not trying to scare you (or MikeC, whom I think is a fool or a crook, or both for his practices), but I have literally seen these cars break in half at this point when hitting a speed bump with structural rust where you describe.

These are great cars, but it is absolutely essential for everyones' safety to ensure that street or track driven examples are rust-free or properly repaired in this area.

Regards,
BJ

[...]
Have fun with the car like Brett says and don't listen to the guys who make the cars sound like art objects.

MikeC

Hi,

I'm looking at a 3.0CS in with rust and in need of a "major restoration" but a complete car and wondered if I could get some advice on price and parts avalibility. Can new sheet metal fro these

Thanks Mike, I appreciate the comments. However, there is a difference between an aesthetic fix and a structural fix. The former is ok if all you want to do is improve the look of the car. Unfortunately pretty well every piece of rust-prone sheet metal in a CS is integral to the saftey aspects of the design. With that in mind you can understand how important it is to weld in metal in place of the holes. If you can't get your hands on the stock whole sheet metal pieces you at least should weld in new steel and rebuild the existing ones.

Mike's bondo recommendations are great for places that aren't structural like fender skirts and door skins. You can go all out and replace those holes with steel as well - it depends on how much time and money you want to spend.

Today I poking around under the hood, along the fenders. If rust was gold, i'd be rich because I hit the biggest rust spot around! i ended up with a 5" long 1" high hole in the side of the upper fender piece, which leads down into the big box section. I figure that the box section rusted out and crap got thrown up in there and rusted out the upper wall, under the hood. There's a nice big pile of rust, sand, salt and mud on my driveway!

I bet that just caused the 'stuffed shirts' as Mike called them to keel over with a coronary. :)

We'll get her all fixed up soon. Don't worry.

Now to get my blower motor rebuilt.

brett