Bought A 88 Crown Vic. More rust than I thought.

[91LTDProject]

Allright, so I bought an 88 low-mileage Vic, looked allright when i went through it before, but I was stupid and not thourough enough. I cant believe i was this stupid. The guy I bought it off of had It repainted, and its one of those good from far, far from good kinda deals. Now for the crummy part. The fenders along the bottom behind the rear wheels look solid, but when you lift up the trunk liner, not so pretty. also the corners in front of the wheels, along the drivers side door bottom, and the corners behind the front wheels, the floor in a couple spots, and the frames in great shape. This was the car I was gonna treat good, turn it into a real nice car, but now I find all this stupid rust, and am kinda beside myself in what to do. I absolutly hate letting people I dont know work on my car, but I know absolutly nothing about body work, and am a really bad perfectionist when it comes to something I actually care about. My paint plans for this car were possibly flat white, or a 2 tone black and orange, but I dunno whether to just forget about doing anything to it and just drive it, spend the money to have
it done properly, or attemp it myself and probably have it come out looking horrid, or try to find a rust free car (nearly Impossible in canada). I'll have a cardomain page up tommorow night and will post some pics.

[88Vic]

Is your 91 body better than the 88's body? If so you could drop the 91 body onto the 88 frame. I have no idea how that would be done, but it's just a thought. Good luck with everything.

[Blaze86Vic]

I'd try and find a rust free one in the US and drive it home.

[Nathan in MI]

Would it be possible for you to part this one out and use the money to buy a nicer one?

[boXman]

No! Don't give up on it. You say you want a "rat rod", well they sure as hell ain't polished up show cars...so who cares about some rust? I can see the ground if I pick up the floor mat in my '89...think I care? Nah...fuck it! Sure I'll probably fix it one day...but it's not like I care enough to be in a hurry. Fix it up a little and drive the hell out of it dude.

[LTDMan83]

Yea man,If you love the car thats all that matters.Keep it and fix it up as you have the time and money to do so.It's gonna be damn hard to find any 15-20+yr old car that's rust free,anywhere up north.I'm lucky the north carolina climate has been good to my '87 LTD Vic over the past 20 years.After I got the car I fixed and eliminated the little bit of rust that was there,and she's now pretty much rust free.

I'm also a perfectionist when it comes to things I care about,any little flaw in something aggravates me to the point of wanting to do something about it.Strangely enough,I actually enjoy doing bodywork on cars and making them look better,(Metal Work & Bondo Work) and I am fairly good at it.If you where anywhere around my area I would come help you out with the bodywork.I know that dos'ent help you though,as you are over 3000 miles away.Anyways,Good Luck with it,and if you really like the car put the work into it to make it nice,and when your done you'll be even more proud of it.