Rust in rear wheel well question

[MOliverMc]

Hi Everyone,

My friend and prior owner of our car put Vredestein Sprint Classics on the car about 12 years ago.  They look great and haven’t seen much mileage, but i felt they were getting hard and should be replaced.  Thus I had the opportunity to see the car up on a lift today with the wheels removed.  I was glad to see no rust anywhere until…. I founds a little spot in the drivers side rear wheel well, down low in the front of the wheel well.  There is a similar spot on the passenger side but much less noticeable.  On the drivers side there is actually a little rusted through hole just big enough to poke my finger in.  Photo below:

Is this cause for immediate action?  If so, how should I address it?  I’d be grateful for any thoughts, and I’ll post some other pics from the lift for general commentary, thank you!

[MOliverMc]

Some other pictures from the lift:

[MOliverMc]

additional photos:

[mnahon]

I believe that just ahead of that location in the rear wheelwell is the inside of the rocker. This is a common rust area on Pagodas. What you do about it depends on how keen you are to get the car in perfect shape.

At one extreme, you could cover up the hole with a fiberglass patch, drive the car and forget about it until it gets worse. At the other extreme, you could dig into it, literally, and grind away all the weak metal, and you'll probably find much more rust than you now think is present. Eventually, you may feel a need to replace the rockers or at least patch significant portions of them.

In either case, be aware of why this happens in the first place: water gets into the rockers  and is unable to get out because the drain holes are plugged. Each time you drive in wet conditions, the water ends up sitting in the rockers for much longer than just the time the car was initially exposed to water.

If you feel like it and have some patience, you can get a telescopic magnet and pull metal flakes from out of that rust hole. There's a good chance you'll be surprised at how much. You can also do a search on the forum with the words 'rocker' 'rust' and you'll see many others have faced this issue.

[johnk]

Pull up your parcel shelf on the drivers side behind the seat and see if you see more rust there. Also look underneath the same area to see if you have any rust in the bottom.

[MOliverMc]

Thanks Mnahon - I appreciate the good intel!

[MOliverMc]

Thanks John K - will do..

[Cees Klumper]

This does look pretty bad as already commented, once you start digging there will be a lot more, and also metal that on the surface perhaps does not look that bad, but has been severely compromised.
I am currently working on the bottom lip of our '68 Mustang trunk lid. There were just a few tiny holes visible (a fraction of what is shown in your first picture) and so far I've replaced a 3 foot section all along the bottom with new metal, and another foot or so to go. Once you put a wire wheel on an angle grinder on the metal, you can see the holes increase 10-fold in size.