Stocker

If you weld on structural unibody steel in large amounts, it weakens the steel unless you are doing impulse spot welding like at the factory. Metal bonding glue would keep it together just fine and I'd trust it more for retaining strength on large patches. That looks like it will need a large patch. It is reasonable to be apprehensive about it, but taking the wire wheel to the damaged area is really the only way to know how bad it is. Clean it out and ask your body man how much repairs would cost, and/or what he would recommend.



I really wasn't kidding talking about swapping everything over to a new body. Aside from the drivetrain, everything that bolts on could be done slowly an item at a time. If you can't have a nonfunctional vehicle parked in public view, can you rent a P.O.D. storage unit big enough to fit a car? Might have to talk to your HOA or apartment people, or find someone with two bays you can borrow or rent for a few weeks.



They don't call it the rust belt for nothing.

SpoolinShark

My car is currently having the quarter rust repaired and my body guy is the one who sent me the pics. I asked him what he suggested and he said the same thing, that the tubs would have to be replaced.



What I plan on doing when I get the car back is to grind down the spots and then hit it with some rust converter. If there do end up being holes, I'll try to patch them and go from there.



Next thing I'm curious about is where the rust originated. The inside of the tubs seem pretty solid without any gaps in the undercoating so maybe it started in the hatch itself. It would be great if this rust hasn't gone all the way through but I'm just being hopeful now.