Emergency - need forum opinion - terrible rust!

[JHZR2]

Hi all,

Emergency... My "beautiful" 85 300D, which had been redone and purged of rust turns out to have a LOT of rust in the floorboards.

The car looks like new. It looks great. I checked it out on the street, drove it, felt around it, everything seemed great. It was even a rainy day, and there was no sign of water except for a tiny drip in the trunk, which my 83 also did once in a while.

So after the noreaster on Monday, I started doing work. Ive fixed the tach and figured out all the info about the drivetrain (which was not explained as such when I bought it, but the PO may not have known it either). I sensed a tiny bit of moisture under the driver's seat, so finally today I took out the rear floor mats. Right under the front drivers seat there was a tiny spot of water. So in the driver's rear floor, I took out the mat, and checked for water - it was dry, but I sensed some softness.

So I took out the other rear floor mat. and I see... daylight.

THere is a lot of softness in the passenger rear floor. So I go and look under there - a lot of rust that was partially painted over on the outside. The PO told me that he had a bodyshop who owed him a favor fix the rust - but obviously they didnt do near all of it.

So I feel gipped. Im kind of stupid for not prodding and studying ever last inch of the underbody, I made some assumptions and it has bit me. I am very tempted to ask the PO to take the car back, even if I eat a thousand dollars. Ive had it less than 7 days.

Now, the car is like new everywhere else... but the reason why I didnt repair my pristine 83 was because I thought I could avoid bodywork that is VERY expensive to do right (Id be paying to get it done). So ideas of how much it would theoretically cost to repair would also be great.

Pics to come...


Thanks for any insight and advice!

JMH