I have a 1973 Corvette coupe that I have owned for 48 years. I have always kept it in the garage and never even took it out on rainy days. The original owner, however, also kept it in the garage but drove it year-round in the Pittsburgh area. So, it would have seen salt on occasion during those first 4 years. I wanted to do an inspection of the birdcage because I knew that area was always suspect when it came to rust. To do that, I removed the interior panels along the top of the windshield, the A pillar panels, and both kick panels (so I could inspect the area around the body mounts). I thought the area around the top and sides of the windshield looked good, but I did find surface rust around the body mounts. I have attached pictures of these areas and wanted to get your opinion (I hope they uploaded OK, my first time). There was loose rust around the body mounts which I swept clean and then wire brushed the area to get a good look at the surface. I took a hammer and punch and banged on the area around the mount and everything appeared to be solid. I also learned on an earlier post that a good test to see if the loose rust was dropping from the birdcage surrounding the windshield was to place a clean white paper towel over the body mount and slam the door a few times. If there were any issues from above, I would find some rust debris on the paper towel, I did this to both sides and observed absolutely no debris on the towel. I wonder where the loose rust came from if not from the birdcage above. I would value your opinions. Thanks!

 

That car is as good as new. Surface rust really doesn't count. Rust that you need to worry about comes with lots of deep pits and flaky pieces falling off.

 

If those are the original body mount rubbers then they look good.

 

It better than my 77, It looks good to me but if are concerned about rust, Eastwood has a product line of what the call rust incapulators to slow the rust process if you think you need it.

 

Thanks for your opinions, it definitely takes care of any concerns I may have had. I will look into the Eastwood products also. There was flaky rust around the mount and I regret not taking a picture of it before I swept out the area. I am also going to try to clean the drains in the cowl area. I read if they become clogged water can back up into the body mount cavity. Thanks again.

 

One thing you could look into to help seal the area while you're checking at Eastwood is something called Paint Over Rust or POR. It's not cheap but I've used it effectively on parts of my frame rail on the '73 which was my daily driver in the Midwest through salt and snow.

 

I did check out POR. It looks to be about the best product for treating rust. Thanks.

 

I agree! It looks great for any year C3!!!

 

Thanks for the feedback!