Hi-

My 245 is in pretty good shape. It is a 245 manual NA with a sunroof - took me 3 years to find one. I plan on keeping it for the next 10 years or more. I like working on it, and am learning more about it over time, which I enjoy. In fact, I spent about 2 hours fixing the lock and latch mechanism on the tailgate, and really enjoyed taking it apart, cleaning it, etc.

I might get another toy car at some point (I love the old fiat 500s and 600s), but I anticipate using the 245 as my daily driver and hauler.

I have a few areas on the body that are starting to rust. Right rocker panel is crushed in from falling off the road on an icy day (my fault, taught me the importance of good winter tires). Left rocker panel has some rust from where someone jacked the car up on the rocker instead of the car jack point (not my fault). These are starting to rust.

The right spare wheel well (or hidey-hole secret compartment) is caved in and rusting.

There is rust on the lip of the hood, and on the tailgate. There are a few small dings and scratches on the paint, some of which are turning into surface rust. Ther is also a little bit of rust in the wheel wells.

I took the car to a body shop guy who works pretty much exclusively on volvos. He estimated $3,500 to drill out spot welds, open up seams, sand blast out rust, POR15 the clean metal, and then paint the car. The paint job will be partial - only up to the mid-body trim piece, which can then hide the paint line. Basically, bringing the body up to a 95% condition, and stopping the rust as much as possible.

My question - am I crazy to dump this kind of money into the car? I know I need to fix the rockers, since they are structurally important in case of accident. But the quasi cosmetic stuff? Am I better off just letting it rust away?

I know there is no way I will ever recover the money out of the car - the body shop guy made it clear that if I were cosmetically fixing it for a sale, it would only cost about $500. To remove all the trim, all the weather stripping, take off the doors, really aggressively go after the rust, and then putting it back together properly is slow work.

If it is fix that will buy me 10 more years of rust free fun, then it is pretty easy to justify, and I can keep playing with it and upgrading stuff. But am I better off restoring a Volvo 400, which I also love, and is more of a collector car?

So confused. Any comments would be appreciated. Oh, and I live in NY, moving to WI, so there is no such thing as a "rust free" car. Actually, I don't think I have ever seen a "rust free car" in my life.

I would go somewhere between your two options; it is pretty insane to break spot welds and tear the body apart for full rustfree restoration, but you don't want a $500 hack job that will only make it look good without addressing the rust. There has to be a happy medium.

Are you crazy for doing this (even the $3500 option)? No, absolutely not. It's your money. That $3500 can probably rustproof the car even better than it was from the factory, meaning that with a little care you could go 20 years before having to deal with any rust again. If you enjoy the car that much, then it's well worth it.

I say go for it. If you can make the car rustfree and like new, then in 20 years people won't be saying, "Why the hell would you spend $3500 on that car?" but rather, "Wow, what a beauty of a classic car! Wish I'd had the foresight to keep something like that."

...on the other hand, it's possible that 10 or 20 years will see the destruction of transportation as we know it and you may not even be able to drive the car, but that's another matter entirely.
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'93 244: 'A' cam 4 deg. advanced, 25/22 sways, custom heim endlinks, poly bushings, and a lot more styling customization than I care to recount.