Rust on my chassis - body off or not?

[Psychobert]

Whilst having the diff mounts replaced the other week I had the chance to really poke around under my new S and discovered the dreaded rust problem on the chassis. Looks to me like front and rear sections have been treated, (I hope properly rather than just having them repainted.. ), but the mid sections look basically untouced from new. As a consequence, lots of surface rust, but hopefully so far nothing more serious.

As the car was in a garage for a few days and as dry as it will ever be this time of the year, I removed what I could of the coating, (peeled off anything loose) and gave it a damm good waxoiling. Hopefully that will keep things at bay until I've the time to sort it properly..

Question is, how much to do? Have the use of a garage, tools and enthusiastic brother in the summertime for a week or so and am considering lifting the body, stripping everything looking dodgy and painting from bare metal up, (helped to do this or a Morgan whan I was a kid, so know the drill - hopefully won't find woodworm this time though ) In an ideal world, would strip down to bare metal, shotblast and start again. Don't think it really needs that now, and haven't really the time and cash. (Owned for a month, she's costing me a fortune and I have to buy a Griff as I'm hooked so cash is being salted away for that purpose - otherwise I'd do the full strip down).

How easy/difficult/sensible is lifting the body, sorting the chassis and dropping it back on? Roof of the garage looks strong enough, so could winch it clear and work on a rolling chassis, but how involved would it be to remove the body completely? Whilst I could treat what I can see now, I'm figuring that rust could have found its way onto the top of the box sections and be eating its way down.. Horrible, nasty stuff..

What's best to do?

[Paceracing]

Don't lift the body unless you really need to!
(1) If it's just surface rust just clean, paint and waxoyl what you can see.
(2) Lifting the body can cause stress cracks in the bodyshell when it flexes as it is lifted.
(3) You will need to pull parts of the carpet up to access the chassis bolts, risking stretching or worse, tearing the carpet. (Personal experience here!).

Jas.

[Psychobert]

Paceracing said: Don't lift the body unless you really need to!
(1) If it's just surface rust just clean, paint and waxoyl what you can see.
(2) Lifting the body can cause stress cracks in the bodyshell when it flexes as it is lifted.
(3) You will need to pull parts of the carpet up to access the chassis bolts, risking stretching or worse, tearing the carpet. (Personal experience here!).

Jas.

Cheers Jas. Seems to be surface rust where I can see it; whats bothering me is that there will be surface rust over the entire surface of the box section. I can treat the exposed bits, but don't want the rest to rot out from the top down..

Was worried about sterssing the body, hadn't got far with thinking about how to avoid that.. Carpets etc in good condition so don't really want to risk trashing them.. See what the expert reckons next week; booked in for exploratory surgery on a vibrating rear end..

[shnozz]

Psychobert said:

booked in for exploratory surgery on a vibrating rear end..

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Might just have been a curry the night before