Rust Under Tow Hook?

[10cjennings]

I bought my 280z about a month ago, and the car's pretty rust free. There's a spot on the hood, and the rear hatch but that's about it. Solid frame rails, solid floor pans ect. At the moment I'm trying to convert the car over to 240z bumpers. This requires removing the front tow loops (Don't know what to really call them). They bolt into the frame rail. I knew there was a rust issue on the passenger side before but upon removing the passenger side tow hook the area that it was covering is totally rusted out. It seems like a 5 inch piece of square steel welded into to replace that section would eliminate the problem, but I'm trying to confirm with you guys. I know of one local shop that deals with restoring classic cars so I'm headed there tomorrow to see what they have to say about the problem, but what would you guys say is a reasonable estimate to fix the problem? It seems bad (at least to me, I'm used to working on new, rustless cars so I'm panicking a bit) but this is a really isolated rust problem on the car so I'd say it's definitely something worth fixing.

 

 

I know it's really hard to tell without good pictures so I'll do my best to post some better ones tomorrow.

 

Thanks,

 

Chris J.

 

Edit: These are the best pictures I could manage with my crappy cell phone and a flashlight. I'll take some better ones tommorrow.

 

Edited June 29, 2010 by 10cjennings