It is amazing what is hiding beneath the interior panels and carpet. I have many pesky seemingly small rust spots straight through the metal.

It's the rust that you can't see that'll get ya'! If you really want to make sure you uncover everything, you really will need to pull all the panels, carpets and strip the paint off your car. You'll be shocked what is going on under all that old paint.

Good Luck! :beers:

When I had my car painted me and the body shop guys were all in shock at what was NOT rusted in my car. They stripped the entire car and the only rust found was a few pin holes below the drivers door in the rocker panel and one small spot in the lower inside front corner of the passenger door. They fixed those areas with a few small pieces of new sheet metal. The sheet metal guy at this shop is GOOD.
:hurray:
When I pulled the interior out I was expecting to see the floor pans rotted out. The only thing I found was the seam seal in the big grooves crumbling out and a very small amount of rust in the passenger side front floor board. I went ahead and prep'd the surface for paint, put in new seam seal, patched the little rust hole in the passenger side with sheet metal and painted it.
:hurray:

It is amazing what is hiding beneath the interior panels and carpet.

If you think that's bad, just wait until you start replacing panels. ;)
I bought what was sold as a "Relatively clean car. Little rust"

The only externally visible panel I didn't end up replacing was the upper cowl.

I think it just depends on the car and the location.

Yeah, I think that really no car is safe from cancer. I have heard that you want to stay away from cars that have sat in fields for long periods of time with long grass growing up along the bottom and sides because they hold water against it.

I think it just depends on the car and the location.

I do agree that the amount of rust a car has varies widely. My post was a light hearted stab at rust in general. Regardless of what you're able to see, unless the car has spent the last 40 years in a climate controlled environment, it will have rust to one degree or another. It's simply a matter of how much you find.

A great example of this is my firewall that showed absolutely no outward sign of rust. Once I cut out a few of the areas, while smoothing it, I was amazed by how much rust can hide in panel seams.

Another commonly found "gotcha" areas include window channels, roof skins, and quarters..Quite a bit of the time, you don't know you have an issue until the car is stripped.

location is key. i got my 75 trans am in a small town in arizona that sat in a dirt field with the windows down since the early 80's. after tearing everything out, there was nothing but minor surface rust on the dash that you could wipe off with your bare hand. even the wax marks from the factory were still there. but the dry arizona heat does wonders on interiors, no screwdriver required to remove panels they crumble like sugar cubes:D