2nd Gen Firebird dash rust?

[Yoda4561]

Picked up a 74 firebird a few weeks back that seemed to be in pretty good shape, it's unrestored but has been repainted, and in drivable shape. All the body panels line up pretty nice. When I looked under and over the car the floors were intact and all the sheetmetal rang with a knock so not too much body filler. There was one small hole in the trunk that was patched up. Got it back from the transmission shop last week and started doing odds and ends on it while driving it around. Today while I was doing some checkups to see what was up with the broken fuel gauge I noticed this crack across the metal dash near the vin tag and some rot near the windshield. I don't remember seeing it there when I first looked at it so either it's popped up as i was driving or I just glossed right over it thinking it wasn't a big deal when I got the car.



How bad is this?? I think it's just a replaceable panel but I'm more worried about the unibody structure near it. Could I get on the floor inside and look up and see how bad it is? (I'd rather not contort myself if it's not doable) I had hoped to keep driving the car for a couple years, getting the paint down to bare metal and hitting it with some epoxy primer and leaving it like that till I could afford getting a proper restoration done by a shop. Also, I realize it's "just" a firebird, but I'm cool with that, I was never looking for a collector or resale value, just a car I could have fun with.

[badazz81z28]

No worries!. That panel is a typical sec gen rust area and AMD sells that replacement panel. You need to pull the windshield to get at it, but its been done multiple time.


http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showthread.php?t=209137

[71RS/SS396]

You won't be able to tell how bad it is until you start cutting into it. There's 3 pieces of metal overlapped in that corner one of which is the bottom of the A pillar. It's all fixable depending on your skill set.
Here's a few pics of mine when we stripped it down







After blasting and some repair work

[Yoda4561]

Good to know, thanks guys. I don't have the garage space or skills for that matter to do this sort of repair right now so I'm hoping it'll be okay till I can get it to a good body shop. I'll get some fluidfilm into that cavity to keep it from getting worse for now.