With the panels and carpet up I started poking around. This car took a light shot behind the passenger door. Looks like simple dent repair, not a serious collision so that's good.
Let's find the rust! Little bit on that junction between the wheel well and the quarter panel and also where it meets the door sill.
There's a little bit down in that side's frame rail interior and the interior sid of the door sill. Nothing insane and easily repaired if done soon.
Similar rust on the passenger's side kick panel. Need to get on top of it.
Got all the loose jute padding scraped off and vacuumed it out. I have to say, I'm pretty happy so far. This is an old ass car on a salty aired little island in the Pacific; not so bad, considering and certainly fixable.
Next step is to finish pulling the rest of the dash out. I only got the cover pulled. The driver's side footwell was ever so slightly wet. I'll be looking for a rotting wiper tray. That's common on these cars. We'll see.
While the dash is out I need to order the roll cage. I want the kind that goes through the dash, not the wraparound "escape" type. I had one of those in the Silvia and used to bang my knee on it all the time and it's not as strong. I'll also see if I can fit a cross bar behind the dash to tie the left and right legs together and also tie the cage into the front strut towers. It will already have tabs on the main hoop to attach at the seat belt bolts on the B pillars, a lower cross bar behind the seats and bars to tie the rear legs down to the bases of the main hoop. Stiff as a 15 year old's boner.
Gotta get some dry ice next to pop up all that sound deadening. I'm not sure at this point if the car will be a stripped out race car or a nicely appointed street car. Either way, the sound deadening needs to come up to check for rust. If I decide I want it quiet I'll put some fresh stuff back down.