well after taking the carpet out my 90 hatchback i came across some rust on the passenger side shifter column it pretty big and im just wondering if anybody has encountered the same problem? my plans are to sandblast all the rust out of the inside of my car and looks like i'll need to weld in a new piece to cover where the rust was on the shifter column...my question is what should put in place of the bear metal so the rust wont come back

 

dam your car was in a FLOOD just sand would be the best bet and spray it with protective paint i guess

 

anybody else w/ some opinions?