Beretta.net

I'm new to the forum and i wanted to show my new project I'm doing and ask for advice. i have a 95 Chevy Beretta with 83,000 miles on it that i picked up in Rochester New York a month and a half ago. I bought it not running and it ended up being three ground wires that were broken that were causing the problem. so i decided to do a restoration on it. so of the issues i need advice on how to fix are, the reverse lights don't work, they worked one time and after that they stopped working, the bulbs are fine so i don't know what else it could be. and i also wanted to know the best way to get rid of the rust on it.

That rust on the door jams is only the beginning.

It will be 100% worse underneath where it starts.

MAJOR problem and could be a project killer.

How are the rear shock upper mounts and the floor boards in general.

Certainly looks like a Western NY car.

Generally speaking when you open the door of a Beretta and see that much rust, you walk away.

Have fun!

I'd have to agree there.... No one makes aftermarket replacement panels for that area so if you were to simply cut it out you'd still have to find a donor with good metal, OR fab it up yourself. They sell some rocker parts but not the hinge support piece which is the part that's rusting.

Asylum wrote:That rust on the door jams is only the beginning.

It will be 100% worse underneath where it starts.

Not 100% true. There are exceptions. my GTZ has a small hole in each side like the last pics (not as bad though) and the rockers and everywhere else is great on it including the inside of the rocker (could look inside through hole before I cleaned and covered it up) mine was due to leaves and dirt getting in there since mine sat a long long time though.

And on the flip side my drivers side rocker on the bottom of my old GTU was gone and the topside and the rest were fine. Although that was deemed only cosmetic by inspection stations and body shops I took it to for extra opinions.

imo everyone is way too afraid of bodywork and rust it really isn't that hard or expensive to repair if you DIY.

However that extremely rusty blown up 3.1 base that was posted awhile ago (forget the username) would qualify as too far gone imo

On topic. seems a bit rusty for a 95 but that is very fixable. Cut the rust out and make sure to get rid of as much rust inside the rocker as you can and weld new metal in. make sure to clean it very good (sandpaper. por15 might help in addition to that) wherever the rust is or it WILL come back and ruin the work you did.

Asylum wrote:That rust on the door jams is only the beginning.

It will be 100% worse underneath where it starts.

MAJOR problem and could be a project killer.

How are the rear shock upper mounts and the floor boards in general.

Certainly looks like a Western NY car.

Generally speaking when you open the door of a Beretta and see that much rust, you walk away.

Have fun!

The rear upper shock mounts are good and the floor boards are good no rust holes.

How about the upper SPRING pockets.... Those go bad quick on that year range.

3X00-Modified wrote:How about the upper SPRING pockets.... Those go bad quick on that year range.

They don't look too bad but i took some pictures.

yeah i would check that too, they rot on alot of different vehicles in the rust belt areas (salt). repairable, but time consuming i am sure.

i could be wrong but iirc the cowl is a good place to check too, the trim pops off easy to check/clean up/repair the leak it seems most develop in that area.

also, in regards to the reverse lights, could be a switch/sensor on the tranny, my 94 f150 refused to light them up when it was bad, trans range sensor or something along those lines iirc, your beretta is a auto i assume?

any cel or do they just not light up at all? i am not familiar with obd1.5 so idk how to check for stored codes, my f150 only showed it through a scanner under stored codes.

i am sure someone else with that problem on a Beretta can give better ideas though.

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Well I can see it from here, that the upper SPRING pockets are rusted through. I see holes.

sell the shell you got for scrap and buy this one.. guy only wants $500. could probably get him down more.
https://hartford.craigslist.org/cto/4778312714.html


personally with all that rust i wouldn't bother. my Z26 looked similar when i got rid of it..

i really don't like rust, even people that say something has no rust sometimes don't look underneath

rust = waste of time

I was able to get the springs off today here is what they look like. There are no soft spots I still have to sand all the rust off to see if there is any holes.

That is a fair amount of rust on that car, and how much of that right front corner has been patched-in? The welds look pretty poor. Miles are pretty low though, how does it run now that you fixed the wiring problem? If it still drives straight, it could be worth fixing for sure, especially if the interior is clean and the drivetrain is good. If it hasn't already been done, I would recommend investing in replacing the LIMGs with either the Fel-Pro or the Dorman steel-and-rubber set -it is prime mileage for blowing out the plastic $#!* ones that GM 'blessed' us all with, do not bother replacing the factory plastic crap with aftermarket plastic crap, even if it is 'updated' with the brass bolsters.

Good luck with the project.

Eastwood has a nice two part rust treatment. The gallon jug they sell is only for soaking parts, don't try to brush it on the car. With the two part you still need to take off most of the rust.