body work?

I have a 1979 elcamino ss. The person i bought it from left it outside and it got a little bit rusted around like by the muffler and on the other side in the same spot. There is a few other spots that were are covered with bond-o but it looks tacky. Down by back window has a good rust spot also and they all look ugly but im pretty sure its pretty common on neglected older cars that sit outside. I would like to know maybe how much a trip to a body shop would cost any idea? And what do they have to do to repair the spots that are rusted through? thank you for you previous help on stuff and for this 1 too. :1zhelp:

Any area that is rusted through is called body rot. The body shop will either replace the panel, or cut it out and weld in a new piece of sheet metal. In any case it will be expensive. Even if you do it yourself you will have alot of work, time and money. Any bodyshop that says they will do it for cheap is just going to fill it with bondo, prime it and paint it. This will not fix your problem however.