I live in St. Louis. here in the Midwest they salt heavily in the winters, and old cars suffer if not stored for the winter. My PV was a local car, and probably only survived to the present by spending 17 years dead in a shed. Prior to that it had the sills and floor boards replaced (not a great job, either). The outer sheetmetal is all good (A PV doesn't catch moisture in the fenders like a 122 or 18800 does), but the underside is not a pretty sight. I have a MIG welder and I repair and replace sheet metal underneath on an as needed basis. So far it is still structurally sound, although I imagine that at some point I will need to get another body shell. One time the left front corner felt a bit bouncy and undampened, and upon investigation I found it *wasn't* a bad shock, but instead rust had weakened the left hand spar and th section that wraps underneath the drivers floorboard had cracked free. This allowed the spar to flex up and down a couple of inches. Lots of welding ensued - tricky to patch there because of the pedal pivot going through the frame member.
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I'm JohnMc, and I approved this message.