Thank you very much for your perspective, Greywolf! I will expedite further evaluation of the rust to determine what can be done. Ideally, I'll be able to restore the XR2 - though that wasn't admittedly my intention at first. I'm going to do a longer post on this, but I picked up the XR2 for super cheap right before it was taken to the salvage yard. The owner was headed for assisted living and they couldn't find a buyer due to the rust. At that time, I knew little of the XR2, and was just excited to be able to pull off the convertible top and a few other parts for my base-trim. Once I learned more about the XR2, however, I became keen to restore it. My original plan, though, was to use it to improve the base-trim, so no ill will if that's indeed where I end up!
Were I to focus my energy on the base-trim, I'd pretty much be looking to bring over everything I could from the XR2. The body has a lot of dents, so it'd be great if I could actually take the body panels and doors from the XR2 for the base. I'd love to pull the turbo engine out and put it in the base. Pretty much everything that isn't on the underside of the car
. From yours and others' explanations, it sounds like a lot of this should be possible!
But for now, I will get this rust figured out. Thank you, again!