Worth saving? Or part it out.

[EvilZ]

I have ordered lots of sheet mild steel 0.8-1.0mm thick and some U shaped runners to cover the sill jacking points (after I cut them open to see how crap the previous repairs were.)

The car was hopefully going to become my daily/track toy and I don't really have a time frame in mind but I haven't welded in a long long time so basically starting again, got a decent portamig welder but just not sure if the car can be saved?

The car is an auto with 66k miles so the only decent thing is the engine, nothing else will be worth much?

I guess a fresh JDM import without rust would be £7k? and having spent £4k on this polished turd (heavily undersealed over rust and shit weld repairs,) i am unsure what to do.

 

[stevieturbo]

That's a lot of rust.....unless there is something really driving you to keep that car....get rid of it.

 

[r3k1355]

Thats not particularly bad, far worse cars have been brought from the dead.

 

[stevieturbo]

Yea, and japan came back from getting nuked...doesnt mean we all should suffer it.

That looks like a ton of work based on the photos, and you can be damn sure once you start cutting into the car to try and get back to good clean metal everywhere....workload will double...treble

Rust is a fucking bastard !

 

[EvilZ]

As you can maybe see I have already spent a lot of time stripping the car back, the interior is out and the floor inside the car doesn't look too bad, but the double skin is probably hiding a lot. The grinder has taken off a fair amount of rust from the wheel arch so hopefully once its stripped back some more and rust inhibitor applied it wont get any worse until I have the engine out for grinding and welding the other side of the wheel wells.

Where do people buy wheel well tubs from? Seem to be plenty of places in the USA but not much here, I would probably be better off cutting the front section off the suspension turrets and welding in new tubs rather than filling the gaps.

 

[EvilZ]

Plan is fix the floor, fix or replace the chassis rails, then cut open the sils and fix the rust that has been welded over, I am half tempted to name and shame the dodgy guy and the MOT station he used, the thing was a death trap and had been fixed so poorly but from the surface looked great nick.

I have a boss V2 kit to go on and a few other things to do like fit my 350z gearbox to the engine and fab up some mounts for it.

If it stich weld the interior cross members it should be sturdy enough. . . . . hopefully.

 

[r3k1355]

You can buy full length sills, it might be better to replace the full length rather than put a bunch of patches over already bad patches.

 

[EvilZ]

You can buy full length sills, it might be better to replace the full length rather than put a bunch of patches over already bad patches.

It was a single large sill that has been welded in but they didnt treat the rust, just cut the worst out and welded in the new part, so itself isn't rusty just how its been done is poor.
This is the worst part in the interior.

 

[r3k1355]

It was a single large sill that has been welded in but they didnt treat the rust, just cut the worst out and welded in the new part, so itself isn't rusty just how its been done is poor.

Yea thats not un-common, don't forget that only a few years ago these things could be picked up for a few hundred quid.
People didn't put all that much effort into fixing rust, if it made it through the MOT it was good enough.

 

[EvilZ]

It made it through the mot with a loose battery and radiator overflow tank. Obviously a friend of the guy who owned it at the time.
Seems like the consensus is to save it so I will try my best.
Cheers for the confidence boost people. I may start a build thread. :-)