Rust on my Fenders and Rockers. Discussion wanted.

[rubicscube420]

Whats up Nico,

I am a noob and it sucks. Here is my predicament I just recently purchased a 1996 240sx se because there a sexy nice ride right. I live in upstate NY and during the winters our cars suffer from salt laden roads which has caused some rust issues on my car. I want to attack the worst spots first but there are also smaller parts that I will save for later. Basically the parts of the car that I am want to switch out are:1.) the Rockers (both)2.) Back Fenders and possibly front fenders (both)3.) a few spots underneath the engine bay

I am going around for estimates now and figured I'd work locally with some bodyshop people. Anyways I want to locate the rockers and possibly the fenders on an online shop. I was referred to http://www.rustrepair.com/index.html but they only have panels for 70-78 dutsuns. Anyways I was wondering if any of you had run into rust issues in these areas ? If so let me know what you did and how? Another oprtion I was thinking of is going with a full metal body kit. If you know the 411 on that let me know because I really have no clue. Thanks for reading.

[kgriffin]

rockers are part of the unibody the rust will have to be cut out and new sheet metal welded back in, same with the rear fenders. the fronts can be replaced though hope that helps you

[blacksrjdm]

Search this site religiously. There are quite a few rust repair threads on here. Lots of pics and info as to what they did at the time. Most cases, it is cut and weld in new.

[Karateboy88]

^^^Truth

My 240 had a lot of rust. It was cheaper to buy a welder and do it myself than to go to shop.

[kgriffin]

i think that is what i will have to do to mine isnt to bad though

[kgriffin]

oh and sorry to double post but i had a body shop tell me they wont fix rust lol so good luck with a body shop

[rubicscube420]

Thanks. I'll take some pictures of the rust areas and put them up soon and then put up the estimates I get. I am going to just talk to the guys at the body shops to see what they would recommend and how much they would charge. If I did go with shops should I go for smaller operations or bigger operation or does that even matter when it comes down to it? As for learning how to weld... that might be a possibility. Can't hurt to work on another skill. I also found some other threads to look at. This guy did a steller job! zer...67975

[blacksrjdm]

Buy a cleaner shell. My original was covered in rust. Started fixing and just got me really no where and was pissed the whole time. Bought a cleaner shell, and the smiles started.

[rubicscube420]

yea but the interior is immaculate and I picked it up for under 2gs. Will see though... If its going to cost more than a g to fix I think I might do one of two things: A) Scratch it and save up for something like this zer...-free B) Have me and my novice friends attempt to repair the damage and just use this car as my daily driver/beater.

[rubicscube420]

Check out these picks. Should I do it myself or pay for hired guns. I might have someone do the big stuff and I'll do the rest. i don't know sh T about it though. Anyone ever here of liquid rust remover? How'd that work?



























Modified by rubicscube420 at 6:31 PM 8/5/2009
Modified by rubicscube420 at 6:36 PM 8/5/2009

[driven_]

Join the club...

no seriously, join the club, we meet every thursday...

/that70sshowjoke

[sebazztard]

you people in mid/southern ny have a very odd conception of what upstate means.

like the others said, def cut and weld. didnt you look under the car when you bought this?

[twisted99s10]

to most people in southern ny upstate is anything above the city... ne ways, im from binghamton, if you want to drive the car down sometime im sure i can give you a hand with some of that. i usually use a 2 part epoxy to bond new metal on. all the benefits of a strong weld with none of the warping. you can get the stuff thru autocolors. they are on old vestal road. there might be a shop that carries it closer to you tho. i'll get the name and brand of the epoxy and post it up here later tonight.

[rubicscube420]

you people in mid/southern ny have a very odd conception of what upstate means.

like the others said, def cut and weld. didnt you look under the car when you bought this?

mid/southern ny doesn't sound good man. Sounds too technical. Most people don't even know that there is more to NY than the city. Yea cut and weld. I did look under the car and I felt that the rust was something I was going to try to take care of. Plus all the good cheap 240s are snatched up.

[rubicscube420]

if you want to drive the car down sometime im sure i can give you a hand with some of that. i usually use a 2 part epoxy to bond new metal on. all the benefits of a strong weld with none of the warping. you can get the stuff thru autocolors. they are on old vestal road. there might be a shop that carries it closer to you tho. i'll get the name and brand of the epoxy and post it up here later tonight.

Yea man I would appreciate all the help I can get. I am going to take it to B&B Automotive Repair for an estimate and then to Armstrong Automotive. I got a friend with a sandblaster and other tools down in PA so I am going to head down there Friday night work on it, travel up to B&B for another estimate, and then back to Ithaca for the day. Maybe I can swing down Sunday if your not too busy man and we can check it out. Post the name of that bondo stuff and I'll look into picking some of it up. Wow, thanks for the help.

[sebazztard]

mid/southern ny doesn't sound good man. Sounds too technical. Most people don't even know that there is more to NY than the city.

i read upsate, i thought i had a new friend haha. you are 3 1/2 hrs south from me. good luck with your repairs, stay away from anything epoxy, that is pretty ghetto. no offense of course, but if you plan on keeping this long term do it the right way.

[rubicscube420]

[QUOTE=driven_] [QUOTE=driven_]

Dude I might throw up looking at that... I want out of this club asap. haha... what are you going to do about that?

[AZhitman]

To the OP:

People HATE it when I say this, but that car is NOT one you want to tackle. For all the VISIBLE rust, count on 3 - 4 times MORE in places you can't see.

The fact that the strut tower is COMPLETELY rusted through tells me that car is NOT safe to drive. Period. Since it's a unibody, every place where suspension components attach to the shell is likely badly corroded as well.

Seriously.

Myself and another member here (rotorimp) have done a lot of work on old Datsuns with rust... You're looking at a TON of cutting and welding, JUST to get it cosmetically passable. The rust on that car has gotten into the structural parts, and it's bad.

We spent 2-3 weeks on a 72 Z that had maybe 1/10th the rust that yours has, and it was a lot of work.

Find a rust-free shell, swap over your interior and drivetrain, and never, ever, ever buy a car with visible rust again.

You can put a lot of money and work into that one, but it WILL continue to rust away, no matter what you do, taking your money with it.

[rubicscube420]

To the OP:

Since it's a unibody, every place where suspension components attach to the shell is likely badly corroded as well.

your right I didn't want to hear all that. I put the word out on craigslist about getting a rust free shell but most of the shells that I have found were s-13s or automatic s-14. There is a shell in Syracuse but the dude is asking a <G for it. I guess I could switch it into an automatic or something.... Well this is the only car I got right now so I need to keep driving it. I am going to strip the car down this weekend at my boys garage and will take pictures and let you see the damage. I am going to try to remain optimistic about this. I have seen a lot of rust disappear from cars in tha past granted I never was involved with the labor. Ohh well man. Thanks for the advice. As they say the only vice in life is advice..

What about peicing it the shell together... anyway to get around the unibody dilema and use a kit like this http://philadelphia.craigslist....html

To the OP:

People HATE it when I say this, but that car is NOT one you want to tackle. For all the VISIBLE rust, count on 3 - 4 times MORE in places you can't see.

The fact that the strut tower is COMPLETELY rusted through tells me that car is NOT safe to drive. Period. Since it's a unibody, every place where suspension components attach to the shell is likely badly corroded as well.

Seriously.

Myself and another member here (rotorimp) have done a lot of work on old Datsuns with rust... You're looking at a TON of cutting and welding, JUST to get it cosmetically passable. The rust on that car has gotten into the structural parts, and it's bad.

We spent 2-3 weeks on a 72 Z that had maybe 1/10th the rust that yours has, and it was a lot of work.

Find a rust-free shell, swap over your interior and drivetrain, and never, ever, ever buy a car with visible rust again.

You can put a lot of money and work into that one, but it WILL continue to rust away, no matter what you do, taking your money with it.

[AZhitman]

The fiscally-responsible thing to do: Just drive it as-is, until you can drop some cash on a good shell.

Start tearing into it and I guarantee you'll render it undriveable, especially once you start breaking bolts and digging out corroded metal.

Hell, we could find you a rust-free shell here for $1K or so, and another $800 to ship it to NY. Then you've got a clean, pristine S14 that'll last you another 10 years and WON'T be a deathtrap.

[OutToWinPAHC]

Agreed the time and money it would take to cut, fabricate, weld would be more then a clean shell. I hate to say it but I would cut my losses with that shell. Would make a great parts car, or part out. If you do part it I want the firewall.

[rubicscube420]

Agreed the time and money it would take to cut, fabricate, weld would be more then a clean shell. .

Let me know if you find one close by? I got to look into swapping s-14's into an s-13 shell.

fyi the car passed inspection in February.

[AZhitman]

Stick with an S14 shell if you want to keep the entire interior. The seats are the only real swappable interior part between the two chassis.

[rubicscube420]

The fiscally-responsible thing to do: Just drive it as-is, until you can drop some cash on a good shell.

Start tearing into it and I guarantee you'll render it undriveable, especially once you start breaking bolts and digging out corroded metal.

Hell, we could find you a rust-free shell here for $1K or so, and another $800 to ship it to NY. Then you've got a clean, pristine S14 that'll last you another 10 years and WON'T be a deathtrap.

I aint paying a that much for a shell!! haha I am going to try to find one around here or down in MD VA DC area. I still am going to try to do some of the body work to it myself or with a shop.. I am going to talk to them tonight I'll let NICO know what they say. thanks for the input.

[AZhitman]

You paid $2K for a rusted one.

Just trying to help. Anything you find out there is gonna be rusted too - Fact.

[S13Joe]

You paid $2K for a rusted one.

Just trying to help. Anything you find out there is gonna be rusted too - Fact.

Not true. It took me 3 S13's until I found the perfect one but then again I didn't really care about rust, I like beaters. This new S13 is perfect though, frame rails are flawless, engine bay ALMOST flawless, trunk and everywhere else is perfect. I found this on Long Island too. But anyways, OP, if you're serious about buying a new shell I may have one for you. I was going to buy this S14 shell a while ago and it had some rust on the rocker panels but the kid was going to give me some flawless ones with the sale. I'll see if its still around, last I heard it was.

[rubicscube420]

. I was going to buy this S14 shell a while ago and it had some rust on the rocker panels but the kid was going to give me some flawless ones with the sale. I'll see if its still around, last I heard it was.

Yea man I am definitely interested. I just got back form the body shop. He said that it was going to be like 500 for the rockers if he had to make them, 300 a piece for the rear fenders and the struts were going to be pretty around 500 for both. He suggested getting the struts taken care of first. So all in all I am looking at 1500-2000 dollars to get my rust taken care of and a shotty paint job... for that much I am better off just picking up a shell... My friends uncle owns a painting shop down in VA and said I could use it so I think I am going pick up a chassis, find a nice body kit, put it together, get it painted and RUST PROOFED!!! then swap all my s*** back in... He said that structurally my car should be fine for another year or two which gives me time to do all this. Anyways I am taking it down to PA to work on it.. not the body I need to take my timing chain guards out and put a new gasket on and also let some mechanics look at with me.

[rubicscube420]

You paid $2K for a rusted one.

Just trying to help. Anything you find out there is gonna be rusted too - Fact.

how come there isn't a solution to this east coast salt dilemma! The car has been taken care of.. new master cylinder, runs great, a lil seepage but all in all it was taken care of. there gota be a way out of here.

[driven_]

haha,

well since i'm ghetto, and i have no money, nor do i have any bright plans for this car, i just cleaned it up and JB welded it.

yes its ugly, yes its cheap. yes it helps a bit.

its better than a hole right? haha.

[sebazztard]

bossman you are 99% right about shells, i am that 1 percent that did find a rust free shell in ny, it took me almost 2 years to find the car in my sig and it came from florida about 2 years back. to the op, unless you have 2 years to burn like me, i would think outside the ny area, seriously. i checked as far as va and i had a buddy of mine in ga on the lookout for one within a 1500 budget, and i was being pretty fair on the condition, just as long as it was rust free. do what you want in the end, of course its your car. i prefer s13 hatch, but my s14 is a daily dependable workhorse so either way you go will be decent direction. good luck with your search.