rust possible accident and how to fix? (only a 1998 240sx)

[apzak]

Hey

I have rust in my 240sx and have owned the car for almost a year. I didn't see this when i bought it, and it only got worse. Could this have been caused by an accident, or is this common on 240sx's in the northeast? It's near the suspension so I need to fix this before it gets worse. Looks like its still only surface rust. I'm thinking wirebrush attached to electric drill, what about you? What should I spray over once I'm done to stop it from spreading? The car drives very straight if I let go of the wheel, and before I bought it I spent a good 3 hours looking at the body and all seems are perfect, but theres the ding here or there and paint chips (got the price down 750 after pointing out every possible ding on the car, some he never knew existed)

Anyway, heres the rust:

[apzak]

the first picture was so you guys could understand what's around the rust so you know where it is. heres a closeup:

[apzak]

heres some cracking on the side, maybe i take the car too fast into turns? I'm guessing this is just caused by quick turns and lots of stress in this area plus the constant salt in the winter, constant rain in the summer, and me always washing the car. my next investment should probably be a sway bar to take strain off this area, right?

[apzak]

take a look at the gap on the left side of the radiator (slightly larger than the right side) is this normal, or an I driving a car that's been in an accident?

[apzak]

radiator right side.. hard to tell the difference but if you stick your fingers down there you can feel it.. do you guys have the same thing?

[apzak]

one of the dings I pointed out to the PO that lowered the price by 750.. any suggestions on fixing this maybe a touch up paint that works well? I know the best way to fix it is having a body shop repaint the bumper, but this is my daily driver and **** happens, I don't want to spend that much money and have some ****head in my school rear end me. but when I have my car cleaned and waxed this part realy stands out.

[apzak]

ahhhhhhhhh all the little things about my car that irritate me..

[apzak]

oh yea, the muffler. This is something that doesn't bother me as much, but it's still irritating. Went to mineake because the muffler was ringing so I knew I had to weld the screen, and at my uncles garage we couldnt get the weld to hold because he said the muffler is made of nickel and he doesnt have nickel for the welder. Anyway, I went to mineake and he said it wasn't sticking and the muffler could possibly be rotted. What do you guys think? Looks like his weld will hold forever, but I don't think a 2 second job was worth $30, should have been free.

[GEO]

Maybe you should take it to a mechanic and see what he thinks about teh rust.

[[Zero-S]]

Mechanic, or a dependable body shop.

[apzak]

crap it's getting worse. I took it nissan dealer and had the parts guy look at it (said he used to do body work). I have two options: fix it myself by sandblasting (I don't have a sandblaster so i'm using sand paper and doing it by hand.. this is very time consuming) or taking it to a body shop and have the replace what is bad but will be very expensive. Anyone know what kind of money I'll have to pay to replace 3-4 pieces of sheet metal? The sheet metal in that area would have to be replaced.

As I try to scrape some loose paint/rust with a chizzle I noticed some black carbon like stuff on the metal. (anyone know what this is?) It's difficult to remove but if you stab at it a while it turns into dust and the part its usually on is hollow. Whoever fixed this car from an accident looks to have done a very crappy job. I'll take pictures of the areas that have holes and maybe you guys can suggest what I could put there to cover them up. It's rusted because I think water is entering from the wheel well, and the silicon is sealing the water in there because under the silicon is rust. more pictures soon, let me know what you guys think. The best way would be to replace these couple of pieces of sheetmetal and pay 2000 just for labor. (I could get parts online, probably 1000 and these two prices are estimates based on what rust repair will cost for my old porsche) but i guess i'll see how long it would last if i used an inexpensive solution and hope maybe a drunk driver hits me on the passenger fender and has to pay to replace that stuff.

I think the body shop that did this went cheap and didnt replace any of the sheet metal (inner fender rail, whatever it's called) because in the areas of rust it looks a little bent and they probably tried bending it back)

[apzak]

heres a picture (this closeup of metal can be found in the first picture of rust as the stip of rust running along the shock tower box thing of metal. except this time I sanded down and removed the paint. it's silver and looks like the cars original metal. as you can see it's not perfectly straight and looks like they tried bending it back to it's original form. if they replaced all the sheet metal with new metal after the accident instead of straightening the oem and filling the parts they had to cut out (guessing the parts were shredded so they had to be cut off) with some mysterious (please see picture below) filler, i wouldnt be having this rust problem.

[apzak]

pic

[apzak]

this is the corner of the first picture. as you can see, the mystery body filler is what's rusting. I'm guessing this body filler is some sort of filler with metal in it. I was able to jab a hole in the filler with a chizzle. the rust that I can't remove is the filler. The OEM body panels don't really have rust on them, if they did I already removed it with sand paper (see final pic)

[apzak]

i circled the mystery body filler (its what's rusted that's difficult to remove)

let me know what this stuff is and if you have suggestions where i could buy it, or what I could use to fill the holes, or put over it. there was some white rubber like thing on top of it with paint over it. just let me know what i have to buy to spray ontop to contain this rust, and how important is this area to the structure of the car?

[evil_240]

Im sorry but I dont really see anything that is a big deal a little rust under the hood so what? that is nothing. As for the radiator is it leaking?? if not then you have no problems. What I would do for the rust under the hood is spray it good with rust arresting chemical that when sprayed will turn it into black rust which will not continue eating away at the metal so you dont have to worry about the rust spreading, as for the dings and whatnot take it to get repainted if it makes you happy. Get a new muffler or adapt another tip onto that one. Jeez 750$ for that car is a steal!!

[apzak]

haha 750.. i wish.. i took 750 off the asking price for the dings. (12500-750..11750 with 39k miles 1998 240sx with stick SE.. i guess its an ok deal, i dunno about it anymore now with the 1 replaced fender and this stuff on the inner fender) radiator is not a problem because it doesnt leak. I don't own that muffler anymore, sold it back to anthony and he says theres a hole in it now. I bought an apexi n1 from him and its good. What should I do about the holes? What could I put in the holes so water doesnt leak in? the guy at the nissan dealer said remove the rust, spray primer then some silicon, the flat black paint and clear coat over that. but he didnt know I had holes because it looked like the first picture untill i started taking the rust, and paint off.

I drove it for 20k miles and it's held up even when I've got up to 116mph the other day, (whats the speed limit on this thing i thought it was 115.. i let off at 116 because the highway had a blind spot with possible radar) nice and smooth... stupid but I had to see if my car was fine. I drive it hard alot so I originally thought this was from hard driving lol.. doubt thats possible no matter how hard you drive.

EDIT: oh yea this thread is kinda old.. look at the post dates.. i found out the car HAS been in an accident because the passenger fender is missing the "vin" tag so the fender was replaced

[UncleBen]

Holy crap, I have NEVER seen a 240 rust like that, not even older ones (at least ones that have been decently taken care of you know). That sucks about yours Trust me, I know how you feel about the little things that irritate you...

[hoffmantaj]

I ve got a 95 240 an rust is starting to getn to me too. You might want to check all around the shock towers..Also look at the seams on the sides underneath the door jams, I got a lot of rust there....Damn rust..

[gema]

Apzak, you are one THOROUGH dude. Props to you for taking so many pictures and offering explanations, and I really like the red circles. MSPaint style, all the way. As for the rust, I suggest taking it either to a reputable body shop for a free estimate if you want to get it fixed, or spraying an anti-rust agent on if you decide to simply leave it. Good luck!

[apzak]

I ve got a 95 240 an rust is starting to getn to me too. You might want to check all around the shock towers..Also look at the seams on the sides underneath the door jams, I got a lot of rust there....Damn rust..

my problem isn't that the cars rusting, it's the body shop that fixed the car after the crash did a crappy job.(and their work is rusting) the windsheild washer fluid box will leak if i fill it to the top, and under the injen intake (the fan shroud) is chewed up, i'm guessing the hood pushed down on it.. they didnt bother replacing that.. those are the only things i can think of that are damaged from the accident. and somethings missing a screw, i'll take a picture tomorrow.. and the little rubber cap that goes on top of the strut tower must have poped off during the accident, they didnt bother replacing it.