Save or not to save?

[spud_edwards]

Hi all, I'm after some advice,

do I save my mk1?

All the lower suspension mountings are heavily corroded (got a dangerous on the MOT) and I cant weld,

The rear brakes need discs and pads

at somepoint the o/s rear corner has had a knock, this is a picture or the corrosion I pulled off by hand, I havn't even started with a grinder!



Do I need a new quarter, or can I get away with patching on Nissan cherry arches?(bearing in mind I have no experience with bodywork)



This part ( not sure what it's called , the grill type thing behind the exhaust)is also damaged and I cant work out how to replace it?

I 'll be gutted if I have to scrap her. The engine is sound (service manual has 13 main dealer stamps), electrics and interior are all good. There are far to many Mk1s being sold off for spares.

The good thing is she's a spare car, sat in my garage, not in the way, so I have no time limit in which to do the work, but where do I start?

Your advice would be massively appreciated

SPUD

[spudgun]

Jeez, spud, I don't know what to say.

If I were in your shoes I would scrap it. I know that sounds harsh, but in my experience what you can see is just the tip of the iceberg and by looking at those photos there's a fair bit to see.

It's going to cost a lot of money to put that right. The panel costs are going to be expensive and then there's the paintwork as well.

I'm no expert but can weld to a fair standard and I wouldn't really know where to start with some of that.

Best thing you could do is just watch the market for a while to see what's available. As harsh as it may sound, it doesn't pay to get to sentimental about a car.

I hope some of that was useful.

[Sharpfish]

Must be the day for Dark Blue MR2s needing welding advice! (see my post)

spudgun > my rear arch that needs doing is similar to that (with it all ground off though)... and I have that more important underneath structural stuff and the majority of the advice in that post (inc from you!) was to try and save the car, which bit in particular is making you think he should scrap it? (suspension mounts I assume)

spud_edwards > "Lower suspension mountings", you mean where the arms bolt on with the bushings? Sub frame stuff? Does sound quite bad but is it proper rusted (rotten) or just corroded/saveable?

And what is your underbody like along the sills and at the front corners of the floor (just behind and under the front angle of the side skirt?) Mine has gone both sides here and i've been thinking about learning to weld and sort it out... if your's is ok there then you are already ahead of me.

It's a shame cos the rest of my car is almost spotless, in fact if you just look at it from the front or the drivers side it looks very posh 'n' tidy (though i'm a stickler for keeping my paint clean).

As for pads/brakes they are a non issue and routine fixes. The only thing I have let beat me so far on the mr2 is the damn rust which is why I still working out whether to spend more on it or dismantle it. And I've done loads on my car myself fairly easily (sc engine swap, lowered suspension, cam belt, new oil pump etc)... all these kinds of things are easier because you just buy a new part and fit it (even if fiddly as was the oil pump being behind the cam belt and crank!) but when it comes to body work (esp structural) I (and I assume most people) just never know how far it will keep spreading and if they can truly stop it without a full strip down restoration (expensive and stressfull).

I mean if you have the cash you can just pay someone to sort that cosmetic stuff out (the arch) but you could do with more information on the structural/suspension mounts and find out if it's repairable before making any big decisions.

[SuperRedMR2]

Hey,

My MK1a failed its mot on the rear suspension mountings, and i too got a dangerous note on the mot sheet. Welding doesnt cost that much, if you look around.

There are wheel arch replacement panels on ebay atm. I cant remember what side they are on though.

If its a spares car, i wudnt get rid of it. If you have no time limit, and its not in the way, you can start learning how to do bodywork repairs

[010on1986]

If its a spares car I'd leave it to support the maintainence of what is not the spare car. I guess if its the spare car then its not better than the other?

Makes me wanna put another 15 litres of waxoyl in me sc.

Rust gives me the fear I'd save one, but not two!

Pays to know what lurks beneath...



as for suspension mounts, if people fabricate engine mounts and hang different engines in the mr2 bay using metal and a mig, then the same goes for suspension mounts................ fabricate and weld in. Its case of having the time and tools a place to work from and being bothered.

[spud_edwards]

Thanks for the advice guys, when I said she's a spare car, my main car is a van which I use for work. BTW how do you remove the rear quarter panel?

[Sharpfish]

yeah, your spare car as in not the daily driver. not a "spare mr2" as in you have 2 mr2's. that's how I read it anyway.

Removing the whole of the rear quarter is a cutting out job, it doesn't bolt on (the times I've wished Toyota had just bolted it on instead of welding an entire panel onto the car)... would probably have been ok too if it wasn't for those pesky sponge bits they stick in between the inner/outer wheel arch lips.

[spudgun]

To be fair sharpfish, I did wonder if you had any pictures about and if I had seen the extent of rot on yours I might have seen things differently.
The big difference between the two though is yours is a supercharger and, as far as I know, this one isn't. Therefore second-hand prices are going to be quite different.
You did state in your post that from some angles your car looks great, so it does seem the rust is quite localised.
Neither are beyond repair if you set your heart on it though.

[Lauren]

The big difference between the two though is yours is a supercharger and, as far as I know, this one isn't. Therefore second-hand prices are going to be quite different.

Paul's is a conversion though, so its not going to have the resale of a JDM SC.

[spudgun]

The big difference between the two though is yours is a supercharger and, as far as I know, this one isn't. Therefore second-hand prices are going to be quite different.

Paul's is a conversion though, so its not going to have the resale of a JDM SC.

That does put a slightly different slant on it, Lauren. I didn't spot that first time around. Sorry about that.

Doesn't change a great deal though. If you want to save your car you will I guess. The only thing this does bring to light though is if you do have rust present, hit it early and hit hard. Take no prisoners.

[russthedude]

firstly, the bit at the back can be wirebrushed and hav some rust killer applied probably, and then rebuild using some fibreglass, mesh, filler etc. I have, but mine wasn't quite as bad as taht, but if it was I would have done the same.

secondly, if you go for the cherry panels, they come with quite a lot of excess metal above so you've got a good 4 inches at least from the point where the arch sticks out. that make sense? only problem I can foresee with arch is that the inner arch may be guffed. however all is not lost - as it's not on display, if it is corroded badly, you can weld in some metal to get shape back, and then waxoil it up or whatever. it looks like the lower bit has been done like on mine, so you can just snip taht bit off the cherry arch and leave the exsisting metal there if its ok, it gets covered by side skirt anyway.

did you have a look at my pics? I've never done bodywork until a few weeks ago, and until last weekend all I had done was fill a few holes after blitzing the rust away. get stuck in i say, patch it up but don't spend silly money. use it as a practise for your welding etc, a bit of a learning curve thing.

£30 for cherry arches delivered, £30 on decent fibreglass, filler, sand paper, primer, wire brush, rust killah etc and that would do both arches as well as plenty of other bits around the car.

I bought my car knowing it needed bodywork doing, even though i'd never done it before and so far I'm getting on ok I think, which, if you knew how impatient i am, you'd say was a miracle lol

best advice iw just to make sure taht whatever work you do, make sure the metal you cover up is shiny then protected, don't just paint over rusty bits, no matter how small it is, it'll come back and bite you on the butt.

now, big brother's big mouth is on, must dash...

[SuperRedMR2]

Yes, look at russ's thread.

Rivets not my thing, but he has done a kick ar$e job of his arch!

[HT]

Hi all, I'm after some advice,

do I save my mk1?

All the lower suspension mountings are heavily corroded (got a dangerous on the MOT) and I cant weld,

The rear brakes need discs and pads

at somepoint the o/s rear corner has had a knock, this is a picture or the corrosion I pulled off by hand, I havn't even started with a grinder!



Do I need a new quarter, or can I get away with patching on Nissan cherry arches?(bearing in mind I have no experience with bodywork)



This part ( not sure what it's called , the grill type thing behind the exhaust)is also damaged and I cant work out how to replace it?

I 'll be gutted if I have to scrap her. The engine is sound (service manual has 13 main dealer stamps), electrics and interior are all good. There are far to many Mk1s being sold off for spares.

The good thing is she's a spare car, sat in my garage, not in the way, so I have no time limit in which to do the work, but where do I start?

Your advice would be massively appreciated

SPUD

Taking a look at the photos I'd say no. My first mk1 I bought 5 years ago was worse than the rot on display (it had no inner or outer rear arches/or end part of sills!). Yes it can be fixed, but theres a fair amount of fabrication work invovled in the the inner particulary the bottom part of the inner forward of the rear wheel. For example you can see where filler still exists on the outer egde and yet higher up in the middle of the panel below the side vent holes exist.

Unless it means a lot to you complete rear quarter panel would be uneconomical and the rear valance panel is now unavailble (secondhand ones of any use very hard to find, but you could cut it away and fabricate one out of sheet steel if needs be). JDG panels or Cherry repair panels (no experience of these myself), are the next best thing if you do intend to restore (note I said restore not bodge, I'm neutral about this; if it keeps it on the road a bit longer then great!).

As for the inner arch I think elsewhere on a similar thread crazylegs mentioned he used jdg arch repair panels cut down to form the inner edge - see no reason why you couldn't do the same with the cherry panels so long as you modified them to match the radius of the mk1 arch first before cutting them down. Befoer you make any decision definately worth getting it on some ramps and having a good look underneath. HTH

[russthedude]

here is a little map of the areas I did things to and would do one yours from what I can see of the pic. not to scale though lol

Red = chop it off
green = new cherry panel (I cut mine into 3 to get a better fit, and also trimmed the joining edges Ihad just made so they didn't overlap, then filled gaps with filler. I just guessed where to cut and luckily i got it right.)
brown = filler
blue = rivets

also, i chopped off excess metal on the new arch that i didn't need because they're quite big, but it goes without saying - MEASURE TWICE CUT ONCE, FOR EVERY CUT. No mistakes then. If you do mess up teh new panel, they're cheap enough anyway, that's what i thought anyhoo

[spud_edwards]

Thanks guys, I'm gonna cut away the rust, and see what the inner arch is like, I'll keep you posted. SPUD

[HT]

^^^ Yep - definately worth further investigation before any decisions.

[010on1986]

maybe examine the front end too, floor pan a post antiroll bar mounts etc.