Rust issues/ And repairs :)

[Chaingun]

Updates for this week, the entire driver side is cleaned up, after sitting for a week, i've gone over the very few, and very small spots of rust that poked back through the rust treatment. They should stay gone this time and i can then cover the wheel well with Rhinoliner pics of the work from today, hoping to have the patches i have made welded in by the end of the day tomorrow.

templates for the driverside and spare tire well

first patch is fully welded in the 2nd is just tacked to finish shaping before it's finished

 

[Backlash2032]

Just a tip. You can't just buy Rhinoliner, it only comes with the spray job..

And any spray on bed liner wont be the consistency you want for undercoating. With my restoration I seam sealed after POR-15, then sprayed on a couple coats of wal-mart bed liner, and decided that wasn't what i wanted, then got wal-mart brand rubberized undercoating and it was basically the exact same stuff.. Finally went to napa and spent 9 dollars on a can of their undercoating, and after tons and tons and tons of shaking, finally got the rubber to shoot out, and it shot out THICK. Get a couple cans of the Napa stuff and start shakin.

 

[Chaingun]

i'm using a roll on coating very similar to rhinoliner lol, the spray is just too thin i want this job to never have to be redone\

the car has also officially been named, it is now the millenium falcon, because it's more replacement parts than original, and i plan on making it the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.


.... still working on the .5 past lightspeed but i'll get there

 

[Grandavi]

You know what would really be nice.. if someone could make a patch panel and new wheelwell for the MKIII. I dont think there ever were patch panels.. but that lip on the edge of the rear wheelwell is a pain to get straight as it has a curve that runs into a curve along with about that 1/2" lip. Unfortunately I doubt there would be enough of market to make it doable...

Good work so far, your rust was a bit more extensive than mine was.

 

[Chaingun]

Thanks, i searched far and wide for patches but found nothing, so i decided to bite the bullet and make my own, I've got a 1/2 inch wide strip set to be welded in on the edge of the wheel well once the other panels are in. Keep in mind i'm not going for a 100% reproduction, that would be next to impossible for me, but i will get the outer edge looking as stock as possible for the body shop to finish up. They originally quoted me 800 to do both wheel wells, then i took him picutres of what i had to cut out and he was like yeaaaahhhh that would have been a bit more.

 

[Grandavi]

800??
thats cheap.. it cost me 3400.00 for both quarters/wheel wells and a few other spots. The rust started climbing back on the front of the quarter panel lip (that is under the trim). Just about to soak about another 9000.00 into the body. I have no welding skills, no paint skills.. no body skills (period).. so... with the body kit and body work (removing all trim and glass, etc.. because I do not want masking marks anywhere), its an expensive task. Going to also remove the complete interior (have to remove the front anyway for the heater core replacement) and make sure I have nothing that I can reach for rust to remove.

The underbody on mine is pretty clean, however, that will have to be looked at a lot closer later on, and then reundercoated.

I sooooo envy you guys with body and welding skills.

 

[Backlash2032]

Re-creating the fender edge was the simplest part of my rust repair..

The first time i tried it I would just sand the top with 240 grit with a sponge behind it, (So you dont leave pressure points with your fingers) and then sand the bottom slightly to create a lip.. That didnt go so well and it wasn't nearly as sharp of an edge as i wanted.

So I looked up how to create body lines and it was super, super simple. What i did was I would put some bondo on, sand it down to ROUGHLY the same shape, leaving it thick, then put small strips of masking tape down so the edge was where the edge should be on the fender lip, then sand above the masking tape. After you get the top done and smooth, move the tape to the top of the fender lip, and sand the bottom.

If you're doing this for a full out show car, then i would do the entire fender lip this way, as it doesn't create *quite* as sharp of an edge as factory, but I can barely tell where the body work starts. Sometimes in just the right light i can, but usually I cant.

Hope that makes sense to ya..

 

[Chaingun]

Ya i've seen a similar process done before, so i can start it that way, i'm actually going to use fiberglass to fill in the body molding and let the my local body shop do the final work, i want my car to be nice when it's finished, but i have no allusions that it will ever be a show car. Even with the rust that was on it it still turned heads and ran circles around the fwd honda/stealth community thats good enough for me.

 

[Dan_Gyoba]

Got a look under my car. there's some rather problematic spots.

The wheel wells are long gone. The quarters are in pretty bad shape too. realistically, I should be looking at replacing the whole body, but I'll probably end up doing way too much work on it instead.

 

[adampecush]

You know what would really be nice.. if someone could make a patch panel and new wheelwell for the MKIII. I dont think there ever were patch panels.. but that lip on the edge of the rear wheelwell is a pain to get straight as it has a curve that runs into a curve along with about that 1/2" lip. Unfortunately I doubt there would be enough of market to make it doable...

Good work so far, your rust was a bit more extensive than mine was.

You can always pay somebody in the southern states to cut you out the pieces you need. While I was able to source the fender wells from toyota ($100 each IIRC) a few years back, I had a member who parted out cars cut me off two complete rear quarters. I could have had just the areas around the wheel wells, but I figured having more is better.

Dan: keep your eyes open for part outs around here. My car had minor rust and in the end, was still not worth it to save (even though I'm happy i did)

 

[SupraClaou]

You paid $200 for them to slap some bondo on the rust and paint it with rattle can silver? Man...

That shit will be rusted through 3 times as bad by this time next year.

Do it right, or don't do it at all. Doing it right involves a welder, sheetmetal, and either skill, or lots of money.

All the above took place at the body shop... (09:00 till 20:00). Cuting,sheetmetal,welding,sanding,coating,painting,etc.
It cost me $200 cause the job was done in one day! And I had a very small area of rust...

 

[Grandavi]

In regards to the comment earlier on "car wasn't worth it to fix.. but in the end I was glad I did"...

I hope nobody has any illusions that the MKIII will someday actually be worth fixing.. lol. : )

I plan on putting slightly more than 30,000 into the car.. in the end.. if its worth 10,000, Im very lucky.

 

[Chaingun]

The true value of a Mk3 isn't in the resale value, my car is an extension of me, and i'm going to work my ass of on it to make it exactly what i want. some people paint, some make music, me... I weld.

 

[adampecush]

In regards to the comment earlier on "car wasn't worth it to fix.. but in the end I was glad I did"...

To clarify that statement, in retrospect, it would have been far cheaper to start with a rust-free car from the southern states. Far, far cheaper

 

[Grandavi]

To clarify that statement, in retrospect, it would have been far cheaper to start with a rust-free car from the southern states. Far, far cheaper

Yes.. and no. I am near you.. and generally.. if you can find one that is a clean body, and trust it is.. then yes. It is cheaper. However.. there are other things that can be wrong with the vehicle that you have to gamble on. I have only seen two MKIII's brought up from the states that I would "consider" and only one that I would have bought. There are 5 that I have looked at that just because they came from Arizona or FL or SoCal.. were advertised as "rust free" but weren't even close. Exterior.. yes.. but look behind the trim or reach in for the quarter panel seams.. and.. nope.. shot to hell.

The reason I am soaking the money in the shell I have is because I am frustrated. Every "pristine" car I go see (with the exception of 3) is not one I would buy. In the end.. I will know my car bumper to bumper.. know where the "uglies" are and know where the good parts are. 30,000.00 is cheap. (or slightly more). In the end.. thats about where I will be at.. but as I have said before.. if I buy a 30,000 car today, by the time I reach the "end-point" with my MKIII.. the value will be the same except I will have a car not many have. And.. one I happen to love.

 

[Backlash2032]

Plus if you can do all the work your self and don't send the car to a shop, then buying a rusty car would most likely be cheaper.. Not only in the price of the car but the fact that you have to pay to go down to those southern states and pay to get the car back..

And like Grandavi said, you will know your car from bumper to bumper. Plus you get the satisfaction of saving a MK3 from the junkyard.

 

[SupraClaou]

Yes.. and no. I am near you.. and generally.. if you can find one that is a clean body, and trust it is.. then yes. It is cheaper. However.. there are other things that can be wrong with the vehicle that you have to gamble on. I have only seen two MKIII's brought up from the states that I would "consider" and only one that I would have bought. There are 5 that I have looked at that just because they came from Arizona or FL or SoCal.. were advertised as "rust free" but weren't even close. Exterior.. yes.. but look behind the trim or reach in for the quarter panel seams.. and.. nope.. shot to hell.

The reason I am soaking the money in the shell I have is because I am frustrated. Every "pristine" car I go see (with the exception of 3) is not one I would buy. In the end.. I will know my car bumper to bumper.. know where the "uglies" are and know where the good parts are. 30,000.00 is cheap. (or slightly more). In the end.. thats about where I will be at.. but as I have said before.. if I buy a 30,000 car today, by the time I reach the "end-point" with my MKIII.. the value will be the same except I will have a car not many have. And.. one I happen to love.

Correct my friend! And just to make you feel better.. I have thrown into my mk3 Supra more than $80.000 USD (60.000 euros).
I took it yesterday for a ride (had some issues with my fuel system and took me 2 weeks to solve the problem) and I can tell
you it worth every penny. Car is running better than ever..I was scarring people with some big flames and big 'booms' from my exhaust!
Porsches 997 , Mercedes SL , M3 E92, Jags, came by me while I was cruising on the highway at 45mp/h (70km/h) and were looking with their
mouth opened! You got to love a high level built Supra!

 

[Chaingun]

as far as the cost of my body work here's a short list i may have forgotten something but if i did it was cheap
Metal 20 gauge 4'x8' (used about 1/3rd of it so far) $10
.030" wire for welder $16
300 lbs of sand for sand blaster $20
Seam sealer $25 including caulking gun
Bondo glass for finish work $16
rust reformer/primer $18
Hurculiner $11- for final rust coating
Cut of wheels for both 3 inch and 4 inch $10

All in all less than $150 for the materials for the driver side, most of which will last for the passenger side as well. Also i have decided that my bumper support is beyond repair, and there for will need to be replaced. I have chosen to do this with to channels made of 12 gauge steel, welded to a 3rd channel of the same thickness to emulate the strength and shape of the original bumper support while doing away with the stupid loops that stick out past the bumper as well as making it much easier to clean and ensure that there is no rust forming later on will post my original specs, and any changes to them after it's built incase anyone is interested in building a lighter stronger bumper support for their car.

 

[Turbo Habanero]

I live in AZ and i too have rust issues your not safe anywhere..

 

[Typhoon]

Just a quick word on resale values. I'm 40 years old and I've seen so many years and models of cars go from being everywhere and worth nothing, to rare, hard to find and worth half decent money in 10 years its scary.
As long as people keep hacking them to bits, sending them to the crushers and parting them out, the numbers of them keep dwindling until they're all of a sudden hard to find. THEN they'll be worth a lot more than they are now.
The Mk2 Supra is already climbing in value here in Australia, Mk3's will surely follow.
So stop junking perfectly good cars, if you don't want it, sell it on to someone who does.
So, to say it's not worth fixing, well, maybe not now, but give it 5-10 years and that not worth fixing car sill most definitely be worth fixing.