Appearance, Paint & Body Work
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By Civic Savior
#346033 So I love my car to death....but this rust is pretty extensive...the fender wells are destroyed...notice the bondo and fiberglass hanging out everywhere...and there are 2 large holes in front of the rear wheels...is it worth it?? I would have to do it myself...and I have no experience with welding...any opinions??

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By Coraline
#346037 If you love the car don't give it up! unfortunately it's not an easy fix for someone without welding experience. ( edit: the body work is trickky too) You would probably have to take the car off the road. For the record though it doesn't look that bad I own worse.;)
Only you can make the call though.
Read Teal's Quarter Panel Repair in the DIY section! It requires the use of some unique tools not everyone has, and can be alot to take in at first depending on how mechanically inclined you are.

also on a side note how do you make the pictures display in a post? I'm fairly new to posting. I know how to post a link i just cant get a preview to show up! thanks
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By teal_dx
#346048 That can be repaired but it's going to be a lot of work. The thing that worries me is that there is bondo/fiberglass that someone used to cover up rust. So it could be a lot worse behind it all and you won't know for sure until it is all removed.
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By Civic Savior
#346056 im in the process of removing all the bondo/fiberglass now. I will post more pics when I get through it all...I think I might go for home plate on this and try and repair it...I cant part with the car..
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By TrailerTrash
#346059 i dealt with rust repair last year. it was my first time and it was very difficult. i had never welded sheetmetal before and i didnt have the right tools for the job.

the parts to repair the car only cost me about 200 bucks. replacement body panels, bondo to smooth it out, paint, and sealer.

but the tools to get the job done cost be about 1200. large air compressor to power cutting tools, used mig welder, welding gas tank, and various other tools.

im not saying u cant to it with a little dinky compressor and a fluxcore welder but it would make it even more of a pain in the ass i started with that stuff but there was no way i was dicking around with those things the whole time


thats alot of rust to replace and like said above you are going to run into even more under the bondo and fiberglass. your wheel wells look like my driver side did and once i cut out the outer panel the whole inner edge was gone aswell i had to make a new one it sucked.

i dont want to rain on your parade or discourage you but that is some serious rust and u gotta make a call if the car is worth it or not. im not just talking about value to you im talking about how much money and time it would cost you vs how much it would cost to find a better nicer car. you can strip your car take all the good parts u want part the rest out then scrap the remaining parts and maybe make out pretty good.

heres my thread with some pics check out teals too he has alot more pics in his
pages 23 and 24 on mine
http://civic-eg.com/viewtopic.php?t=220 ... &start=330
http://civic-eg.com/viewtopic.php?t=220 ... &start=345

Teal's whole thread has some great stuff
http://civic-eg.com/viewtopic.php?t=24
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By Civic Savior
#346060 thanks for the input guys. I have read through teals write up and it seems like a very big job. My uncle welds so I think I am going to take it over to him and get his opinion as well. maybe its a better idea to get another car as a better starting point and just scrap this one... :cry: :cry: :cry:
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By teal_dx
#346062 If you can find a clean car and transfer the parts over, that will be much easier than fixing the rust properly. The rust is always worse on the inside compared to what you can see on the outside.
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By Civic Savior
#346071 in the process of doing some more sanding on the rear drivers side...will let you guys know what it looks like..
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By Civic Savior
#346215 Got some more sanding done. Removed about 2 lbs of bondo so far and roughly 4 sq ft of fiberglass...its way worse than I thought...

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By CopyLifted
#346217 Yikes! That does look pretty bad. Where did this car come from?

My brother does body and paint on the side. He'd know if it was worth fixing or not. He used to be the head painter at Messenger's Auto body in Roseburg, but now works at Double R powder coating. The problem though is he is a busy busy guy. I need to replace the core support in my '98 and he told me he would have offered to do it, but he's just been so busy. So, i don't know.

If you are serious about fixing it I could ask him if he wants to take on a side job. If he does we could arrange for him to take a look at it and let you know what needs to be done and how much he'll charge. Let me know.

Also, when the hell are we going to meet? lol. I'd like to check it out actually.
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By Civic Savior
#346218 I would love to fix it!! I have always wanted this car and now that I have it I cant let it go...if the price is right I would like to have new quarters welded in and my core support fixed as well. What days do you have off usually?
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By CopyLifted
#346224
Civic Savior wrote:I would love to fix it!! I have always wanted this car and now that I have it I cant let it go...if the price is right I would like to have new quarters welded in and my core support fixed as well. What days do you have off usually?


Saturday and Sunday's. I work M-F 5am-1:30pm. I had today off too, but it was a cleaning/lazy day around the house.

Edit: I'm not trying to discourage you or anything but just from the pics, it would probably be cheaper to find a better shell to be honest. There is a lot of work there. Once the quarters are cut, there is usually some nasty hidden surprises behind it. Rust sucks!

I knew where there was a hatch shell for $600. not sure if it's still available though.
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By teal_dx
#346228 The outer sheet metal being rusty doesn't bother me much. There are replacement panels for about $40 each side that will replace all of that. It's the rust in the bottom front corner of the wheel wells and under the rocker panels that is worse than average.

There are no pre-made panels available for those areas so you would have to fab your own patch panels. The only plus to repairing those areas is they don't have to look perfect because they're mostly out of sight and you would spray them with undercoating when they're all done. Just remember, when there's a rust hole, there's a larger area around the hole that is also rusty and just hasn't eaten through the metal yet. You'll need to cut and replace all of the metal with rust to do the job right the first time. :thumb:
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By Civic Savior
#346238 Hey Teal fixmyrust.com makes the rocker panels you had to fabricate now. That could come in handy!!