Since I'm waiting for megasquirt to arrive and be tested, I've decided to get my car through inspection and emissions, and, while I'm at it, take care of the rust. Now, I have identified the following rust areas (there are more, but those are mostly surface rust spots):
- Rear bottom, right after the door, left and right - this started rusting from the outside, I believe. I have bubbles on one side, and a (ugh) hole that I managed to punch through, on the other side. Naturally, this doesn't make me happy.
- Rear struts, and, to a much lesser extent, front ones - those have pretty bad rust on them and will get replaced in the near future with something nice and expensive
- Seam between the driver-side strut tower and the firewall - this is getting what looks like pretty bad rust, about 3 inches long, but I didn't check it for depth yet. I plan on getting it re-welded unless it turns out to be surface rust.
- Drums and calipers - corrosion on those is worse than normal, and I'll need to do something about that, too.
- Seam along the edge where floor pan meets the side - this is rusted, as usual, a lot better than I expected though.
- Thingies that are supposed to hold the safety belt when the door is closed - those are a total, completely rusted through
- There's some rust around the engine bay, mostly minor clamps and what not... Exhaust pipe is new, battarey tray is... perfect (????!!!!). So is the tire well - rust free. I'm hearing weird squeaks out of passenger side front wheel well, I suspect some serious rust over there, so the panels are coming off this weekend.
I got a pint of POR15, some polyester resin, fiberglass and a 2-sq-ft bottle of marine urethane foam coming in the mail. I plan on cutting out the rust in the rear, fixing the second layer of steel if it has any holes in it, then foaming up the whole thing, sanding to 2-3mm below body line, POR15, fiberglass, bondo, some spray can primer or something of that sort to keep the bondo covered till summer.
I'll go ahead and take some pictures, and do a better assessment this weekend when plastic trim, interior seats and carpet, and body panels will come off. Hopefully I'll get it all killed, and make a little B13 rust-fighting guide while I'm at it
Any tips on where to look for the whatever rust I might have missed?
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93 Sentra XE 5spd, running well... 82 924 Turbo under construction... 82 Suzuki GS650G, under construction... 76 Firebird Formula 5.7, waiting for the next summer.
Sorry it took me so much time to take pictures - really hard to remember to spend a half an hour looking for the camera, with all the things going on lately.
I punched some more holes. It looks like the second layer of steel is intact, so this is gonna be a mostly cosmetic repair (in the back, at least). For some reason, I couldn't get a good picture of strut tower rust, but this looks like a case of deep rust, so I'll get it welded.
Here's the rust on the left side:
And the right side:
I also have these gaping holes on the bottom - should they be like this, or should there be a plug there?
Here's the goode ole Ga16DE:
And the whole car You can see the paint faded from years of being up north.
What's your opinion, POR15/weld/glass/tar or drive through the winter and make a one-way trip to the boneyard? IMO this is salvageable, and not that bad at all, but people more experienced with rust might favor a different solution...
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93 Sentra XE 5spd, running well... 82 924 Turbo under construction... 82 Suzuki GS650G, under construction... 76 Firebird Formula 5.7, waiting for the next summer.
whatever you do, just make sure you get all the rust away and then put some epoxy primer on the metal prior to fiberglass, bondo or whatever you're using. Unless you're welding, then you'll need to primer whatever you're going to weld with a zink primer.
Unless you're welding, then you'll need to primer whatever you're going to weld with a zink primer.
Hm, I didn't know that... What's a zink primer? I'm gonna be welding up my strut tower, before now I thought drilling/sanding it clean, welding a piece of metal over the strut tower, and covering it with POR-15 would be enough... Is there more to it than that?...
Also, where would one get good old tar, preferrably in brusheable form?... I need a load of that, I don't want to repeat this rust-fighting experience too often
Also, does anyone make plastic fuel tanks for B13?..
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93 Sentra XE 5spd, running well... 82 924 Turbo under construction... 82 Suzuki GS650G, under construction... 76 Firebird Formula 5.7, waiting for the next summer.
I'd like to recommend using Linseed Oil AKA Flax Oil to inhibit rust. Get an old paint gun and paint it on your undercarriage and anything else you don't want to rust. Linseed oil is not a petrolum base and won't rot your rubber lines and seals. Dosn't seem to eat paint either. You'll need dish soap to get it off your glass and painted surfaces if you don't like it on there.
We have a '95 Dodge Ram and all the other ones i've seen are rusted and nasty. There isn't a spot on ours except for a rusted brake line where it runs behind the gas tank and the sprayer could't reach. We used a wagner powerpainter for a long time to apply but have recently swiched to the paint gun.
I'd like to recommend using Linseed Oil AKA Flax Oil to inhibit rust. Get an old paint gun and paint it on your undercarriage and anything else you don't want to rust. Linseed oil is not a petrolum base and won't rot your rubber lines and seals. Dosn't seem to eat paint either. You'll need dish soap to get it off your glass and painted surfaces if you don't like it on there.
Do you spray it every once in a while, or just a single time? I'm lazy, that's why I'm getting POR15 and all the other expensive stuff. I want to do it once and be done with it for the next few years
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93 Sentra XE 5spd, running well... 82 924 Turbo under construction... 82 Suzuki GS650G, under construction... 76 Firebird Formula 5.7, waiting for the next summer.
We blast the beaters every other year and the nice ones once a year in the fall. It takes like 15 minutes between setup and drive off. I don't know how much the oil is because we've got a 5 gallon can from an auction. I use about a full 1 quart sprayer on a car and 1 1/2 -2 on a truck. Drive it up on ramps or over a ditch where you can get at the undercarriage. Wear are dust mask because you'll hack up oil for awhile.
We blast the beaters every other year and the nice ones once a year in the fall. It takes like 15 minutes between setup and drive off. I don't know how much the oil is because we've got a 5 gallon can from an auction. I use about a full 1 quart sprayer on a car and 1 1/2 -2 on a truck. Drive it up on ramps or over a ditch where you can get at the undercarriage. Wear are dust mask because you'll hack up oil for awhile.
Okay, sounds good! I'm still gonna use some POR to paint what's rusted already, but I'll prolly skip the re-tarring, and I'll just cover the bottom with linseed oil every fall.
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93 Sentra XE 5spd, running well... 82 924 Turbo under construction... 82 Suzuki GS650G, under construction... 76 Firebird Formula 5.7, waiting for the next summer.
Cheap and easy. U R smart to fix whatever rust you can. Once that oil sets up on rusted surfaces its a real pain to remove.
I have used a variety of rust converters with varying degrees of sucess. The last one i used was from autozone and cost 6 bucks for 6ozs. That 6oz bottle did 3 partial GM rocker pannels, 1 midsize truck frame rails(both sides), 6 antique metal chairs, 1 wheelbarow (partial coverage) and the seat tracks from the dodge. Seems to have held up better than the spray on kind (one-step brand) but the winter salt will tell the story.
Let me know if you like the POR. I'm always buying/fixing/selling some POS car that needs attention.
Cheap and easy. U R smart to fix whatever rust you can. Once that oil sets up on rusted surfaces its a real pain to remove. 
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