Rust again

[JamesO]

Well I finely got around to removing the load bearing gaffer tape that was covering up the two holes in my near side sill. The holes started as two small bubbles so I thought a patch would sort it out.
Long story short, the inner sills are much worse than the outer sills and well beyond my fabrication skills so I welded up the outer sill as a temp measure and used lots of waxoil.
The off side sill is looking bad too.

So my options are as follows:-

1. Pay to get it fixed properly and hope the rot won't return. (will cost about what the car is worth I suspect).

2. Re-shell. Find a car with a sick engine and good body, the series 1 944 I had was much less prone to rust and was lighter or maybe a 924 shell with a 2.7 would be fun.

3. Break it and replace with a less rotten 944.

4. Ignore it until it gets so bad it fails the mot. From the outside it looks ok.

I currently have more time than money so option 2 is looking like the best option.
I would rather take option 1 so will be looking around for some quotes.
Options 3+4 are not really my style.

 

[tr7v8]

Mine was bad, with very bad inner sills.
Think twice about bodging it the seat belt mounts to the inner sills!

Here are pics of mine: - http://www.pbase.com/tr7v8/porsche_repair_pics
These are not for those with a weak wallet or a nervous disposition

 

[JamesO]

Mine don't look as bad as that but without removing all the outer sills its hard to say.
Is it it a white car thing or is it just the colour shows the rust more?
I'm not into the bodge thing but the car is now much more solid than it would have been with a 10 inch long plate than if I hadn't investigated the two tiny bubbles on the sill.
If you don't mind me asking, what was the wallet damage like?

 

[tr7v8]

The total bill was 1,400 all but a few pounds. Including changing the wishbones new exhaust it was a 2K MOT []
My wife reminds me about it regularly[:'(]

PS Labour rate was 30 per hour so lower than a lot of specialists.

 

[JamesO]

£30 an hour? If anybody knows of a bodyshop with those sort of rates in the Reading/Berkshire area please let me know.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

ORIGINAL: JamesO

£30 an hour? If anybody knows of a bodyshop with those sort of rates in the Reading/Berkshire area please let me know.

Me too - if they're any good of course.

I've always been told that to do a proper job of both sills and the four wing bottoms, odd bits like number plate lights and things, and paint well including any other areas like PU and badge panel, at the usual south-east rates of about £50 per hour, is going to be the thick end of £2K.

Now, put that into the context of the OP. Car is probably worth less than that with the bodywork issues, but if it's the car you want and you're happy with the mechanicals, interior etc. then it's worth having it done well as it'll last another 20 years properly protected.

Option 2, assuming you're not paying labour rates I'd say you'd still have to buy a shell and it'll be likely to need at least some bodywork as well; they all do to some extent now.

Option 4, if it's that well into the inner sill then it will fail soon as it's where the seatbelt mounts to. You could bodge it pretty well, I've heard of a few £100 and you could then protect it yourself and get a good few years out of it. Anyone here had a cheap job done on MOT-failure rust? I seem to remember someone recently but I'm getting forgetful....[&o]

Option 3, sure you could replace it. The trouble is that you'll be struggling to find a rot-free one, yours isn't worth much and with any work needed on the new one you're in for more money on top of the price-to-change. I'd bet you'd end up at close to the £2K total we started with to restore your car properly!

I went for change. I wouldn't want to bodge it as, although not a concourse man, I want a reasonably smart car as my weekend toy. Once I'd started I'd have done a full respray as well, refurbed wheels etc. I worked out that it would cost me nearly £3K if I did it all to a high standard, so I decided to scratch the S2 itch instead. With what I get for my Lux the price to change will be about £3K. And, I still need to do one wing bottom, tidy up small areas like wheel arches, number plate lights and a couple of other spots, and that on a very clean car! []

 

[tr7v8]

Quite agree Paul, pretty much my thoughts hence getting it done.
Contentious line coming here but I hear of quite a few rusty S2s. More prone to rot? Or is it because the sills are covered & not so obvious?

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Contentious line coming here but I hear of quite a few rusty S2s. More prone to rot? Or is it because the sills are covered & not so obvious?

S2 and turbo have the black plastic trim along the sill and wing bottoms, this traps dirt and salt, so must make it worse. The front wings are far more prone to crusty bottoms than the Lux/S.

Incidently, has anyone removed the plastic trim permanantly? I don't have any preference when it comes to the look, it would remove a problem area. [8|]

 

[buchos]

Hi, my own sills look like they have been replaced a few years back (can only hope it was done right), but I noticed a small hole before the rear diffuser and on inspection I need to take a fair chunk out of my car to fix it....

Big goddamn hole

I cut quite a bit more away after this pic and have made a well shaped new piece to replace it all (including new seams to make it look original) .... it prompted me to strip the whole car out and thankfully its solid except for these two areas and the rear of the front arches where the plastic trip screws to.

 

[Alpine]

ORIGINAL: pauljmcnulty

Incidently, has anyone removed the plastic trim permanantly? I don't have any preference when it comes to the look, it would remove a problem area. [8|]

I'm not sure that the plastic trim in istelf causes much of a problem on the front wings of the S2. At the bottom of each wing is a horizontal ledge and it is here that the mud/water collects and then eventually rots through the wing from the rear. If the plastic trim were premanantly removed then it would be easier to keep this area clean, but it would be just as easy to remove the plastic trim every 6 months to clean out and re-waxoil. The trim is easy to remove with just 3 bolts and you can then get a hand behind the wing, but to do a proper job the wheel arch liner should be removed, which is a little more time consuming (perhaps 20 mins once you have done it before).

 

[JamesO]

Thanks for the replies,
I had heard 2k is about the going rate for both sills.
This might make a good doner shell:- http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=330331373354&Category=9860&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26its%3DI%26otn%3D1

 

[Neil Haughey]

ORIGINAL: tr7v8

Quite agree Paul, pretty much my thoughts hence getting it done.
Contentious line coming here but I hear of quite a few rusty S2s. More prone to rot? Or is it because the sills are covered & not so obvious?

Well the donor car for my S2 race car was a 2.7. The shell looked great but after the dip no sills left (had an odd repair done in the past that looked good but was daft) and a few other small areas of rust. Kevin Eacock (EMC) has put a lot of series 2 shells through the dip and it seems that these days finding a series 2 car that is rust free in these areas will be a very hard task, unless of course you can find a low miles garage queen that hasn't been driven through the winters and was stored in a dry/heated garage. TBH after the race car shell and seeing its construction I accept the point that a cars body shell is a wear and tear item like any other component. I have some surface rust in those areas on my 968 and I know for sure that in a few years time 968's will be going through the same thing as S2's. Body work renovation may be expensive but its something that you only need to do once in a generation so I personally don't worry about it too much and accept the costs, by then the 968 will probably morph into a race car anyway. Another thing to bear in mind is that if the renovations are all sprayed with zinc etch primer the new panels will probably last better then from the factory. Porsche where quite poor in many areas, they covered the underside and front bulkhead arch area with tonnes of stuff but left many surfaces inside the car pretty bare. ISTR reading that out of all the possible anti rust treatments the most effective is actually etch primer followed by paint (not surprising when you think about it).