I guess I'm parting out soon. This is frustrating

[4Aaron GE]

So I pulled part of my interior in preparation to get a bit of rust work done. As it turns out, the holes that I found ended up being a lot bigger than I thought. My mechanic says that the money I will end up spending to patch them up will cost about as much as finding a new chassis to swap stuff into. I'm very displeased about this.

[Twitch6284]

damn that sucks man!! Surely patching would be cheaper than a new shell though???

[mikei]

i think you need a new mechanic or invest in a mig welder, it sounds very strange if your in japan with unsalted roads and your beat is suffering with worse rust than we get over here. i know the shaken is more stringent than our mot but surely it can be repaired. do you have pictures of the rust ??

[4Aaron GE]

Sadly, the cost of patching up the shell is going to be comparable with getting a clean (complete) shell. Especially by the time I scrub off all the other surface rust, and then repaint. Seriously, there's a Version Z a couple hours away for roughly the same price that's looking mighty tempting. I can then recoup some costs by selling the useful bits I'm not going to keep to you guys and on Yahoo.

Here are pictures of the worst of it. I also discovered some rust holes on the INSIDE of the sill, by the main body harness, and there's some more damage underneath where it looks like the previous owner managed to go offroad with it.

http://i.imgur.com/oPLAErN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/9hS8Nya.jpg

On the driver's side, it actually extends farther than that. The passenger side has another patch that's starting as well. There's a lot of previous owner neglect that has led to this, it would seem. Given the condition of the original cluster, I imagine that the inside has seen some rain.

Now, if I were back home in Canada, this would be a case of get a truck door from the junkyard, get some pizza and beer, and call up the boys. Sadly, living in Japan doesn't really lend itself to me having much space to work on the car. I'm not only at the mercy of the weather, but where I park doesn't really have access to electricity, much less a 220v socket to properly run a welder. Also, the lady that lives next door to us already hates that there are foreigners living here, and would have an aneurysm if she saw me panelbeating and welding stuff.



So let me be your warning. Be super careful when buying cars from the wholesale auctions.

[Twitch6284]

Wow man thats nuts!! Thats fixable in an afternoon, I cant believe how that could cost that much to fix! Bad times man. Such a waste to part for something so minimal :( Mine is so much worse than that!!

[4Aaron GE]

I know. Doing a proper respray is literally half the price of another Beat around here, even with me doing the prep myself.

Part of the problem is that that spot is where several pieces of metal come together (looks like 3). I also get the feeling that it's rusting from the inside out at the sills, especially given what's going on in the inside.

At any rate, if you know how I can mail large chunks of steel out, let me know. I'd love to be able to have it give life to yours if it has to go.

[Sphynxface]

That's really unfortunate, however I do have to ask, if you do decide to sell parts I really need a bonnet, Desperately. My bonnet looks a bit like your floor. Let me know if you do.

[4Aaron GE]

If yours is yellow, then yes. I picked up and painted a clean hood last fall. I'll ask around and see how feasable it is to send something like that out.

[Sphynxface]

the colour isn't important, I resprayed my beat Grey. if you could find out about the shipping costs and tell me what you'd like for the bonnet I would be very grateful probably best PM me if thats ok.

just a shame that you can't get yours sorted. but if I can get mine sorted as a result then I guess it keeps the spirit of yours alive in a sense. :)

[stu g]

Have you thought about cold riveting a mild steel shaped plate over the holes? With some countersunk rivets (and appropriate drill bits), some mild steel sheet, an angle grinder, a large hammer with a ball on one end, a steel block, and some underbody gunk you could have that looking good as new in no time. There would be no need for welding.

[4Aaron GE]

I discussed that with my guy, apparently the Shaken inspectors around here can be pretty uptight about that for some reason.