So long story short I am having the rust on my right quarter panel fixed on my RD. This also led to some other issues and wanted to reach out to all of you for some feedback. The guy that is doing the work on the tib is a full-time body guy and actually cut out all the rust and when he did, he found out that the wheel tub is starting to rust as well. Of course this thread wouldn't do much justice without pics so I will add them up as well.



So this is the shot from the inside of the wheel well before the quarter was hacked up:







After quarter was cut and new patch:







Close up of inner tub rust:







View from inside of hatch looking at the tubs:

















So.. with that being said the best way to fix this would be remove the wheel tubs and replace them and as much as I love this car, it isn't quite worth it. Now this brings me to the ultimate question, what is the best route I should go with this? The car is no longer going to be a daily driver and won't see rain/snow and is going to be garage kept. Obviously with rust, there is more than meets the eye and not sure how safe grinding down the spots would be as I believe this is a structural piece of the car since it is unibody. If anyone has any suggestions on this or pointers, please do let me know. Also, if this is the wrong forum, please move accordingly.



Thanks!

 

Cheapest fix is to buy a California car with a bad engineand put your favorite parts into that.

 

Thanks for that, haha. But in all seriousness, without buying a new car what options are out there? Should I be concerned about any structural integrity?

 

You could try and sand it all down, dump some POR15 on it everywhere, and hope for the best. Rust is a very tricky thing, and the more you think you got it all, the more it returns with a vengeance. And unfortunately, Tiburons are notorious for rusting in those spots. The only 100% way to not have rust is to either not drive it in an area that has salt, or literally cut every single spot out, seal and finish it so it wont rust again. If the unibody is rusting, then sad to say it...at some point....the structure will fall apart on you unless you cut it all out and weld in new panels. As for time frame, it could be a month, it could be a few years. But at some point, it will fail on you due to the rust unless it's taken care of.

 

Man those inner tubs look pretty bad. Can you buy just new tubs themselves or do you have to fabricate new ones using custom sheet metal welded in? Good luck. I'm sure it wont be an easy task.

 

I legitimately think the only reasonable long term solution is a body swap. :/

 

I could probably cut the tubs out of a non-rusty tib but I won't go that route as it just isn't cost effective. I'd rather buy a southern tib that doesn't see snow if anything.



I imagine the rust on the tubs isn't surface rust but I can hope. I plan on treating it but just trying to determine the best route. If I take a grinder to it and it does make a hole in the tub, would it do any good to patch in new spots on the rusty holes or will I then weaken the overall structure?



I'm trying my best on this to preserve the tib and all suggestions are appreciated. I have looked into por15 along with miracle paint since they are similar products.

 

Depending how big of a hole there would be, it will weaken the structure. If they are just small half dollar sized holes, you wont really hurt anything much by welding in patches.

 

How much time and money do you have in the car? Sorry to say but it might be time to get a donor car from the south or out west and start over or at least scrap the rusty car and transfer everything to the donor one.

 

I've had the tib for about 8 years and have countless hours and lots of money invested into it. I have been debating getting a donor car but having a single bay garage would be a little difficult swapping everything over.



If I can save it I'd prefer to but will draw a line eventually on some things. I think what I might do is take a wire wheel to the spots and see what it turns up. If I do end up making mini patches I might use panel bond as to not having to weld and risk making new holes.



Sound feasible? I'm just concerned about how deep that rust is.