So I was vacuuming out my FB today in preparation for the auto cross tomorrow with the guys over in Grand Rapids, and found some bad rust. I bumped the vinyl flap that covers the drivers side wheel well, and this is what I found:







:cry:

I will drive her until the suspension collapses, and then find a truly rust free shell to swap everything into.

 

it looks bad, but there is a chance...lol What are you going to do Kemo...lol ?

 

all 3 of my first gens have also had the wheel well cancer i plan on tubs down the road so i hope my kemo treatment can stop the infection

 

LOL...I am going to have to check her out and make sure my baby don't have cancer either.

 

i have a 7 thats worse and i plan to fix it. all that is is sheet metal and can be cut out and repaired with new metal. my next question is how are the control arm mounts?

 

Considering your admirable performance at the autocross event yesterday, I would call that weight reduction and be happy with it.

Anyway, like I said, either learn to weld or make friends with someone who already does...








.

 

I'll be shocked if your car had a speck of rust on it. Cars don't rust down here like back in Jersey...lol

I know mine is fine. I had the whole interior apart when I rewired the stereo, and I didn't see a spot of rust.

 

ya thats a little far gone to use rust treatment on. if my 7 looked like that i would start looking for another one. i would rather do a motor swap, then start cutting my can into pieces.

 

Put a tri link in the car, do a quick repair on the cancer, ospho the **** out of it, paint/undercoat it, done!

With a tri link that whole area is just there to keep water out of the car.

 

Rust is so sad I've never had a car with rust, well just surface rust/discolored, but my 7's wish your 7 the best of luck.

 

Maybe you need to find somebody fairly local to you that has a Trilink sitting on the shelf with no plans of using it in the near future.

Maybe somebody that is in need of some high performance tires perhaps?

 

Weird.... Ann Arbor.... Grand Rapids.... hmmm? So what are you saying?

I feel for you guys with the rust, I grew up in Toledo. Always needed to be sure my tetanus shots were up to date when I started a new car.

 

If I lived in MI, I'd get real good at bondo and galvi patches:

http://www.cardomain.com/user/RideEd...=479957&page=8

http://www.cardomain.com/user/RideEd...=479957&page=9

http://www.cardomain.com/user/RideEd...479957&page=10

 

I have a local welding shop that does good work cheap (I told you about them this weekend). I'm going to swing down there tomorrow and see what it would cost for them to weld in new metal.

Do you mean the tri link that you have sitting in your garage that's supposed to be on your car (once you find a big bearing LSD that is)??

Thanks for the compliment. I was pretty happy with the results from my 2nd ever autocross.

GET SOME RACE TIRES Mark. I was shocked that I was within 4 seconds of you. It's all in the tires.


I just started a job at a hardware store, and I get all special orders at 10% over cost. Wire-Feed MIG will be on its way soon...

 

FYI:

The rust in the wheel wells can weaken the suspension mounting points, which you don't want to fail while you're driving the car, obviously. Might want to do a quick inspection around the trailing arm mounting brackets.

 

I think it's very rare to find a car with no rust in the wheel wells. Mazda put a couple of holes in the outer wheel well that captures water and holds it between the two layers of metal in the area. Unless the car was never driven in the rain, it will almost certainly have had water sitting in that lower front corner of the well.

My car was pristine on the outside, not a sign of rust and it had been in Colorado it's whole life (where they don't use salt on the roads) but still had rust in the wheel wells.

 

Without better pics, I can't really give any suggestions. Pics are too close up and fuzzy. Since the rust appears to be on the inside, post pics of the outside too.

 

With that much rust, the upper trailing arms for the rear end are probably about to rip out too. It's taken me quite a while to fix all the rust, but I went a few steps farther than just fixing it....Look through the pics on my cardomain page, should give you an idea of what needs done to fix it. Unless you plan on upgrading everything and want fully adjustable suspension you don't need to cut out nearly as much as I did, or you can cut out more and fully tub it http://www.cardomain.com/ride/396921

 

Talking about Klapperich, orrr? There's a sweet welder/fabricator pretty close to us, over in Whitmore Lake. Gautz Enterprises. He does some good work, gave me the dime tour of the shop. Some prototype work for Harley Davidson, full restoration of the front clip of some 40's truck, completely hand built headers and x pipes/h pipes, big place, looots of cool equipment and skill. He's re-drilling my axles.