bit of a bad day today, got my new daily drive NA zed into the workshop to get the new sump fitted, and its rotten,

 

spent the last week drying it out and fixing the targa leak, the dodgy wiring, and getting new tyres,

 

no idea what its going to cost. its going to need an the entire N/S sill redone, and there's a strange rust hole in the front wheel well and the OS rear section of the sill is 90% pug...

 

its still on the ramp at work so the bodyshop guys are coming to look at it, need them to repair a couple of panels too as i want to restore this one, (black TT is the toy and can be covered in glitter lol), only driven it from one car park to the other on trade plates, but love it cant believe i've been driving auto zed for the last few years.

 

its going to be repaired was just shocked how its 5 years newer then my TT but so much rustier...???

 

has anyone had their zed welded how much should i be paying?

 

 

 

(just for the record not regretting my purchase, cant wait to get it roadworthy :biggrin:)

Nice thread title :lol:

For a second there I thought Top Gear had got hold of one again, to go head to head with an Apache gunship...

These cars are valued on how well they have been kept and serviced rather than age and mileage. But glad to hear you are going to get it back on the road again mate.:thumbup1:

depends how bad the sills are, ive been doing mine for last 3 months, making new panels and welding myself, has cost me nothing yet, but time is a factor, ive only got the rear arch to do, then i will a rust free Uk zed.

just depends if you need to get it on the road quick, i dont but want to know thats its all done.

These cars are valued on how well they have been kept and serviced rather than age and mileage. But glad to hear you are going to get it back on the road again mate.:thumbup1:

 

Very true......

 

.....and I hope it works out for you fella. It does go to show that rust effects J-spec and UK spec cars indiscriminately; after years on the UK's roads. Keep your cars undersealed guys....!!

 

Richard:thumbup1:

Hard to give an idea on cost, I know from experience you start a small job but find out it worse than you thought.

 

Have a good dig around and see how far the rust has gone and what needs repairing/replacing !

 

Good luck mate, it'll be worth it :)

by the look of it its going to needs a new exhaust sooner or later, wanted to leave it std but the OE exhaust systems are stupid money,

 

is there any reason i cant put tt exhaust system on it? dudging by the state of it might need everything, manifolds down pipes and catback, its a 95 so will need cats unfortunatly

opened a can of worms here, handbrakes shot, and is binding the rear wheels, rust is deeper then expected, suspension need some attention, and the exhaust has hose clamps on it to stop it rattling... :blink:

 

on the plus side it has a nice sump now, no more leaking. have got nothing but stick all day about it though...

 

 

pictures here for the sadists among us lol

 

o/s/r

n/s

wheel well

Think you saved me a lot of time there matey! Still, will be very nice when it's all done :thumbup1:

God that does look bad, hope u sort it rust is horrible.

The last pic is that the front wheel arch, almost looks like it's been torn.

 

I had a tiny bit of rust in the engine bay where the seam sealer had came away and that ended up a big hole the rest of the car is like new.

When u start cutting all that out how far is it gonna go.

I had a UK spec car had it resprayed and bits started coming back on the arch etc.

They seem to rust inside out so even bits that seem solid are likely on there way out.

 

I ended up buying another shell and painting all the bits u can't get at with panels on then painted panels put them on the new shell.

Done engine bay everywhere etc.

 

But I wish I undersealed it with stonechip when the shell was stripped cause that's what I'm doing now and then gonna paint car again.

 

I hope this time with new paint, dinitrol 447 stonechip underneath whole car and dinitrol cavity wax inside seals, box sections etc, it should last a few bloody year's.

 

All the panels u buy or fabricate, the welding and painting I'd bet it's cheaper to buy a non runner or shell from someone and paint it cause u could repair yours and it could come back in places that ain't rotted through yet.

I have my interior out and when I look inside my seals/ box section with a torch there's no rust at all.

 

I have a breaker zed with bits of rust on seals and looking inside can see it's rusted from inside out.

 

Whatever u do after its done get some protection from dinitrol or similar to stop it happening again

 

This is what I done to my shell and hopefully it won't rust for a while

 

I made a mistake and bought dinitrol 447 in grey 1st, and done under whole car and when I asked dinitrol about painting over it black cause its overpaintable they laughed and said they do it in black and it does not have to be over painted its just cosmetic to make it look better, so I bought it again in black so it has a grey stonechip and black over that so double protected lol.

 

Here's a pic in grey,

 

 

 

 

And some in black,

 

 

 

 

It looks weird in pics but it's really nice and clean looking but the flash on my phone makes it look a funny.

It's messy job laying on your back spraying.

 

This is when I last painted the shell, but I ruined it rushed it back together in about week was giving my garage up and that was painting it too,

Think that's why rust started in engine bay knocked Seam sealer off forcing engine in and then water got in the seam...

 

 

I hate rust and once it's started its hard to fix without cutting everything out and yours looks quite bad and u may end up cutting more off then u think, I'm crap at body work and welding so may be easier then it looks.

 

But I would look for a good shell and just change all the nuts and bolts over, if your not fussy u may get a good body non runner that don't need paint and just fix engine.

 

But make sure u protect it whatever u do.

 

Sorry for long reply lol and goodluck

I was worried about the rot on mine but it seems to be at a stage of prevention rather than total re shell. The arches are a touch bubbly but have been forever and the sills are a bit untidy after some hooky jacking at some point in its life but all in all she's ok.

 

Good luck with the project tho mate and I like the pics!

 

Once you've welded it give Terry a call to smooth em off for you :thumbup1: Only messing

I was worried about the rot on mine but it seems to be at a stage of prevention rather than total re shell. The arches are a touch bubbly but have been forever and the sills are a bit untidy after some hooky jacking at some point in its life but all in all she's ok.

 

Good luck with the project tho mate and I like the pics!

 

Once you've welded it give Terry a call to smooth em off for you :thumbup1: Only messing

 

U must be joking I ain't ever welding a car again, lol or grinding.

This is sort of what I was saying the bit I did was hard work and I'd say to get a professional to do it would cost a fair bit.

 

I'm glad I done mine, cause where I welded the box section inside theres no paint now, so I got my gun for spraying cavity wax with long extension and filled empty stonechip tin with primer and blasted that in the holes and then some paint and cavity wax. When I look in holes with a torch there's paint everywhere it's much thinner then stonechip and blasted half a litre in there and it all poured out everywhere lol.

 

Everywhere I welded I made sure to put paint on even in places u can't see,

 

When u weld new seals on how they gonna get paint where the welds have burnt it off are they gonna take interior out and try paint inside there just gonna use weld thru primer and it will start to rust again.

 

Maybe if u paid and had a classic car restoration,

 

I'm no good at bodywork but tried to do has much has I could, I bet body shop would have welded my box section and not worried about all the paint on the inside they burnt off and would start rusting again.

 

Most likely would take a few years to rust through but it's still rusting lol.

 

God I hate rust...

Edited December 17, 201213 yr by Terry

thanks for the tips :thumbup1:

 

i've got a TT with a blown engine in in the middle of rebuilding, the thought had crossed my mind to start scavenging bits from it, as its pretty solid.

 

once its done it will be getting fully under-sealed, the engine sump had rusted as well, its almost like this zeds been swimming at one point or another.

 

been over the rest of it with a fine tooth comb, well the mechanics have been, and then winding me up about it...

 

it looks bad but its not dead yet, and i've wanted an S2 NA manual for a while so im just about still smiling...:hang:

Put the series 2 stuff on the TT and the na rear diff and subframe make the manual gearbox fit the tt and just buy a tt flywheel and clutch.

Then your have a nice manual tt with na rear and series2 bit's lol.

 

Goodluck with whatever u do, I'm surprised we don't all hate zeds there a pain in the :asshole:

that's plan B, but the engine im building for the TT is a fairly high HP lump, so wanted an NA as a daily drive,

 

i cant hate Zeds its the look of disgust and shock as i pull one onto the ramp at work that makes me smile every time...

Regards sills, sill returns and floor pan

 

Mine was in a pretty bad state (I uploaded pics of the corrosion problems to my journal and the forum)

 

It cost me (in welding, materials and sill return repair panels) about £600 to sort it all out but having said that the results looked really good - again posted to my journal - and I'm happy with the work done for the price payed

 

Hopefully that should see me OK now for a few years

 

Rich

opened a can of worms here, handbrakes shot, and is binding the rear wheels, rust is deeper then expected, suspension need some attention, and the exhaust has hose clamps on it to stop it rattling... :blink:

 

on the plus side it has a nice sump now, no more leaking. have got nothing but stick all day about it though...

 

 

pictures here for the sadists among us lol

 

 

I can see/understand now as to why it was so cheap!

Quite shocking really for an N reg import.

I can see/understand now as to why it was so cheap!

Quite shocking really for an N reg import.

 

It's potentially been in the UK since '95, plenty of time for the tin worm to get a good feed.

It's potentially been in the UK since '95, plenty of time for the tin worm to get a good feed.

 

Highly unlikely. Nearly all the import Z32s we have came in under the 10 year rule..

Highly unlikely. Nearly all the import Z32s we have came in under the 10 year rule..

 

10 years is still plenty of time though. At the end of the day (as you know) it's all down to how well it's looked after rather than whether it's an import or not. That's what I've noticed. I've seen some shocking jdm rust buckets yet my UK is rust free, I can only put it down to after care.

 

Still, that's some bad rust..

it was first registered in 2003 lol...

 

well the body shop gave their prognosis today, they've given me a price so it goes in tomorrow for the work, having all the rust sorted, fabricating new sills etc, they are sorting the bubbling arches out, and refitting the S2 spoiler, and sorting a couple of other marks out. should be a nice zed once done.

 

then it goes next door to get under sealed, and then back to me for some other little bits and its MOT,

 

after all this its still a sub £1K zed, but it will be a dam sight better then some of the ebay rejects that go for the same money. (i hope lol)

 

 

 

its borrowing the TTs exhaust, as the engineering shop want to fabricate one for the forged engine after i showed them some pictures of the labree systems in the states... lol.