Well the Winnipeg winter sure beat up my car......

Went and put on the summer tires from winters and discovered a few things......

-Rear wheel panel completely rusted through. Took only a slight tap for the metal to fall off and now I have holes on both sides of the car. At this point, I'm just going to hope I can find replacement body panels, anyone know of any?

-Front-passenger control arm failed. I replaced this 2.5 years ago with an alignment, does this sound too soon for a failure?

-Both rear disks completely corroded. Really had no clue they weren't being used since my winter rim does not allow me to see them. Looking at replacing both calipers I'm guessing?

-Went to jackup car on the usual rear pinch weld location I use and that was rusted alot, I felt if I kept going I would have crushed it inwards.


:(
 
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yeah these cars hate canadian winters. Walking through parking-lots and I see cars with rusted wheel wells, and I'm like "probably a protege like mine.." and 9 times out of 10 it is. Always in the same spots too. Thankfully mine didn't drive much this winter and it was rust checked for the first 6 years of its life so I only have 2 small wheel well holes to fiberglass over and some rust along the outer wheel well which I'm just going to cover up with some rust inhibiting primer (good thing mine is silver, not as noticable when you use a spray can)
 
All four corners should have their slider pins for the calipers greased every year,... you may be able to salvage your rear calipers.
 
All four corners should have their slider pins for the calipers greased every year,... you may be able to salvage your rear calipers.

Yeah I'll try that first, I did it with one of my front ones once and it worked out. The rotors look terrible so not sure about their ability to be resurfaced....
 
The rear wheel wells...SUCK...on these cars...and even worse; this is a 'permanent' section of the unibody...there is no replacement panel to purchase, like a front fender for example. So in order to fix it, it'll take replacing the rusted metal paneling with either filler, or new sheet metal, depending on how aggressive the rust has become...Filling it yourself is very 'easy' from a stopping the rust from spreading stand point, and pretty inexpensive...but its difficult to get a brand new look without a lot of experience...its not cheap to have a body shop do it, at least if your interested in it being completely restored...

the rust happens in the rear wheel wells because of the 'sandwich' design of the panels...they're not sealed, epoxy'd, etc...they're just squeezed all along the fender lip, and the metal plys are pointed inward towards the tires...water slung off the tires into there, and the panels will rust from the inside out...So just fixing the outside bubbled/rusted paint sections will do absolutely nothing...it'll bubble up again in just a few months...you have to completely stop water from getting into those sandwiched areas...

So far, i've had very good luck stopping these sections from rusting...only one side bubbled a little, and i ran quick steal and under coating all along that crimped lip...which is so far holding up just fine...later this summer i'll sand down the bubbled paint and recoat it, to get a better idea just how well its been stopped...eventually this will need to be redone, probably annually...but thats just the nature of owning a car so old...
 
you can buy the rear skin and have the old rusty one cut out and new piece welded in. I had mine done a few years ago

RRP719.jpg
 
bikingpro5 beat me to the post,... He's got a picture of the driver's side,... Rockauto only has the passenger side at the moment.

There is actually 'body panels' available for the rear,... they are $43.44 from Rockauto but the shipping to Canada is expensive and they still have to be welded or glued into place,... they look like a lot of work. They are nothing like simply replacing the entire fender for the front.

BodyPanel_zps5dab1cc6.jpg
 
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bikingpro5 beat me to the post,... He's got a picture of the driver's side,... Rockauto only has the passenger side at the moment.

There is actually 'body panels' available for the rear,... they are $43.44 from Rockauto but the shipping to Canada is expensive and they still have to be welded or glued into place,... they look like a lot of work. They are nothing like simply replacing the entire fender for the front.

BodyPanel_zps5dab1cc6.jpg

would this work with a p5
 
Hmmm, I wonder if those panels are built in America? I live 30 minutes from the border and could just ship it to a parcel service located right across the border.
 
wow guys, i never knew that was even available....makes me a little less concerned for the long run, as it is a lot of work, but work i'm kind of interested in learning anyway.
 
I personally wouldn't even attempt to try to install those things,... my welding skills leave more than a lot to be desired,... I just use my arc welder as a cutter.
Body work like this requires skill and experience,... it's a real artform.

Another guy was talking about gluing them on with some special glue,... that's more my speed if it's possible.
 
most non structural parts are glued now on cars, look at any new car and its getting hard to find spot welds. 3m makes a great panel adhesive but getting it in the size you need for these pieces as well as proper finishing is worth just paying the extra to have a shop properly install them. Mine were welded and glued but only because im OCD when it comes to my P5.
 
^yeah, i've read up a lot on body work lately. It is art, but there are tons of options depending on what you're looking to do...I always figured i cut both fender lips out of the rear entirely, seal off what remained and attach a crude support by whatever means to that...then utilize a friend's expertise in laying fiberglass and even pouring urethane. He does custom stereo installations for a local shop, and makes all kinds of crazy junk...but most of that is for interior pieces...so it would be a shot in the dark to get a replacement fender looking as good as i'd want it to...

for now though, i'm fine...I'll know by the end of summer how desperate the passenger fender is getting...but there are no signs of holes or 'give' to the bubbled metal as of yet...and i'm confident its at least sealed off pretty well...

just for curiosity...do you happen to remember what the cost was? I do have friends that work in body shops, one of which said he could 'fix' it for less than $400, nearly all of which would be paint prep...but i highly doubt it would be done right for that price...
 
I had my whole car redone top to bottom and all of the rust taken care of, it was not cheap at all and the materials i paid for were some of the best i could get. I had over 2k in materials and supplies alone so I'm not sure how much just the rear quarters would be to fix. I know i had been quoted 300-800 to fix mine before with me buying the panels but i never had them done alone.
 
^ah ok, thanks...i feel better about the ~$400 then as there is very little rust overall, and its only on one side...so maybe i'll look in to that down the road; buy the panel and have a good shop do it.
 
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