Rust... ger....

Got another Protege5, looks pretty clean...


But looks can be deceiving...
Started grinding down any rust I could find, under rear wheel well just kept grinding until I ended up with this...




So, is it feasible for someone to weld some extra metal for some more structural strength?

Anything is possible but it could cost thousands to completely reinforce all the rusted spots.
At some point you have to ask if the money spent is worth it, especially if the car wouldn't sell for as much as you put into it.

I had a piece of metal plate welded on to my frame where the trailing arm connects to it.

My t-stand punched through the frame and the trailing arm was ready to fall off.

Just that one spot cost me $150 but at least I don't have to worry about losing my back wheels.

The mechanic says my car won't pass safety now.. It's just too damn rusted.

I'm sure it would cost me thousands to bring it up to code.



A picture before the plate was welded on...



The left side of the pic was completely crunched in.

I can't lift my car at the designated lift points anymore... The scissor-jack just crunches into the frame.

Yup, I unfortunately also have a bad case of rust on my P5. My frame rail is similar to yours in the first two pics, but possibly not as bad. I'm sure if I took a grinder to it mine would look like that.

Mine is to the point where I know it won't pass inspection, and it really isn't worth it for me to fix it. It would cost me as much as I paid for the car to fix all of the rust. Therefore, instead I just cleaned up all the structural rust as best I could, and sprayed it all down with rust prevention / undercoating stuff.

I have to get creative with my jack points each time I need to lift the car up also. In addition, my bumpers and side skirts are starting to come off because of the rust at the spots where the clips are. I have zip ties holding my back bumper on at the moment. Oh well. The engine is in great shape, which is a shame. I'm planning on driving the thing until it literally falls apart around me, or I get pulled over and they notice the rust and make me go in for inspection.