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Fixing Rear Fender Rust
I've had my 2006 Brilliant Black GT a little over 5 years now. I learned a lot here before buying and have had a great experience with this car. It's been my daily driver, even through some harsh Canadian winters, and its been everything I had hoped for. That being said, it has 175,000 KM and its age is starting to show. My clutch pedal just broke, my rear fenders are super rusty, my front bumper is damaged, my struts need to be done, my seat heater is broken, my throw out bearing (or something like that) is noisy...But the engine still runs great.
If this was any other car I'd probably tell myself to sell it for a few bucks and put some money towards a new car. But... I'm just not ready to let go. The resale value in this condition wouldn't be much, and definitely not what the cars worth to me. I've decided m going to get this car back to its glory and I'll try to take a few pictures along the way. It won't see winter anymore and hopefully I can enjoy it for years to come. If the engine blows who knows maybe I'll get it rebuilt....we all know these kind of cars aren't coming back anytime soon. Here is a picture of it before time took its toll... https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...a1574502cd.png And now.. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ab8f1739e4.png https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...5425d2d8fd.png https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...6f09a1be86.png https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...b018809074.png https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ee1c347e6f.png So first thing to do is fix this pedal...will have some updates this weekend. There are lots of great pics along the way but for finished results, jump to posts#47 and #55 and #61 |
Nice to see that you are going to maintain vs. jumping ship. I think you'll be glad you did in the end. Can't wait to see the pictures along the way. Good Luck!
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Most of the other stuff doesn't seem too bad to replace, but yeah, rust is why I will never drive my 8 in the snow. Living on the West Coast helps.
Good luck with your repairs! |
I think I would have a compression test done. Make sure you aren't going to sink a bunch of money or time into it just to have the engine go.
If the engine is good it would probably be less work to swap it into a nicer car with a blown engine. |
Body work can bepainfully expensive. Truthfully it would be dramatically cheaper to buy a very nice Rx8 from here in the states with a good engine and all than it would likely cost to get your fender rust along with other carrage rust removed, repaired, and the whole car repainted a quality paintjob.
Honestly, just buy a nice, clean, rust-free Rx8 thats in superb condition and make your current 8 a gutted autox/track/roadcourse toy that you arent very concerned about should it incur any cosmetic damage. |
I did consider that. I tried to buy a couple parts cars and deals kept falling through. Even blown engine RX8's around here are about 1-2K, and I would imagine buying and importing one into Canada would put me at least that cost.
I'm going to be doing all the work myself with the help of a very knowledgable friend. I bought a rust free rear quarter panel from Texas a couple years ago that I haven't put in.. picking up a bumper tomorrow for 150. At this point I think it's (mainly) going to cost me time on the body/paint work which I have some experience in. I had the car compression tested at 90,000km and it was 7.9 - 8.1 on all faces... Be interesting to see where it is now. If I do all this and the engine blows well... Hopefully the rest of the car is now mint and it's worth rebuilding lol. If not then maybe I ****** up I guess we'll see |
Well I didn't get as much done today as I would have liked. When we repaired the clutch pedal we didn't leave enough clearance in a few areas so spent some time filing it down. We used some thicker steel and basically made a traced cutout of the thin backplate that it normally uses. Super dead battery wouldn't even work with a jump but ended up borrowing another battery and finally got it started. Been about a month since the pedal broke/it last ran and thats the longest its gone since I bought it.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...d44fe43139.png And here it is mounted back in. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c7b26c4dda.png This is the passenger side quarter panel piece that I have. Not a speck of rust on it...I hate (love) southern winter-free cars. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...960e075408.png Conveniently my friend works for a steel company and was able to get some high grade automotive steel that we'll use to replace rust as needed... https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...12a6bb6200.png And I also picked up this winning blue bumper. I think the guy I got it from is a member here but don't know his name... https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...659d7560af.png So thats it for now. Hopefully next update will have the wheels/inner fender liners out and chop away some of the rust to see what I'm really dealing with. |
Got to spend a couple hours on the 8 this weekend. Even after replacing the clutch pedal, the battery was so dead it wouldn't run on its own. So I put a new battery in and changed the oil and took it for a spin. Been well over a month since I last drove it so it was nice to get back in the drivers seat. The clutch pedal felt better than it ever has, probably because I took the time to properly adjust it as well. Then it was back to the garage.
I took our the fender liners to see how far back the rust really goes...needless to say it wasn't great, but it doesn't look out of reach either. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...1ee62f005c.png https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...bb22830f7a.png My good buddy/mechanic takes great pleasure in watching how uncomfortable I am with grinding away at my car. Took a little video as we grinded away a few spots to see how bad it was. https://www.dropbox.com/s/z2ck4wq9zi...31943.mp4?dl=0 Passenger side down by the rocker is the worst of it all, but the replacement pieces I have should cover up until that point https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...6c8202ce4a.png I don't get a lot of time to go work on it, but now that its torn down to the point where we can actually jump in and do some body work, hoping the next update will see some more progress on the body. Thanks for following along.. |
Wow that's fine serious commitment! Body work is tough DIY. It seems Mazda in general is notorious with rust on the passenger side rear wheel well. Mine has some but it's minor compared to yours. Been working on it to keep it from spreading. Kudos and keep at it!
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Originally Posted by delhi
(Post 4880806)
Wow that's fine serious commitment! Body work is tough DIY. It seems Mazda in general is notorious with rust on the passenger side rear wheel well. Mine has some but it's minor compared to yours. Been working on it to keep it from spreading. Kudos and keep at it!
I probably shouldn't have driven through 5 salty winters.. I didn't realize how much of a toll it was going to take on this car. I've driven all kinds of other cars that didn't take this much rust damage. Like you said typical Mazda wheel wells. Hopefully I'll get it back to looking nice and she can spend her winters in the garage :) |
If you have to drive it in the winter, maybe do some rustproofing?
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I did do oil spraying but that only helps so much, especially when it comes to the body. Few pics of oil sprays I had done...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hp3fu6cc9q...110_221706.jpg https://www.dropbox.com/s/0a35q1ddid...110_221716.jpg |
Yeah not everyone sprays the arches and they're a really poor design. Trying to keep mine clean and reoiling them every other week.
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It's pathetic how poorly the wheel arch design was for Mazda. There paint is also terribly thin and easy to chip the primer off exposing bare metal. Honda, Toyota, and the euro makes figured out rust resistant vehicles back in the mid 2000s
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Its been too long since I had a chance to work on my car. Finally got a few hours in yesterday and well...lets say there's less rust on it now than there was before.
We grinded back a few inches to get an idea of how far the rust went, and then started cutting. You can see the bottom 2 inches around the entire wheel well was rusted on both the outer and inner fender. https://www.dropbox.com/s/n292ua5w2v...56538.mp4?dl=0 https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ed18eef55d.png The driver side ended up being worse than I hoped, so I'll have to do that whole wheel well too. Going to see if I can find a donor car somewhere that I can take a big chunk out of. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...96995584e5.png Tada, no more rust...what a hack job https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ef92157723.png So now most of the rust is gone.. I guess next I'll do some measuring and figure out the best way to chop my donor parts and start rebuilding |
Back at it again for a few hours today. I made some measurements and cut some sheet metal that will be used to patch parts of the inner wheel well that have rusted out.
This is one of the areas that needed to be patched https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...9fa1cd8567.png I started by making a template out of cardboard https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...2a724d6298.png Then I traced that onto some of the sheet metal you saw in earlier pics...and used a 'nibbler' to cut it out. Never used a nibbler before but it cut through sheet metal like a hot knife through butter. This is what the cutout looked like, and then I just hand bent it into shape for now https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ba93a31c4f.png https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...a03bf2012b.png Then did the same for the other side.. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...045602c154.png After that, I started doing some rough measurements for where I will cut the inner/outer fender areas, and where I'll cut my donor parts. A bit tough to see but just above the fender flare is a chalk line across.... and then on the inside i'm going to take it back a few inches https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...70164e7e2e.png https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...b1c4c562f3.png The more I get into it the more I realize how big of a job this is going to be.... but if I can get a driver-side donor panel then I should be able to make it all work! |
Today was a good day... I could start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I took some more accurate measurements and marked both the car and donor parts off with masking tape. I tried to use things on the car like corners, bolt holes, plugs etc, to base all my measurements from.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...64ccb4f851.jpg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...096e737b16.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ef32afb705.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...cd2c4fc072.jpg After that... I let the more experienced mechanic make a clean cut. Being careful not to cut through the inner pieces near the door jam https://www.dropbox.com/s/yx92805psx...31961.mp4?dl=0 and the final product..an exposed rear quarter. Other than the first 2" around the wheel well the rest of it is in great shape. Comparing to the 1967 Ford Fairlane my dad is restoring, this job is looking not so bad https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...e39473fa50.jpg Here is the comparison beside the donor part https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...43dfef400c.jpg I think the next steps will be to sandblast/clean up some of the inner fenders, do some patching, then measure/cut some of the inner fender off of the donor. Might as well do all that while I've got easy open access to everything. Once the inner is patched up, we'll cut out the donor parts and tack it in. Stay tuned.... |
You must have a very big sentimental value to your ride. Our winters are the absolute worse! I bought a new 08 MX5 PRHT 11yrs ago. It was my daily. Krowned it religiously! Even then, after 10yrs and 262k on the clock, the rear quarter paint was starting to curl near the top of the wheel wells. No signs of rust through the paint or anything like that. But I knew if I was going to keep it, she'll need to get fully restored. And that's where you run into the money issue. Fully restored with a proper paint job was going to cost me more than what the car was worth.
As painful as it was to let her go, I did find the replacement car to be totally worth it! I picked up a 2010 RX8 R3 with only 52k on the clock last April. The thing was spotless with hardly any km's on it. Together with the trade in I was going to get on the Miata, I had to make the purchase. It was a no brainer. Can't tell you how great the R3 feels compared to the Miata. Torsional rigidity is extremely noticeable. Not to mention the smoothness of the engine and the power output is much better. Extremely happy with her. She's seen her first winter and the Krown is doing its job. But knowing what I know from the Miata, I'm taking extra care with this one. I make sure to clean up all the wheel wells now whenever I change over on the wheels. And I touch up in certain areas I know the Krown people won't spray or forget to spray. Survived its first winter without a hitch. I'm keeping a careful eye on all the parts and taking extra care this time around. I seriously doubt I'll let her go as easy as I did with the Miata. You've got guts to be restoring a vehicle with that much damage. I think it would be easier to find a doner car or a complete replacement than keeping this ride... Still, all the best on the restore! |
Originally Posted by Neo
(Post 4887132)
You must have a very big sentimental value to your ride. Our winters are the absolute worse! I bought a new 08 MX5 PRHT 11yrs ago. It was my daily. Krowned it religiously! Even then, after 10yrs and 262k on the clock, the rear quarter paint was starting to curl near the top of the wheel wells. No signs of rust through the paint or anything like that. But I knew if I was going to keep it, she'll need to get fully restored. And that's where you run into the money issue. Fully restored with a proper paint job was going to cost me more than what the car was worth.
As painful as it was to let her go, I did find the replacement car to be totally worth it! I picked up a 2010 RX8 R3 with only 52k on the clock last April. The thing was spotless with hardly any km's on it. Together with the trade in I was going to get on the Miata, I had to make the purchase. It was a no brainer. Can't tell you how great the R3 feels compared to the Miata. Torsional rigidity is extremely noticeable. Not to mention the smoothness of the engine and the power output is much better. Extremely happy with her. She's seen her first winter and the Krown is doing its job. But knowing what I know from the Miata, I'm taking extra care with this one. I make sure to clean up all the wheel wells now whenever I change over on the wheels. And I touch up in certain areas I know the Krown people won't spray or forget to spray. Survived its first winter without a hitch. I'm keeping a careful eye on all the parts and taking extra care this time around. I seriously doubt I'll let her go as easy as I did with the Miata. You've got guts to be restoring a vehicle with that much damage. I think it would be easier to find a doner car or a complete replacement than keeping this ride... Still, all the best on the restore! I guarantee the two options you listed would have been easier haha. I did consider a donor car, I had 2 or 3 deals fall through on me. Around here even with low compression they go for around $2000, and most of those had rust developing or other issues to deal with as well. I already had this replacement quarter panel and the ability to do everything myself which saves drastic amounts of body shop costs...my only costs are front bumper, another quarter panel, and paint/body supplies... All coming in under $1000 total. So it's costing me some time (although a lot harder to find than I thought it would be) but in the end buying another RX8 and swapping the motor just wasn't as appealing as giving my baby the attention it deserved. Hopefully it can be something I'm proud of for years to come. This is still a work in progress so here's to hoping my plan actually works out! |
Originally Posted by kops
(Post 4887213)
Thanks for reading, I'm glad things worked out for you! The R3 seems like a very well put together car, I haven't driven one myself. Knowing what I know now I definitely wouldn't put it through winter. Don't let this thread happen to you lol.
I guarantee the two options you listed would have been easier haha. I did consider a donor car, I had 2 or 3 deals fall through on me. Around here even with low compression they go for around $2000, and most of those had rust developing or other issues to deal with as well. I already had this replacement quarter panel and the ability to do everything myself which saves drastic amounts of body shop costs...my only costs are front bumper, another quarter panel, and paint/body supplies... All coming in under $1000 total. So it's costing me some time (although a lot harder to find than I thought it would be) but in the end buying another RX8 and swapping the motor just wasn't as appealing as giving my baby the attention it deserved. Hopefully it can be something I'm proud of for years to come. This is still a work in progress so here's to hoping my plan actually works out! You're lucky you're able to do all that yourself. I wouldn't know where to begin. Definitely, if you can get the material for cheap and you have the expertise, you can definitely pull this off. I'm anxious to see the finished results! |
Its been too long since I've had much time to spend working on the car. Between work and summer vacations its been tough.
This week I bought what seems like 1/4 of an RX8 from the US. I think they call it a B1 cut. Going to salvage the rust-free driver side rear wheel arches. Cost me $300 CAD taxes and shipping in. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...42ff356921.png https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...f9905e7dd7.png Today I spent a few hours on the car. Started by sandblasting the passenger side inner rear fenders where I was going to weld in the patches I made earlier. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...986b777655.png Then tacked the patch in place. I'm not too worried with how this is going to look as I'm going to paint and coat the entire wheel well with some kind of compound to keep it protected. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ad0a474403.png |
Took some final measurements on the passenger side today and made probably the most important cuts so far. This is just held in place with some tape for a photo.... still have some fine tuning to do but it's starting looking like an RX8 again
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...8d44194cb4.jpg |
Holy F good job love the progress. Save all the Rx8s!!!!
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Keeping this one out of the graveyard for now!
Today was a milestone day. Did a bunch of cleanup on the edges to be welded, sprayed a little weld thru primer,made the last few little patches, and started welding the new quarter panel in place. You can see for the inner fender we made some relief cuts on the car and the plan is just to overlap the donor piece underneath. Will get some better pics of that next time... https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...4dd59ec520.jpg The measurements we took on my car and the donor panel lined up great. I think everything will be okay after all :) https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...e64b955f0a.jpg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...b88a09b967.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c6a0432828.jpg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...8b0be55bd4.jpg |
that's amazing! It's going to look brand new when its all done. Good job!
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Realized its been a while since I did an update here... lots of pics to follow.
On nights where I wasn't out working on my car.. I was browsing Kijiji for fun and maybe some good deals. Ended up picking up an AEM intake and wrapping it in gold heat reflective tape. Turned out pretty good if I say so myself https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...daff595656.png https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...1c8028472b.png https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...531c0b2b80.png There was also a sale on some Back to Black which I heard some people use to restore the exhaust shrouds. It works as a good cleaner/polisher but in no way restores them back to a new look. Left side is done, right side is not https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...4d6edd6397.png Back to the body work .. continuing to weld a little bit of the passenger side at a time as I work on other things. Took it for a spin the other day, boy I miss driving this car. The passenger side just needs to be cleaned up and some small patches but for the most part is solid. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...8ef5e6bbab.png Driver side is up next .. can see how we've mapped it out https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c3fc619695.png https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...6b8fd6311d.png https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...d2337b5b20.png We learned that popping out the spot welds would make this a much easier job and limit out welding, so we worked on that. We cleaned up all the seam sealer and drilled the spot welds out. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...3ecbb28108.png The body is basically made up of multiple plies in some areas that just peel apart once the spot welds are loose. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...90b29b0855.png And now we have a missing driver side https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...55c3067343.png https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...13fada67e0.png https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...56d06c5448.png If anyone reading this has a lead on an OEM front lip I would love one to complete the rest of the appearance package pieces I've bought. If not .. well just keep tuning in for updates. |
Looking great man! im in the process of doing the same thing, except mine isn't as much work as yours. Keep going with those updates i wanna see the final product :drool:
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Late to the party but regarding your, "back to black" attempt, don't bother with products. Take a heat gun to black plastic trim and it will look like new. Then use whatever UV blocker you want to protect it (303, ceramic coating, etc).
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Yeah its more work than I thought it was going to be. Thanks for following lol.. I know its not as exciting as a turbo or 20b build but this is real life RX8 stuff.
Here's the plan. White quarter panel measured up ... https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...9edcf2556f.jpg And here it is just kinda held in place. I might make this work after all ! https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...7b05da6cd1.jpg Some nicer spring weather allowed me to get out and do some sandblasting. Look at my black and red/white/blue 'Merica RX8. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...1a78ecd6ea.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...91840721e8.jpg Along the way I picked up a damaged BHR midpipe and damaged authentic MS front bumper. They're both in need of a ton of work... I dont know I have some kind of sickness for fixing up stuff that should probably just be scrapped :P https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...e4956fa470.jpg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...440adf1597.jpg OK so back to the car... got things clamped in place and some tacks laid down . Using the spot-welds this time is so much easier... definitely learned my lesson. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c455fe2730.jpg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...2ad7572414.jpg Using some uni-spots to pull out low spots. If you've never used this its a cool little tool... it welds these posts on and then you use a slide-hammer to pull them out. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ce43e5e502.jpg Finished the welds and grinded them down. Starting to look pretty good! https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...b530fe6fa4.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...f7cc54f580.jpg Until next time! |
Did some more work just patching rusty holes in the wheel wells... I have one small spot along the rocker and then metal work will be done. So excited to be (almost) moving on to the next stage of fiberglass/bondo. Put fenders and bumpers on and everything lined up perfectly, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't help but take it for a little rip too... fired right up and didn't miss a beat.
Video of walkaround - https://www.dropbox.com/s/1fbv6bt2c3...21110.mp4?dl=0 https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...0ba2380d0c.png |
Great to see it coming along. It’s going to look great when you’re done.
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Long time no update! Just a quick one.. my friend/welder was tied up with other jobs this summer and so I still need to finish a bit of metal work. In the meantime, I brought the car home to my garage where I have been sanding it with 320grit in prep for some filler and high build primer. Unfortunately its looking like I probably won't get it out on the road this year :(
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...73bed39c9a.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...133bfefaaf.jpg (stopped sanding front bumper under I pick up a heatgun and some fishin line to debadge) https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...26edfadb94.jpg |
at least shes back at your place now.. safe for the winter months.. slowly but surely.. It'll get there soon enough..
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Thanks for following Neo ... always nice to have some words of encouragement.
My Dad is a member of a car club in Hamilton, the "Road Runners" ... they have a clubhouse/shop, so I brought it up there to use the hoist and finish some welding work on the rocker panels. This was the last "patch" going in https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...1aec4ff061.png https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...167002274f.png When you forget your welding mask lol..... https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...2b5e2c7ede.png After the welding was done, we cleaned things up with wax/grease remover, and then coated with epoxy primer (light grey paint) where there was any exposed metal. We let that dry a couple days, and then covered the welds with Seam Sealer... a thick goopy rubbery compound that will dry and fill in any micro-cracks that may have been missed. Its not pretty.... do I care? NO. This will all be covered in a ruberized undercoating, and then with fender liners... and honestly I just want to drive my car so bad lol https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...07f034b9d3.png https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...17e5b4796b.png https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...1e5a8c6aa8.png And as I tend to do on days where I can't work on my car.... I search for things for my car. I don't have factory nav but I've picked up a Nexus tablet and interior trim to make this dash mod. Still working on figuring out the motor open/close piece, but I did some customizing to the tablet - Rooted (admin control of tablet) - Installed custom firmware/bootloader so tablet would power on when it detects "charging" . End result = Tablet powers on when car powers on. - Used MacroDroid to create a macro ... when charging is turned OFF ... wait 5 minutes, then power down the tablet. End results = Tablet powers off 5min after car powers off. - Install Double-Tap ... double tap to screen on/off since buttons are inaccessible - TorquePro app https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...dc28e14dde.png https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...2114d77223.png |
Nice progress!!
You're getting there.. It's a good thing you have a few things taken apart. I wouldn't be able to do that tablet mod to mine. For 1, mine doesn't have the little fold out Navi portion. I think there was an option for series 2 to come with the nav built into the center console... not sure about that though. Don't worry about the welds. Everything will look factory fresh once you get it coated! |
My car didn't come with the navigation hood either. Have to get the whole dash panel and popup piece from another car, not sure if it fits S2 or if they had an option? Certainly not in the R3 that I've seen but maybe GT?
Inching closer .. the metal work is all done which is nice. After the seam sealer we sprayed some rubberized undercoating. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ef15708d3c.png This little lip is basically where all the rust starts to build up on the quarter panels, where the outer and inner panels meet. We will be taking special care to seal this lip. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...03b9c596d7.png Then we took the rear doors off and masked things off in prep for some epoxy primer. Once the bare metal is all sealed up with epoxy primer we'll move to fiberglass and filler. Can't wait to be on the road in 2021 again. Starting to see the light at the end of the rusty tunnel https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...3856791632.png https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...e21e035443.pngOh I also scooped up this Racing Beat midpipe on Kijiji! Guy didn't know what he was selling managed to get it for $80. Fixing my BHR pipe will be the end goal... I like the resonator construction better... but this pipe will be a direct fit so I can get to premixing https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...6f59d27290.png And more of a "need" than a "want"... some new oil cooler lines from TREX. They took almost 2 months to arrive, not thrilled with the service there but at least they're here now. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...141804b037.png |
Looking good!
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Thanks bud!
Hit it with primer last night....so satisfying to just see the panel as a solid colour. You can see by the time we got to the second panel we've already improved a lot lol. The first (passenger) side will still require some work before applying fiberglass but the driver side is pretty much ready to go. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...4e029bd65f.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...151c3f1dad.jpg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...829c75abb8.jpg |
Its been a lot of sanding, and masking, and filling, and sanding, and masking.... and today, it was priming. There is still a bit of work on the rocker panel but the quarter panels are mostly there, the priming helps see things in a better light. It is so satisfying to see the car in one colour again. Going into it I knew nothing about masking and now I know a bunch of techniques and feel pretty confident with it which is good. My spraying isn't bad either but I'm leaving it to my more experienced buddy (below) for the final coats.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...2b389bfdcc.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...bd231a4f7f.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...f0a55461b6.jpg What the ffffffffffff....... MORE rust? Behind the mirrors? WHY?! I dont even know what I'm going to do about that. Going to have to chop it and put a new piece in and hope my mirrors fit flush. More setbacks....... https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...1f77140ea5.jpg Also want to give a shout out to good guy @Dodo23 who had this beautiful Greddy Spectrum Elite exhaust up for sale in the summer ... and although he was across the country in BC, and had multiple local offers.... he held on to it as long as it took to build a wooden box by hand, and safely ship it freight all the way to me in Ontario (4250km). It's such a beautiful exhaust.... and like all my car parts this also passed Kingston's nose inspection. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...a898290bd2.jpg (not my picture below) https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...699cf96fae.png Almost forgot... I also picked up these carbon fiber hydro-dipped engine bay covers from the same person who I got my AEM intake from. @iverzc thanks again buddy ! https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...0230e8dd7b.jpg |
Thanks for posting about the mirrors. Gonna keep that in mind whenever it comes time for Krowning. 🙂
it’s coming along nicely. |
Currently in the middle of doing rust repairs on my 8. The arches aren’t as bad but the floors are horrendous 😴 Nice to see someone else repairing instead of throwing away! Keep up the good work
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I´m doing the same to our black 8 too at the moment. Found the same Rust behind the mirrors... but rear fenders and sills are the worst on mine. German winters are not good for the 8 .... its a 2004 model that had no good protection to begin with. Our 2007 one is still in great shape without any rust at all but they put in some grease/wax from the factory.
Greetings Thomas |
Thanks for reading guys 🙂 I haven't posted much here... I was I could say things moved along quickly but it has been slow. I'm working on the car 2-3 times per week but it always seems to hit set backs. I was pretty discouraged for a while as I saw another summer slip away.... But as my girlfriend said, "shavings make a pile" and I have been trying to remind myself of that.
The body line that runs through the 8 and the wheel flares have been the toughest to do. A few weeks ago I thought we finally had it but when we peeled all the tape back the line was not even on both sides of the rear wheel.... Tough to describe, but frustrating and time consuming for amateurs to say the least. Today we ironed out what I THINK is the last bits of the body line and wheel arch. I honestly don't even care anymore I just want to fucking paint it and drive it haha. Couple more pics to hold you over until something nice to look at https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...45ed9b99ba.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...2d56871825.jpg |
What you’re doing is inspiring. Most people wouldn’t have the know how nor the patience. Hang in there! It’s almost ready for paint! :)
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It's good to see someone treating the 8 with some respect instead of how the poor things are usually beaten to death or modded in ways to destroy the value. It'll all come out in the end, I've had one in project status for 4 years and is only now coming back together. I'm jealous of the exhaust system, nice score.
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Thanks guys .. it was a lucky chance that I was chatting with dodo23 when he was getting rid of that exhaust, it's one I quite like too but haven't installed just yet.
Just a teaser for now .. More pics in a couple days :) https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...7c096604ac.jpg |
Few pics of paint day. Got the ol pro George to help me out. He is a friend of my Dad/buddy's and has been painting a long time. Probably could have tackled the job with my buddy but it was nice to be able to hand over the reigns for a bit.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...67f888a658.jpg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...a9598fa41a.jpg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...b8ca6d0fcb.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...701b9776de.jpg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c6652cfd9e.jpg Biggest test... How does the body line look!? Can you tell we chopped that quarter panel in half :D https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...a809940296.jpg Still don't have all the aero trim and windows and stuff in but... It's good to be back in one solid color https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...dd77586d6c.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...39ad038ee8.jpg |
It’s looking sweet!
patience is a virtue. She’ll be good to go for next season for sure! |
Looking good! What did you end up doing with the area behind the side mirrors?
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Thanks folks! Hope to get it all buttoned up for a few nice autumn pictures haha. Was really bummed to not be able to make it to the GTA (Toronto) Rotary meet this year but next spring should be for sure
For the rusty mirror area...I did the only thing Kip (I'll stop calling him my buddy now) would allow me to do. Cut it out and weld in new metal lol. I don't have a great picture of that actually.... But you can kind of see here. Luckily the 3 holes for the mirror bolts were ok so we only had to replace some strips of metal in between and give it a couple 90 degree bends to match https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...f3721afc46.jpg |
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