I'm staring down the barrel of this gun now as well, though not nearly as bad as what you have shown here in this thread.
The metal is getting pretty thin in the lower corners of the driver side rear wheel well on mine.
This RX8 has seen very few winter days, typically it sat in my heated garage all winter.
Sometimes if the roads were clear and it wasn't going to snow I would take it out for a drive and make sure everything is still working.
I guess that was sill enough ...

The passenger side rear wheel fender is almost like new still as it was replaced when the car was only a couple years old.
(My wife backed in to my RX8 with her SUV)

I'll get a quote and see what the damage will be but I don't have the resources or the skill set at my disposal that you have fortunately have had to DIY.
Great thread thanks for sharing. Nice work

 

This is madness.. props to you for having so much patience doing this!!! Are you going to 3m wrap the car after?

 

very nice job, and likely satisfying for you too.

 

Thank you both for the kind words, means a lot coming from such respected members of the community.

WCS... It doesn't seem to matter what you do they are just designed to rust up here lol... The DIY aspect was frustrating and fun and I am fortunate to have had some friends/resources to get this done. Given the chance to do it again I might search harder for a rust free shell or have a shop do some work. 3 missed summers on the road is heartbreaking and too long. One thing I wouldn't hesitate to do is save the car one way or another.

I had a friend here in Hamilton have basically the same job done, both quarter panels and full repaint but at shop... Was around 5-6k I believe.

That might be my favourite description so far hahaha... I hadn't considered the 3m but might be a good idea. Worth looking into thx for the reminder

Reassembled the windows and doors today forgot what a bitch that was... Hopeful to have some final pictures soon!

 

I still have to put on the front lip, side aero, and rear bumper spats.... Waiting to do some paint touch ups along the rocker first. But until then there are some "almost" finished pics. Plan on taking some nice ones once it's all "done" probably in the spring

 

With the mazdaspeed wing to boot! Bravo!
For sure you’ll ready for next season.

 

Oops somehow managed a double post ..

Yes the MS wing gives it a sporty touch! I have the beat up MS front bumper and R3 skirts if I ever decide to go that route.. but I think it will look nice with the half skirts

I got the spoiler off of the dudes who run the Speed Academy YouTube channel. Their shop is near Hamilton (Stoney Creek)... Super nice guys!

Have gone for a few drives around town to satisfy my craving but nothing too far until I get the oil cooler lines replaced

 

I've been contemplating forever on whether I should source one or not. I just couldn't bring myself to do it since it is my daily driver. Meaning, it does see the winter. The stock R3 spoiler will remain for the foreseeable future.

You should definitely put the ms bumper though! Together with the side skirts, it would definitely complete the look. Too bad you didn't find a ms rear bumper?
Still, great to see all that work paid off. Being able to drive it is ultimately rewarding.

 

Really great to see this come together. Gives me inspiration that I should address mine this winter

 

If I've learned anything about myself... It's that I can't stop buying parts for this car lol. I will keep my eye open and hopefully find the MS rear, although I don't really mind the factory rear with the rest of the MS/R3 pieces.
​​​​​​Do it, save all the 8s! But be careful because winter becomes spring becomes summer becomes fall lol
​​​​​​Maybe this doesn't belong under the "rust repair" thread any more but you guys are my loyal followers so you get the goods :P . I installed the Greddy catback today, it's amazing lol. Deeper tone and not much louder than stock which is perfect for me.

 

Little update here... What a great year it was back on the road. Felt like the first year I owned my car all over again. Had a blast, even made it out to Rotormeet for the first time in a few years, and tucked it away for winter.... Here are a few pics of the season

 

Nothing better than the satisfaction of all that hard work paying off.
Too bad we didn't get a chance to meet at Rotormeet. Lots of new faces.

Counting down the days till the new season..,

 

@kops Really curious, since some time has passed, if your fender repair job was successful and worth it or after 3 winters if there are any rust bubbles visible yet again? Because from my experience the rust on the fenders always tends to come back in the end...

 

Indeed. 3yrs and I hope you still have it and nothing is showing yet on the repairs..

Can't believe it's been over 2yrs since I sold mine..

 

Hey thanks for checking in 👋

I no longer drive it in the winters, it's a summer only car now for maybe 3000km per year if I'm lucky. That being said, no signs of rust returning. I did my damnedest to make sure there was no rust left over that could start to creep back in.

Back in maybe 2016 I tried a minor type of sand/bondo/primer/paint and that didn't hold up for more than a year or two which prompted me to go big this time.

Most recent photo from a couple months back coming out of storage




Had no idea you sold it... I'm sure that was tough. Until the cheque cleared 😁

 

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I was ready to own it for the long haul. Made peace with the fact I'll have to do an engine during my ownership. However, when it started to exhibit the dreaded "popping out of gear" scenario, I had to get rid of it. The 8 was my daily driver. I can't afford to have it done for days on end. Even if I were to find a shop that could do such work, it'll take them at least 3-4 weeks (if not longer). Not to mention the cost. Probably pay more than what I got the car for..
I made the hard decision to get rid of her while she was still intact. Mind you, she was an R3 with only 102k km's on it. Couldn't tell she was 8yrs old when I picked her up. At the time she had 55k km's. So in the short 5yrs I had her, I barely put on another 50k.
Every cloud has a silver lining though. Since I had to get rid of her before the start of winter and I didn't want to let things get worse before anyone could really tell since I was planning on trading it in for the next ride in mind, I made the decision of going EV. Gotta tell you, best decision I've made!
Yes, my daily is an EV and I wouldn't have it any other way. Not only is the performance crazy (and this is a base rwd model.. not even a duel motor or performance model), but the best part is not having to do maintenance on it. While I had the 8, my job didn't take too long to get too. But having to do oil changes at least 3-4 times a year was getting tiresome. Not to mention the amount of fuel I was burning thru. Another big reason why I made the decision to trade in was my new job. It would involve traveling further on occasion and I wasn't going to tolerate more maintenance work than I already had scheduled. It's better when you're able to enjoy your vehicles than having them down for maintenance work or repair work.
So yeah, picked up the EV and haven't looked back. I highly recommend it.

 

I know the feeling, I also didn't really enjoy working on the 8 as much when it was my daily. Better when you can leave the garage when you've had enough and not "need it running by 8am". Now I have a Camry as my daily and I take much more pleasure in rx8 maintenance.

Do you still have the FD?

EVs are an entirely different driving experience. Fun to have a little of both at your fingertips.

 

You know exactly how it went. During my time with the 8, I had to replace the oil cooler lines since it developed a leak on the driver side. Ordered the racing beat upgrade since the OEM lines would corrode in time again. Since I was planning on keeping it, it made sense to do this once and never again. The parts got here in record time, but even then, I was already out of a car 3 days out. I was thinking it wouldn’t take longer than a weekend. Was I ever optimistic! Since there wasn’t much of a reference for people who did this upgrade on series 2, I was going in semi blind. It took my entire weekend and I couldn’t finish without an essential specialty socket due to the location constraints. So another week down until the next weekend. It’s absolutely crippling not having a vehicle. Public transport is the worst! Don’t know how people do it.. hats off to those folks.
Specility tool arrived and it took another weekend before I could button everything up. Lots of swearing, blood loss, and contortionist moves to get those lines installed. Suffice to say, working on the 8 is worse than working on the FD. So much room in the FD engine bay compared to the 8.

Yep, will forever have the FD.