Rust Spots - R33: How Stuffed am I?

[BigDogRB]

  On 28/03/2023 at 10:30 AM, ACTIVE-LSD said:

Normal for R33 and R34. If the original owners in Japan didn't have a lockup garage then they were all parked on the street exposed to the elements. Rust starts inside out from the intersecting metal sheets.

Mine came from Hamamatsu, Shizuoka a region where it rarely snows and still have the same problem.  Best you can do is a band aid solution and wait until you fix it properly. Australia is essentially sub-tropical so rust shouldn't develop too fast.

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The problem is- whats a band aid fix? And what's considered proper lol

[Murray_Calavera]

  On 29/03/2023 at 3:13 AM, BigDogRB said:

The problem is- whats a band aid fix? And what's considered proper lol

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Trying to stop it from getting worse = use fish oil

Band aid fix = wire wheel / light grinding to remove visible rust, use rust converter, reseal and repaint 

Proper fix = you go digging and keep chasing the rust, all metal with rust is cut out. New metal is welded in. Seal and paint. 

[BigDogRB]

  On 29/03/2023 at 3:44 AM, Murray_Calavera said:

Trying to stop it from getting worse = use fish oil

Band aid fix = wire wheel / light grinding to remove visible rust, use rust converter, reseal and repaint 

Proper fix = you go digging and keep chasing the rust, all metal with rust is cut out. New metal is welded in. Seal and paint. 

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Summed it up nicely- thanks mate.

What product would be best suited to use to reseal?

[GTSBoy]

  On 29/03/2023 at 4:35 AM, BigDogRB said:

What product would be best suited to use to reseal?

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Reseal is done with seam sealer.

[BigDogRB]

  On 29/03/2023 at 4:37 AM, GTSBoy said:

Reseal is done with seam sealer.

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Thought so- thanks, seemed like the obvious choice but the OEM stuff seems almost like it's some sort of plastic.

[Murray_Calavera]

  On 29/03/2023 at 4:39 AM, BigDogRB said:

Thought so- thanks, seemed like the obvious choice but the OEM stuff seems almost like it's some sort of plastic.

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Here is an example - 

https://www.3m.com.au/3M/en_AU/p/d/b40067001/

[joshuaho96]

  On 28/03/2023 at 10:30 AM, ACTIVE-LSD said:

Normal for R33 and R34. If the original owners in Japan didn't have a lockup garage then they were all parked on the street exposed to the elements. Rust starts inside out from the intersecting metal sheets.

Mine came from Hamamatsu, Shizuoka a region where it rarely snows and still have the same problem.  Best you can do is a band aid solution and wait until you fix it properly. Australia is essentially sub-tropical so rust shouldn't develop too fast.

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AFAIK if you ask people that restore these cars all the time they say the R33/R34 have way, way worse rustproofing than the R32. Even before you account for issues like the strut towers holding water.

[GTSBoy]

  On 29/03/2023 at 4:39 AM, BigDogRB said:

seems almost like it's some sort of plastic

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Yeah. Comes out of a caulking gun/squirty thing, sets to a slightly flexible but very firm consistency, much like a plastic. And then painted over. That's why it's used on seams. It can handle the slight movement between different bits of steel.

[trel]

Drip chek.

[GoHashiriya]

From what little I can see it doesnt look so bad, some clearer pictures of the strut tops will tell a better story as you can see them deform - from the rust underneath - on the flat spot of the plate nearest the strut itself. 

As others have mentioned this will need doing at some point, even if your car is immaculate, rust will develop between the metal sheets around the strut towers. 

Now as a reference , Garage Yoshida (famous Japanese restoration shop for R chassis) will replace the entire strut tower for around 600k JPY which I believe is about 6k AUD. Depending on the state of the area you might be able to get away with just replacing only top plates themselves which can be done for about a third of that.

Can it be done yourself? Yes, of course. But I would probably think twice if you've never done this kind of repair before as its pretty specialist.     

[ACTIVE-LSD]

  On 30/03/2023 at 9:45 AM, GoHashiriya said:

Now as a reference , Garage Yoshida (famous Japanese restoration shop for R chassis) will replace the entire strut tower for around 600k JPY which I believe is about 6k AUD. Depending on the state of the area you might be able to get away with just replacing only top plates themselves which can be done for about a third of that. 

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Unfortunately they only make replacements for GTR. No love for ECR33 , ER34

[GTSBoy]

  On 30/03/2023 at 1:39 PM, ACTIVE-LSD said:

Unfortunately they only make replacements for GTR. No love for ECR33 , ER34

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Is there a difference between GTR and RWD strut towers? I wouldn't have thought so. It's only the outer guards and the subframe/chassis rail mounting points that differ.

[joshuaho96]

  On 30/03/2023 at 7:43 PM, GTSBoy said:

Is there a difference between GTR and RWD strut towers? I wouldn't have thought so. It's only the outer guards and the subframe/chassis rail mounting points that differ.

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The AWD strut towers are apparently shorter. Kind of a shame their only reference available was the AWD part as supposedly the RWD version is easy to convert to AWD by trimming to fit.

[Blakeo]

just out of interest how much would something like this cost to get fixed?

[MBS206]

Interesting read...

I know my R33 has a couple of spots of rust (very minor, mainly boot floor, and a spot in the roof).

 

Towers etc were all good 2 years ago when it was given a rough spray...

And I kept this car < 2km from the beach for 6 years straight, it has spent another 4 years sitting in a paddock, including going 1.8m under water in a 2017 flood...

 

 

I'm just going to not look too closely in these areas moving forward...

Ah well, I guess it'd be a good reason to tube chassis the front end

[BigDogRB]

Just thought i'd update on my plan to address.

i've got some Sikaflex 227, rust converter, some rust proof primer, and a (hopefully) matching paint spray can. Went for DSD42 DupliColour.

Plan is to wire wheel all effected areas back to bare metal, to assess damage.

If it's very deep I might be in the shit- but if it's only mild/moderate, i'll be applying rust converter, wiping clean, seam sealing, priming and painting all effected areas, are stripping the rust off using drill + wire wheel

I also plan to soon paint the wheel arches or even full underbody to prevent any more water entering, as i'm assuming this is where 95% of the issue arises from, especially without guard liners.

Will update once i've done this. Planning on doing a bunch of other general resto work (headlight open + clean etc) so hopefully I can update within a few days.

[Murray_Calavera]

Have a think about what you'll do if it's case that as you chase the rust back with the wire wheel, you end up with a hole. 

Hopefully the rust isn't that bad, but better to have a plan in place for if you find yourself in that situation. 

[GoHashiriya]

  On 30/03/2023 at 1:39 PM, ACTIVE-LSD said:

Unfortunately they only make replacements for GTR. No love for ECR33 , ER34

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The top plate is the same though, right? As far as I'm aware of anyway, and that's the b*stard that causes the most problems.

I was going to recommend SR Autobodies (UK) for just the strut plates but it seems they have now shut. I'm sure Garage Yoshida provide strut tops only; I recall seeing on their blog a strut-top only replacement they did - it would be worth contacting them. 

Edited April 4, 2023 by GoHashiriya
additional info

[BigDogRB]

Update: got a bit crazy.

Stripped, wire wheeled, sealed, primed and painted. The paint doesn't match super well, and I noticed the paintjob in my bay is uneven- is this normal? Some sections look almost unpainted.

Anyway- here is what it took to prep it all. Big mission!

!

 

[ACTIVE-LSD]

  On 04/04/2023 at 8:25 AM, GoHashiriya said:

The top plate is the same though, right? As far as I'm aware of anyway, and that's the b*stard that causes the most problems.

I was going to recommend SR Autobodies (UK) for just the strut plates but it seems they have now shut. I'm sure Garage Yoshida provide strut tops only; I recall seeing on their blog a strut-top only replacement they did - it would be worth contacting them. 

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Nah top plate is different as others have mentioned. not sure about the sides though. Are you sure SR Auto bodies are shut down? their website is still active.

 

  On 08/04/2023 at 6:17 AM, BigDogRB said:

Update: got a bit crazy.

Stripped, wire wheeled, sealed, primed and painted. The paint doesn't match super well, and I noticed the paintjob in my bay is uneven- is this normal? Some sections look almost unpainted.

Anyway- here is what it took to prep it all. Big mission!

!

 

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Nice looking good mate. how many hours did that take you? If you're fastidious with the colour difference, you can take off the bonnet hinge and get it paint matched in rattle cans by a paint shop. use matte clear coat as engine bay is not gloss from factory.