mk2 rusted through inner rear wheel arches (front section beside vents)

[raptor95GTS]

that makes the car beyond fixing yes? It was noticed during rear pad replacement, you can look up into the wheel arch and see where the inner arch is just rusted through and no longer connected to the outer arch. Passenger side is the worst but drivers side isn't far behind at all

[aussieGT]

anything is fixable if you are prepared to spend the money on it.

[pbmr2]

depends if you can weld or not. all the old metal can be chopped out and replaced with good steel. it's the time you are really paying for if someone else is doing the work.

if you or one of your friends can weld then it could be a bit of a project. you could do the prep of chopping out the old and cleaning the surfaces. then make the replacement parts and hand them to a welder.

if all of that is beyond you then paying someone to do it won't be cheap but it's all fixable. you could even go on a welding course, buy a cheap welder and do the work yourself. if you have the room.

yeah a lot of normal people would give up and scrap the car at this point, but that's only due to cost or effort. buying one that needs zero rust repair will cost more than the work. so it's still cheaper to repair.

a reshell to another chassis might be the cheapest, but is cheapest always best?

[raptor95GTS]

i cannot weld nor have I the space to do it even if I could weld. I suppose at the end of the day spending 2-3k to fix it is a difficult spend when the car in tip top condition is worth what 2k (rev3 gts) ? It needs the timing belt done too and it's all just big bills for a car which is worth way less than the money needing spent on it. 13yrs of ownership, 110kmiles not a bad run I suppose for a (mostly) daily driver (mk1 for 5 years previous to that and 60k miles)

[pbmr2]

not sure where you plucked the prices from, would think it's under £800 for the welding if it's really bad. Not seen anyone pay more than that... yet.

[SonicSW20]

i cannot weld nor have I the space to do it even if I could weld. I suppose at the end of the day spending 2-3k to fix it is a difficult spend when the car in tip top condition is worth what 2k (rev3 gts) ? It needs the timing belt done too and it's all just big bills for a car which is worth way less than the money needing spent on it. 13yrs of ownership, 110kmiles not a bad run I suppose for a (mostly) daily driver (mk1 for 5 years previous to that and 60k miles)

Rev3 GTS in excellent condition is worth a fair bit more than 2kGBP, even at 110k miles.

With any car like this, looking solely at the financials "It needs x spending, it's worth y, so there's no point" is the wrong way to look at it IMO. If it was all about financials then none of us would modify them because you're never going to see much of that money back! For most of us it's a toy and a hobby, it's worth spending money to continue enjoying that hobby.

As for this car... I'd be considering how attached I am to this particular car, what is a realistic price to repair (get quotes), and what it would cost to buy another one (assuming you want another one) in the spec you want. We could be talking 4-6kGBP for a nice, solid Rev3 Turbo depending on mileage, condition and spec. Where the crossover between repair or buy another is up to you!

£2-3k in fabrication/welding and paint equates to a LOT of work - how bad is that area? I paid ~£800 to fix this on both sides:

[HughesR1]

I'd take it to a few places and get quotes as they vary massively depending on the garage. I had an old Rev2 fail MOT on the same thing a few years ago. It wasn't visible from outside the car but I could put my hand up the wheel arch and into the boot it was that bad lol.

And old bloke at the MOT garage who restores classic cars offered to cut the rust out, fabricate and weld in new sections all for £120 (This was both sides!) I bit his hand off at that price!

[raptor95GTS]

both inner arches from under the door to the rear boot will need replacing plus the sills inner and outer also both sides. The rear boot section also has rust down in the gaps into the lower floor. Having had in the past sills replaced and a p1$$ poor job done (not cheap either) I can't see a proper job being that much cheaper than the 2k I think it will be. In Scotland there just aren't the repairers to do the job. I've had the front windscreen/ tbar area fixed and within 2 yrs it's rusting again so back to square one.

Oh, the mileage on the car is 169k miles, I've only put on 100k

[toxo]

Sorry to hear that Allan Yours is one of the cars that convinced me to get mine!

[raptor95GTS]

cheers bud, one less Caribbean Blue on the road when I split it.

[pbmr2]

really, you're breaking it?

If so can I post early interest in the front bumper if it's in nice condition?

surely this can be repaired? or is the size of the investment that puts you off and forces your hand to scapping?