Rust repair

[CPC]

Hello

Would you consider buying this car with this rust, i know theres plenty of others around but its got the suspension and supercharger id like.

This is a 2004 car!!




Would you say £700 mark would cover this repair? or should i just forget it?

Edited by CPC on Thursday 5th December 09:10

[rs4al]

£700 - £1000 is about right.

But if it's got rust there, the chassis rails could be a lot worse ! Google mk2 chassis rail rust to get an idea...

[pewe]

Always more below the surface than on it, so probably tin-worm on the inners as well.
If it's a Mk2 I'd be more concerned about the front chassis rails if the rear looks like this.
Fronts are a lot more difficult/costly to fix.
Does it have a long MOT as testers are advised to look carefully at the fronts - not a guarantee I know but some indication?
Lots of comments on this and other 5 forums.
HTH.
Cheers, Pewe.

[CPC]

Just searched google for the chassis rail rust! scary stuff!!

I need to look at this car very carefully. Its a 2004 1.8 sport with good coilovers, mp62 supercharger, hardtop and with good service history.. what sort of price would you say its worth in the above condition?

Edited by CPC on Thursday 5th December 13:26

[MegaMinion]

My mk2.5 had worse rust in the sills than that and the chassis rails are absolutely fine. So my advice is go and look at the car

[pewe]

pewe said:

Always more below the surface than on it, so probably tin-worm on the inners as well.
If it's a Mk2 I'd be more concerned about the front chassis rails if the rear looks like this.
Fronts are a lot more difficult/costly to fix.
Does it have a long MOT as testers are advised to look carefully at the fronts - not a guarantee I know but some indication?
Lots of comments on this and other 5 forums.
HTH.
Cheers, Pewe.

^^ CPC if Lazza doesn't come along in a minute regarding price query send him a PM I'm sure he won't mind giving you his opinion.

[rs4al]

Get the owner to put a fresh mot on it, that would give you a year to sort out any rust, I'm guessing the supercharger kit on its own is worth £1 - 1.5k, coilovers (if they are decent) £300-£500.

[MX-5 Lazza]

I'm not up to speed on current prices. I haven't bought an MX5 in over 10 years!
That rust doesn't look too bad though. Yes the sills will need doing sooner or later as they are clearly going but as long as you can't poke through them it's not urgent. The arches look save-able to me. I reckon you could get away with rubbing them back, treating the rust and respraying rather than having to weld. It looks like it's only on the spot-welded double skin at the moment and not into the arch itself.
All in all, that looks decent enough if the price reflects the sill condition... As long as the chassis rails are in good nick.

[CPC]

Thanks

With the chassis rails, can you clearly see the the rust if present when looking in the wheel well or is it normally hidden by covers?

[mike13]

Normally hidden,best to get car up on ramps/lift.

[buzzer]

You can see it... but look REALLY hard. I like this picture as you can clearly see that there are two pieces to the chassis, one inside the other, and they are spot welded together. This is where the problem lies... I see is that its very difficult to prevent corrosion between the skins as you cant get anything in there to stop, or slow the rot down.

Also, a new MoT is not proof everything is OK, testers have been missing this although VOSA have now made them aware so we will be seeing more failures from corrosion. If I looked at one with corrosion like in the picture, I would walk away... its only matter of time, a short time at that. With the value of the cars its just not worth repairing unless you can do it yourself, and then its a big job to do it properly.