ARGH WHY?!?

[Mux213]

Jezza, picture is a bit big indeed. Best is to attach the picture to the email by first selecting post reply (instead of using the quick reply option) and then at the bottom use the attachments.

Pictures are then shown relatively small and the user can click on it and it will be opened bigger. Also nice is that the picture is hosted on our server so you dont need to put it online somewhere...

[Squeejy]

I really don't want to scare you here but that's what most UK AE86s are like. The more you look, the more rust you'll find and you have two options:

You can either spend forever chasing the rust around the car

or

You can spend a big lump sum and have the car stripped, sandblasted, welding, repainted, waxoyled and undersealed. (which is what mine is in the middle of)

The third option is to get rid of the car. I would have done that myself but my car is so bad that I would feel guilty selling it to someone right now.

[Jezza_hr]

I have no idea what to do. In terms of a big lump sum, how much are you paying? I know it's going to be LOTS but im just curious.

The idea of getting rid of it really upsets me but in so many cases it seems like the most sensible option. I'm going to have to REALLY think about all of this after I get some quotes for the work. I may just help it through its MOT in June and then get myself another car and wait until a nice Japanese import is available after i've got some NCB's. We will have to wait and see

[robokill]

Jezza thats not cool man you could try to learn some welding yourself btw you need to want to be a technician driving a hachi

[Mux213]

Jezza,

You have to wonder what is cheaper, importing a good quality hachi from Japan with the risk of it not being as good as you thought it was, or fixing up what you have right now. Post some more pics of your other worries, if that wheel well is the worst thing it really isn't all to bad.

Robo has got a good point though, unless you yourself or your friends have the skills a hachi can be a real money eater unless you get lucky to get a really good condition one. But there aren't many of those in our blasted weather. Still they are well worth the effort and really, it is alot of fun learning to work on these cars as they are very straight forward cars.

My advise to you is see if you can fix up the things that are really needed for the MOT, drive the car and start planning the things you need to fix up tackling each problem one by one. This way your car slowly improves to a car you know inside out and is in perfect condition. The only problem that you will need to really watch out is that every time you fix a rust infected area there is a change rust will come back there. The only fix for that is what squeejy mentions, but unless you are planning to strip the car fully yourself, do the needed welding work at that time yourself, and then bringing it to the sandblaster and painter, and then put her back togehter, it really is alot of money to pay.

People tent to forget that in order to do this properly the car needs to be fully taken appart, all windows removed, all engine parts removed, all fuel lines and brake lines removed, etc.etc.etc., that is alot of work if you have to pay someone by the hour.

[Jezza_hr]

It's not the technical side of things that bothers me. It's the rust side of things. Chances are, getting one from Japan the rust is bound to be far more minimal than what I see here. Which would give me freedom to actually work on the car without worrying about rust. Sure enough, rust would still need to be treated and taken care of but what i'm looking at here is a lot of money to do if it's to be done properly.

I think if I was to spend £3000 to do rust repair that could just as easily be put towards a mint condition import for all round new suspension, engine parts and various other pieces that would be really appreciated. I know it may not make much sense but I've seen a few imports for £3300-£5000 (including shipping) upwards with practically no rust problems, a mint interior, a decent ride height with no suspension problems, low mileage, including 12 month MOT and 6month TAX. That to me seems fair when considering I paid £2600 for my AE86 and the rust repair alone would probably bring it near to the £5000 mark, not to mention the respray.

I know that I (like everyone) need guidance (hence my reasons for visiting these boards) but looking at the issue in hand i'm just trying to think of the more logical reason and would certainly appreciate some of that guidance right now in terms of doing whats best.

[Squeejy]

I don't want to publicly announce how much I'm spending on mine but....

I was in the same position as you eighteen months ago and I decided to keep the car and get it sorted. I quickly found that he more work I did to it, the more problems I found until getting rid of the car was unfeasable because I had put so much money in.

Luckily you are in a better position as there are now plenty of reputable sellers offering imports. My advice is to get rid of the car and get a decent import. You should still be careful buying imports, you can get stung on them too, buy with your head and you should be ok.

[JonT]

I think your over estimating the cost of the repair. Depends what you want to do. Matt is a perfectionist but the car can be repaired for much less. I had to do a lot of welding on my car, got a local guy to do it and it only cost £300. I would expect to pay £150-200 for what you need.

I have also seen a few imported cars now, and strangely enough they have rust in Japan too. A couple of cars have nearly been as bad as mine. If you fix your car up you will at least know where you stand with it. Changing it means that your selling the problem to someone else and your back to an unknown car with unknown problems. These are 20 year old cars, they will have problems. By a cheap run around so that there are no time pressures [fwd GT perhaps, very cheap Corollas] and learn about your car.

[Ivan141]

Exactly! I think you scare to easily from the rust problems. For 20 year old cars most hachi's I know are fairly well built..there are some rustbuckets out there but the regularly driven and maintained ones never have more than a few holes.
I was scared by the rustholes in my car to in the beginning, I choose to bite the bullet and have them repaired, after that rust mainly becomes a containment issue.
I'm not out of the rusty woods yet, but I'm confident I'll get there. From what I have seen of your car it is in fairly good condition..
Take a look at some of the restoration projects around on the forum, some guys have welded half the car and they probably havent spent as much as you estimate your repairs to be. The most important thing is that the rust does not extend to the frame of the car, or in lots of unusual places.

[Jezza_hr]

After finally taking a look into it. I now realise how hasty I was being. Being the first time I had seen this I was unsure what to think. I have since had an MOT pre-check to find that there is less wrong with the car than anticipated and its not going to cost as much as expected to fix.

I have also had a good chat with my brother who works for a garage doing dent repair. It turns out one of the guys he works with use to weld AE86's for Toyota so i'm going to be going to him to get the work done. So all is not lost