Hey guys I'm new to the site.So sorry if this is a thread that's already floating around.Here's my problem as of now.I recently bought a 95 Esi talon with 195k My plans were to rebuild the motor considering the high miles & because it had a blown head gasket.Now the interior was shot to hell & smelled terrible.So I figured ehh I'll gut it out & replace the carpet & headliner.& while I have the plastics out I can clean & paint them.Well once i get it all gutted out I find a few problems.In the trunk on both sides in the corners where the drain hoes goes from the hatch.The metal has rusted completely out.Also I was under the car today dropping the exhaust & found out that the exhaust hanger on the drivers side near the door completely came off as I was dropping the old exhaust.Then once I looked over there I see that it looks as if part of the frame is completely rusted out & gone.So my question is,is this car even worth saving? If it is what would it cost to get fixed? Help please!!

It can be fixed i would say but ive never seen it that bad there whats the rest of it looks like

jbeaton9292 said:

It can be fixed i would say but ive never seen it that bad there whats the rest of it looks like

Click to expand...

Here's a link to the video i just took of it.so you can get a better idea of what im working with.

[DOUBLEPOST=1410910411][/DOUBLEPOST]If you look just above the broken exhaust pipe you can also see where its rusted out & missing a piece that i was unable to get during the video.

How do the strut towers look?

NY 95 TSI AWD said:

How do the strut towers look?

Click to expand...

perfect

The rust in front of the rear wheels is pretty normal. If you get side skirts from a higher trim model you could just cut out the rust and weld metal over the holes to seal it, paint it over with whatever primer/paint/sealer etc you want to use and just put the side skirts back on. They'd basically hide any rust there. My old Talon was completely rusted to shit in that area but with the side skirts on you couldnt tell.

It was hard to tell from the video but most of the rest of the rust looks to be behind the rear wheels? I'd say just chop it out and patch it if you can. Maybe go look for a parts car if you feel like it. As long as the main frame points that the suspension mounts to and the pinch welds look alright, and strut towers (as the person above mentioned) i'd say you're alright. Especially with an ESI, it's not like you're gonna make 600hp and really stress the chassis anyways.

bmxfelon420 said:

The rust in front of the rear wheels is pretty normal. If you get side skirts from a higher trim model you could just cut out the rust and weld metal over the holes to seal it, paint it over with whatever primer/paint/sealer etc you want to use and just put the side skirts back on. They'd basically hide any rust there. My old Talon was completely rusted to sh** in that area but with the side skirts on you couldnt tell.

It was hard to tell from the video but most of the rest of the rust looks to be behind the rear wheels? I'd say just chop it out and patch it if you can. Maybe go look for a parts car if you feel like it. As long as the main frame points that the suspension mounts to and the pinch welds look alright, and strut towers (as the person above mentioned) i'd say you're alright. Especially with an ESI, it's not like you're gonna make 600hp and really stress the chassis anyways.

Click to expand...

Ok thanks.I'm more so concerned with the rust spreading.& I had plans on putting a after market kit one day down the line but for now i just wanted to do the talon to eclipse conversion.But im worried about the rust spreading & making the car unsafe.at the same times i don't wanna start modding the car & then find out that its rusted so bad that its either gonna cost a arm & a leg to repair or that it cant be repaired.but yea in one of the last 2 pictures i put up if you look just past the hanging muffler there's like a bar or something that's rusted out.& also in the video you can see where its rusted really bad.is where one of the exhaust hangers were before it completely broke off while i was removing the exhaust.

I wouldn't bother repairing it since it is a talon esi with 190k but if you insist i seen worst fixed search rust repairs and you could see what others did. you could just part it out and scrap it for $700ish then get a talon tsi or eclipse gsx it would be worth fixing if it was an awd turbo. their are some decent dsm for sale in are area. if you fix it I would not put thousands of dollars in paint and body kits and turbos though.

Burst said:

I wouldn't bother repairing it since it is a talon esi with 190k but if you insist i seen worst fixed search rust repairs and you could see what others did. you could just part it out and scrap it for $700ish then get a talon tsi or eclipse gsx it would be worth fixing if it was an awd turbo. their are some decent dsm for sale in are area. if you fix it I would not put thousands of dollars in paint and body kits and turbos though.

Click to expand...

Yea i wouldn't part it out.I'd probably just scrap it for like $300.This just blows because i had plans to mod it like my other one & now its like some people are saying scrap it & others are saying it can be fixed so its like ehh what should I do? & how much would it cost to get fixed if i did get it fixed?

jrmccrary said:

Yea i wouldn't part it out.I'd probably just scrap it for like $300.This just blows because i had plans to mod it like my other one & now its like some people are saying scrap it & others are saying it can be fixed so its like ehh what should I do? & how much would it cost to get fixed if i did get it fixed?

Click to expand...

it can be fixed but it would be alot of work taking it to a shop would not be worth it dont just scrap it the talon bumpers side skirts are worth more than $300 if you plan to spend around 4k just get an turbo model though

look at treads for ideas to fix
http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/rear-underbody-rust-removal-oem-restoration.482709/#post-153449604

could always go for a rat rod look
http://avtomaniya.com/pubsource/photo/1491/tuning-bmw-e28-jpg_IMG1BhTXB_image.jpg

Looks like too much to repair for a non-turbo to me. My awd looked better then your car and I removed 2 feet of rot under both doors. It will be worse then what you can see.

If the back looks like that, your front towers probably do have some rust eating through from the wheel well side. It may not be visible from engine bay yet.