2G My car has cancer guys (RUST). Options? What to do? ;(

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX · Apr 20, 2020

Hey guys. Just joined the forum! This is my 1999 Eclipse GSX w/ black leather interior and all the options... The hardest and most sought after version (except it being an auto, LOL

). My dream car.

Over the years the weather and salt seems to have taken a toll on my previously showroom quality Eclipse GSX, I am wondering if this rust is fixable, what my options are, and cost estimates and tools required from experienced owners.

I am also looking for experienced owners on guidance for fully dismantling the car and re-building it, (where parts go back together, what order to remove things/ put them back ect). If you are in the CT or MA area or willing to drive up I would greatly appreciate your knowledge, expertise and advice. I need someone to do a full inspection of the car and tell me what needs cleaning, fixing, or replacing when we remove all the parts. I will be also looking for replacement parts and possibly a painter on DSMtuners too, I was told painting the car black would be $3000-4000. I want to (1) dismantle down to the uni-body frame (2) screen the part conditions (3) lay them out in an organized fashion (4) repair/ clean all the rust (5) rust proof with truck bed liner (interior/ trunk/ engine bay) (6) touch up exterior paint/ PDR on some recent small dents (7) install CF hood, wiper cowl and hatch (8) install widebody and polyurethane front and rear bumpers (9) repaint exterior from white to black (10) replace, paint, or blackout all light fixtures and replace them with white, amber and red LED bulbs. Depending on how much this costs, I am going to hold off on rims, CF interior, air suspension, and performance mods. I will do the maintenance mods tho.

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THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX · Apr 20, 2020

I know this sounds ambitious, and it is, but I don't want my investment and favorite car since I was a kid to rot right in front of me. #savetheeclipse

jinscho · Apr 20, 2020

Honestly, that doesn't look all that bad...

Mostly surface rust from what I can tell, MAYBE a little more on the rear quarters but 100% salvageable. I'd suggest going to a local body shop and getting some quotes for cleaning it up. That is, unless you want to do all of the paint work yourself...

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX · Apr 20, 2020

I am the second owner, bought it at 24,000 miles, the car has 64,000 miles on it now.

Dusty Landrum · Apr 20, 2020

Man the car as it sits now does not look too bad at all!! I am LITERALLY doing exactly what you are mentioning you want to do RIGHT NOW. I have mine all the way down to the frame under the car. The issue is that if you are seeing rust on the outside of the paint, that means it is getting worse under it. I also have the 99 GSX with black interior, but Mica in color. DM me on here and I will help you with what I have done so far and some guidance. Check out my profile and you will see what I mean as far as doing what you are talking about. There are also other people currently doing this too because of all the Covid time we have LOL

.

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX · Apr 20, 2020

jinscho said:
Honestly, that doesn't look all that bad...

Mostly surface rust from what I can tell, MAYBE a little more on the rear quarters but 100% salvageable. I'd suggest going to a local body shop and getting some quotes for cleaning it up. That is, unless you want to do all of the paint work yourself...

That's great to hear! I was already quoted $300-400 for the rear quarters. They told me if they started removing bumpers and side skirts they are likely to find more rust... I don't want to do the exterior paint myself it would look silly, but I wanted to try and do the rust grinding and engine bay + interior + trunk + wheel wells with truck bed liner and apply it myself with someone from here to help me.

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX · Apr 20, 2020

Dusty Landrum said:
Man the car as it sits now does not look too bad at all!! I am LITERALLY doing exactly what you are mentioning you want to do RIGHT NOW. I have mine all the way down to the frame under the car. The issue is that if you are seeing rust on the outside of the paint, that means it is getting worse under it. I also have the 99 GSX with black interior, but Mica in color. DM me on here and I will help you with what I have done so far and some guidance. Check out my profile and you will see what I mean as far as doing what you are talking about. There are also other people currently doing this too because of all the Covid time we have .

Under the car is worse, but I figure saving the uni-body comes first, I can always replace under-body separate parts, the exhaust is bad as far as I can tell. Will add pics in the next day or two. Will DM in the future too. Thanks.

motomattx · Apr 20, 2020

Pull the side skirts to see whats under them, I would think the majority will be under there, the rest looks like just surface rust, apply some Evapo-rust gel to those surfaces and it will remove the rust and leave clean metal without damaging anything and is non toxic. Keep in mind though, that all of the work will be in vain if you continue to drive it in the winter or anytime between October through May, it will rust right back out in a year or two.

DevineAstral · Apr 21, 2020

In all honesty, your car is mint compared to even newer vehicles around my area..(Pennsylvania.) Might I suggest just looking into taking it to a professional paint shop and getting a fresh coat of paint all around, inside and out.? Them media/soda blasting the old paint off will certainly clear up all of the surface rust issues. And just take extra care dealing with the rear rocker panel where all that dirt gets trapped and holds water. But definitely look into the oem paint/paint coat since it’s such a beautiful color or might even be a good chance to look into something new.? Just my 2¢ of course.

benspilk09 · Apr 21, 2020

If this car is going to continue to see road salt, it's a losing battle. Any repairs you attempt will just be consumed by more rust.

If it's parked in the winter and not driven in the rain, it likely won't get any worse.

spyderdrifter · Apr 21, 2020

Most of the rust looks like just surface rust, minus possibly under the skirts. As mentioned, pull the skirts off and check for sure. If all is surface rust, a good sanding and paint fix can fix it all. As for rusty hardware, replace it before it causes the threads in the metal to rust.

Matt oats · Apr 21, 2020

Look fine to me That rust is minor I think ....Should I buy a 1gen tsi awd with 450hp and 20k in rebuild he says $3000

Widgmaster · Apr 21, 2020

Trying to hide a big brown spot on a white background is hard to do. I agree with the others that the rust you see is not that bad. If you love your ride as much as I love mine you will take yours to a pro and let him have a look . You say you are going to strip the car down so now is the time to address that rust....

bettfootball · Apr 21, 2020

Dusty

Dusty Landrum said:
Man the car as it sits now does not look too bad at all!! I am LITERALLY doing exactly what you are mentioning you want to do RIGHT NOW. I have mine all the way down to the frame under the car. The issue is that if you are seeing rust on the outside of the paint, that means it is getting worse under it. I also have the 99 GSX with black interior, but Mica in color. DM me on here and I will help you with what I have done so far and some guidance. Check out my profile and you will see what I mean as far as doing what you are talking about. There are also other people currently doing this too because of all the Covid time we have .

Lol we are all doing the same thing. I have a white 99 with black interior. And yes I agree with other people, the rust is probably hiding. 99's got the least amount of seam sealer and undercoating out of all the dsms. My rockers looked like yours.

EVLGSX · Apr 21, 2020

The seam sealer they used back in the 90s on these has also dried and is no longer actually sealing. On most of the DSMs Ive owned in the last few years,it has turned into a powder like substance that can be picked right off.

If the rust repair is done by a professional, someone who has experience and knows what thy are doing, it will last many years. Very few are capable of proper rust mitigation.

Dusty Landrum · Apr 21, 2020

motomattx said:
Pull the side skirts to see whats under them, I would think the majority will be under there, the rest looks like just surface rust, apply some Evapo-rust gel to those surfaces and it will remove the rust and leave clean metal without damaging anything and is non toxic. Keep in mind though, that all of the work will be in vain if you continue to drive it in the winter or anytime between October through May, it will rust right back out in a year or two.

So I knew nothing of this evaporated-rust.. thank you and I will for sure be picking some of this up. I have been using the por-15 metal prep but the gel seems like it might work better.

bettfootball said:
Dusty

Lol we are all doing the same thing. I have a white 99 with black interior. And yes I agree with other people, the rust is probably hiding. 99's got the least amount of seam sealer and undercoating out of all the dsms. My rockers looked like yours.

Haha you were actually the first person I thought to mention as well! I just could not remember your screen name on here. Thank you for updating your profile so often too. Crazy how clean a car can look until you start pulling things apart. I thought mine was pretty bad but seeing all the other people doing the same thing and their rust makes gives me more courage to keep going.

jed344 · Apr 21, 2020

Have a body shop look at it and quote you. I have been doing body work professionally for 10+ years and currently am a full time painter at a resto shop. It is hard to give advice to someone threw photos and my advise is likely going to be very different from that of the average enthusiast. For the surface rust the best way would be to sand blast it then seam seal the seam its in and paint it.

motomattx · Apr 21, 2020

I would not suggest sand blasting or soda blasting etc any painted surface on these newer cars, first they will warp by even looking sideways at them, sandblasting will warp the panels they are just to thin, second I don't ever recommend breaking through the factory primer unless the area needs putty or welded and then only that single area as small as possible, the factory primer is baked on in an oven and you will never get close to that type of adhesion from any paint system on this planet other than the baked on stuff.

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX · Apr 22, 2020

Some bottom pics, yep more rust.

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX · Apr 22, 2020

Side bottom.

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX · Apr 22, 2020

Other side bottom.

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX · Apr 22, 2020

Rear bottom.

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX · Apr 22, 2020

benspilk09 said:
If this car is going to continue to see road salt, it's a losing battle. Any repairs you attempt will just be consumed by more rust.

If it's parked in the winter and not driven in the rain, it likely won't get any worse.

I will have to DD it sadly, but I am going to use HQ expensive truck bed liner or something similar to coat all under-body, wheel wells, engine bay, trunk, and interior floor. Also I will get the season pass for car wash in the winter months. That is the plan.

Dusty Landrum · Apr 22, 2020

If you can, embed the photos in the posts. Just copy and paste them into the post and it will make viewing them WAAY easier btw. Have to say though man, your car looks just like a lot of others on here. Just the way it is with the northern cars. If you are having to DD the car, then there is no way you will ever be able to get it completely taken care of the right way. Just covering it up with bed liner etc will actually probably make it worse too. My advice would be to put the car on stands and slowly work on it like most of us are doing on here. Will be VERY time consuming but way cheaper too (but still expensive). Other than that take it somewhere and have them do it but I can't even imagine what a shop would charge to do a complete frame up restoration on these...

benspilk09 · Apr 22, 2020

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX said:
I will have to DD it sadly, but I am going to use HQ expensive truck bed liner or something similar to coat all under-body, wheel wells, engine bay, trunk, and interior floor. Also I will get the season pass for car wash in the winter months. That is the plan.

Bed liner is a waste of time and will make it worse. What you need to do is keep it clean and dry. Additional coatings will just further trap chemicals and moisture against the metal and speed up the rust.

What you should do is sand blast it, paint it, and keep it as clean and dry as possible.

Sadly, If you DD it and live in the north, there's really no saving it. If you want your car to stay in decent shape, the only option is parking it October through May.

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2G My car has cancer guys (RUST). Options? What to do? ;(

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX

jinscho

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX

Dusty Landrum

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX

motomattx

DevineAstral

benspilk09

spyderdrifter

Matt oats

Widgmaster

bettfootball

EVLGSX

Dusty Landrum

jed344

motomattx

THiCC ECLiPSE GSeX

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