Dimma Rust Woes...continues

[Ric Handley 0]

After half a day stripping the interior and further poking with a screwdriver I have discovered yet more rust and holes. Oh and it appears that the car was originally white.

 

I need some advice on whether to get it sorted, brake it up for parts or sell as an unfinished project? Bearing in mind I cannot weld, dont know if I have the time/patience to sort it and dont really want to spend more money on it than it will be worth when its all sorted!

 

There are two major problem areas of rust:

 

1. Drivers seat mounting/handbrake surround. As you can see in pic1 there is practically no metal holding the drivers seat at the rear left. It looks like this has been in this state for a while as someone has already sanded down the blue paint around the edge. I have no idea how it passed the MOT like this.

 

 

On the other side of the handbrake tunnel is a very strange looking hole.it appears to be a stress hole with several cracks coming from it.

close up>>with end of stress lines looped in red

 

2. Front floor pan near jacking points. This was difficult to photo sorry. It is a very big hole (around 15-20cm square) and most probably will be bigger once its cut to get to decent solid metal.

 

 

As well as the above I have also uncovered other smaller holes (5 in total) in the floor pan - 2 in the passenger rear footwell and 3 in the drivers footwell (2 holes and one slash).

 

On top of all this I have the front panel covered in rust and needing plates welding to fix standard lights, a plate needs welding near top strut, boot floor with a few rust bubbles, and several rust bubbles under the paintwork (exterior)..and thats all I can see for now! There may be ever more hidden problems *cries *

 

What do you think? Should I continue this project or give it up as a bad rotten apple and get out while I can and recoup my money in parts?

 

Thanks very much

 

Ric

[hengti 2]

that seat mount is shocking!

 

you'd have to be really concerned about the rest of the shell judging by what you've got there; what are the rear seat base and rear corners (behind lamp clusters) like?

 

i'd say there's a bit of fabrication (but not too much) that'd have to go into fixing the bits that you've photographed. at least you wouldn't have to worry about being particularly careful about damaging the paint finish for the interior jobs, although there's a danger you'd also have to respray the sill depending upon whether or not any welding damages the exterior paint finish there.

 

no real idea what people would quote you to fix up the bits shown but guess you'd be looking at several hundred to have everything you describe sorted properly - ?

 

what would it be worth if it were fixed?

[Ric Handley 0]

Thanks Hengti

 

As I peeled back the carpet/sound proofing I was shocked to see that seat mount too!

 

I am slowly finding more and more problems and Im dreading looking further tbh! It may be an idea to strip the whole lot down as much as I can and have a good look and ask around for prices for welding.

 

I dont know how much it will be worth... if it was tip top £2-5k? depending on the final spec and standard. But it needs a hell of a lot of work, time and money spent on it to get it to a good enough standard. i.e. welding, respray, replacement new parts etc etc

 

But the body kit is also cracking in places where its bonded to the body and there seems to be rusty water marks in the cracks! Maybe hidden rust underneath too??

[roland rat 11]

Thanks Hengti

 

As I peeled back the carpet/sound proofing I was shocked to see that seat mount too!

 

I am slowly finding more and more problems and Im dreading looking further tbh! It may be an idea to strip the whole lot down as much as I can and have a good look and ask around for prices for welding.

 

I dont know how much it will be worth... if it was tip top £2-5k? depending on the final spec and standard. But it needs a hell of a lot of work, time and money spent on it to get it to a good enough standard. i.e. welding, respray, replacement new parts etc etc

 

But the body kit is also cracking in places where its bonded to the body and there seems to be rusty water marks in the cracks! Maybe hidden rust underneath too??

as sad as it is to say maybe you should break the car?

if you didnt pay too much for it its not that bad if you make the money back

[marsy 0]

Hy Ric, Just wondering what you finally decided too do with the Dimma?