Hi guys,

I just bought a 98 wagon, my first, hoping it's been an investment but amongst other problems the rust has taken hold. Both sides, inside the rear wheel arches, at the rear, where the bumper fastenings are. There is a real mud trap, and a quick poke around with my finger has revealed years' worth of mud and wet caked in the cavity. Cleaning it out has revealed the bumper fasteners have both corroded through and the bumper is now free floating at the rear arches, held on further round the back I imagine. It looks like I need to weld in repair sections, as it's not just a small panel, it runs the full length of the car and I bet it costs a fortune!

Rust has also got hold at the front arches although this seems up to now to be non-structural, if I can catch it before the winter when it definitely will be.

I also found that upon jacking her up the rear sill started to crumble. I'll be honest and say I didn't get any manuals with it and I don't know if I was jacking on a structural component or not but when I got my finger underneath it seemed like a box section was pretty crumbly. There was a hole that seemed around an inch across.

One further thing, it has quite a lot of stone chips on the front plastic bumper and some other scratches in plastic around the wing mirrors. Is there any way I can cover up the white scratches? Is it possible to polish the plastic or paint over it easily? I also noticed the front bumper lacquer was peeling. Is there anything I can do with it?

It definitely looks like it needs some work, I knew that when I bought it but could you give me any advice to save the pennies? I've never welded or painted a car in my life but I will give it a go if it's easy to do before the cold and wet sets in.

Cheers guys

 

it must be wagons ive just bought a cheap one in need of some tlc to do over time and it went pop the 2nd day. How bad are the arches? has the rust bubbled all the service paint?, tbh id go down the respray route,obviously if your budget permits. i have jsut been quoted £800 for mine doin, but not much rust on mine its mainly poor paint and dengs dents and scratches, although thats on hold now as i may be looking at an engine rebuild sooner than i had hoped

 

Just curious. Import or UK car?




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Sorry, I couldn't tell you where the car originated as I'm still a noob and not been able to decode the VIN yet. It has no manuals or SH. The bodywork is generally good, except the plastic work is very stone damaged and scratched back to white and is losing lacquer. The only rust on the metalwork is in the arches and these problem areas on the sills, which you can't even see until you get underneath. I know a lot of it is just poor design as there are serious moisture traps in the arches which were caked with mud. The rust has not penetrated at the front but has taken the paint off. At the rear it's rusted the bumper mounts off and is visible on the surface too. I hope that I can strip and prime the front before it gets any worse. Any advice for the plastic and lacquer guys?
Thanks!

 

id guess its a uk model or if not,been imported many yrs ago to have that amount of crud/rust.

as you probably know,you cant really treat it 100% so best to cut it out and reweld sections in for a proper job.

remove the skirts too to see the sills

Edit- just seen your other psot GL= UK

 

All uk classics are pretty bad for corrosion, especially around the rear arches.

Sadly there are no repair panels available, so you either have to replace the rear quarters, or do some nifty metal working to replace the rotton metal.

Done loads, and not a nice job to do, especially when you realise the inner arches are rotton too.

 

Easy answer, the speedo is on the right of the rev counter in the uk car, on the left in an import, up to MY99 that is.

Just curious as some people maintain that the UK car (with all it's underseal) rusts whereas the Jap import (sans underseal) doesn't.




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There is some form of rubbery underseal which is peeling off all over the place on the underside. I'm hoping to strip it off with a wire brush in the drill and recoat with something better. The speedo I think is on the left and the rev counter on the right. You mentioned there is a skirt and a sill, I thought at the time that I might be jacking up a non-structural part hence the crumbling. Was I jacking the skirt? There was damage to it at both jacking points when I bought the car. Probably the previous owners. There was also a structural beam behind it, underneath the car, with some holing.

 

the jacking points are right at the front and near the rear wheel behind the skirt on the sill lip so you can use the standard jack,were you using trolley jack ?

 

Mines a 98 import and the speedo is on the right.

 

https://www.scoobynet.com/private-sa...black-wrx.html

 

Hi,

Cheers for your input. I think my speedo's left / almost central, with the fuel on the left and the rev counter on the right. Perhaps it is an import? Anyway, I wondered if you had any advice to refurbish the bumpers at low cost - I need to remove all the white marks and repair the peeling lacquer.

Also for clarity am I meant to jack the car on the sharp edges of the sills or on the flat chassis box sections further underneath?

Thanks

 

Perhaps someone fitted the uk clocks?

As a rough check the classic Jap import will grenerally have
Speedo on the left of the rev counter up to MY99 when they went over to the white dials with the speedo larger than the rev counter.
Brown tinted glass (UK was green, apart from some specials with blue)
Add on rear fog unless a previous owner has fitted UK rear lights
Rear wash wipe on the saloon (except RA).
Imports have aircon (some uk cars have this as an option)
Electric folding wing mirrors
Japanese writing on the visor
Flare storage in passenger footwell (someone please confirm this one)
Vin number starts with G (uk with a J)
More power
WRX on the boot (uk has 2000turbo4wd on the boot)




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On the sharp edges at the marked points with the standard cantilever jack found in the boot.

With a trolley jack the rear is lifted on the diff.

On the front there is a chassis rail just inboard of the sill and just aft of the front suspension mounts. Use the very front of the rail and pad it with a bit of wood to spread the load.

Don't forget to chock the wheels remaining on the ground and provide additional support with axle stands.





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The car in question isnt a turbo

 

LOL,

Thats why I put in two seperate posts, JDM id for Maximus and jacking point id for Slystav.





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Do you know anywhere I can get my wheel arches repaired in Surrey?? I have discovered there are no rust repair panels too and want to have a reasonable job done. Any ideas??
Thanks