[bil]

So I'm in the process of stripping Cleo, and I've learned a lot. She's had a hard life. Here's the list so far.

*The bulkhead's mashed back a bit from running into an audi. I've gotten a new bumper support and I think I can compensate for that. A new ds fender should arrive monday.

*The hood's got lots of dings and dents, I've gotten about 2/3s of those up and mostly out. Some of the dings are from spot welds that have been pulled down, tho, so I can't do much with them.

*The ps fender isn't original, but it's in good shape.

*Both door have dents, and show the typical damage from rubbing into damaged fenders on the leading edge. The ps has fewer dents, but in worse spots. The ds door has bigger dents, but I'm making good progress bringing those up.

*At some point, someone broke the ds door glass. When it got fixed, whoever did the work didn't vacuum the glass out of the bottom of the door, and dirt collected there, and that means water did, too, and so there's rust along the bottom, but it looks fixable.

*The ps quarter is in pretty good shape, but that's because it's not original, either. There's some bent metal on the inside, so it looks like someone popped it pretty bad. Also, there are two small cracks in the wheelwell that I've gound so far, and it looks like water got into the front lower part of the quarter and then into the rocker, so there's rust there. And, more significantly, the weld joint where the new quarter was put in rusted through in a couple of places from the back, and ran along under the bondo a bit. So I'll be cutting out that at least 3-4 inches. Whoever did that work did a good job with the bondo, I couldn't tell it was a weld joint under I got under it.

*The ds quarter panel, the only original side panel on the car, has the usual rust along the wheel well.

Aside from that, she's in great shape, bodywise. (;

Please burn some incense and say a pray, for today I start cutting.

 

[bil]

I toast to you for playing surgeon on your rex. Have fun.

Surgeon? Naw, more like "Meat, the Butcher".

Took the rear bumper off, found more rust on the aft end of the quarters.

One thing I'm certain of now, if you haven't pulled the bumpers and plastics off in a few years, do it.

 

[bil]

Good idea. I haven't pulled the rocker plastic off yet on mine. I'm scared what I'll find. First time I pulled the rear bumper I had to overhaul the rusty support.

Yeah, look what I found under the rear bumper:

The lower joint wasn't anymore, all the spot welds were rusted through. This is what was under that:

You can see where the wheel well was pounded out, and where the spot welds from the first quarter were cut out. Also, there's no weep hole at this point, so once it gets dirty, it'll hold water--there was about a 1/4 cup of rust and dust in there at the bottom....

 

[bil]

Yeah, I've got a wand gun on order, along with some rust preventive, going to spray everything inside before sanding the outside...

 

[bil]

Wondering when you'd show up. (;

Re: the glass, no worries. One of the things that's interesting about this to me is all the things I'm smacking myself in the forehead about for not doing with my 88--when you take it apart and see how things deteriorate, it's all too often blindingly obvious what you should done and didn't do, and what it's going to take to fix it. A short list:

*Pull the plastic trim every couple of years.

*That rust spot on the quarter isn't the size of a quarter, it's the size of your hand, you're just looking on the wrong side.

*The plastic trim on the wheel shouldn't be there.

*That leak in the hatch means rust in the bottom of the tire wheel, at the seat belt mounts, and the seat mounts.

*Those places that collect dirt and leaves at the bottom of the wheel wells needs to be washed clean multiple times a year.

*That condensation in the headlights is gonna make some rust you won't be able to get out.

All and all for a car that's almost twenty years old, she's doing pretty good.

Welding and spraying rust preventer this weekend on the passenger side, figure to make another pass all around on dent removal, but I think I'm at the point that I won't need more than 1/4" of filler anywhere (but I have a feeling there's already a good bit of filler in the passenger quarter).

More pics should be coming up on monday. Got a new driver's side fender and bumper support, too, and a canopy to use to keep the weather off so I can finish stripping the trim. Should be able to start sanding in a couple of weeks, then building back up....

 

[bil]

Wait, so theres rust on the seatbelt mounts?!? :shock:

The spare wheel well too? Its crazy finding out all these things about my old car...I had always thought that the rust was just on the DS rear quarter, rear bumper beam, and the exhaust. Then again...I never tore the car down like you did.

Nope, those are from the 88--the tubes got stopped up in the sunroof assembly, so the carpet got wet a few times, once to the point of 2" of water in the cabin.

When I stripped the 88's interior in feb to make an asessment, I had to use two wrenches on the the spare tire's retaining bolt to break it loose. Glad I didn't find that after a flat.

I did fix a hole in cleo's exhaust, just brazed a patch onto the hole. Really the back end at least needs to be replaced, but I figured the patch would get her through an inspection after I get her painted.

And its crazy that the PS rear quarter area has been replaced...I figured that the area had been repainted, but not replaced. :shock:

Does it look like it was replaced because of physical damage or because of rust?

Physical damage, looks like the wheel well got crushed and hammered back out--whoever did it did a good job on the filler, at least at the door jamb. I haven't sanded down the surface of the quarter, so I don't know how much of it got replaced. I'm guessing just a section. The ironic thing is that that quarter's wheel well doesn't have much rust, I guess because it's newer....(;

This is becoming an obsession, but I'm having fun with it. Get to try out the new compressor this weekend.

 

[bil]

Well, I didn't get as far as I hoped due to work interfering on saturday morning, so I didn't run the compressor like I hoped. But I did get a lot done.

More and bigger pic are here.

The first piece welded and soldered (lap and butt welds, with silver solder behind the tabs to augment the lap welds):

Both pieces in:

And the first of three of the rocker pieces epoxied in:

 

[bil]

Hey, I don't know nothing about this really, just feeling my way through. I've never done this kind of work before, so do your research before following me into the woods.

The jack point attaches to the pan. At that point there are also two sheets of metal, an inner rocker panel and an outer rocker panel, both curve down to the lower edge of the panel and are spot welded to it. So you've basically got three pieces laminated along the lower edge, and the jack point sits on the inside of that lamination.

On the two sides I've taken apart so far, water collecting at the lower seam caused rust between the laminations, and rust though spots in the outer rocker. I have not found rust on the underside of the car, where it's coated with rubberized underbody. So you can see what I'm doing--cutting out the sections of panel that have rust, wirebrushing and grinding down to clean metal as best I can, and putting new pieces in using a combination of welds, silver solder, and rivets/panel adhesive. The silver solder I'm not sure about--generally folks advise against using solders since the flux can react badly with filler or paint, but the solder I'm using is food grade with a water soluble flux, so I'm hoping I'm getting it all out. And I'm not using it where I'll put filler directly over top of it.

The main thing I've learned is that those lower trim pieces can hide a lot of damage, if you haven't pulled them yet, that's your first step. So far, replacing the rocker pieces hasn't been all that hard to do, but only time will tell if it will hold up. If I had rust in the pan itself, I don't think I could fix that. I don't think those rocker pieces contribute a great deal of strength to the jack point--the metal is pretty thin, and the angles are wrong in terms of bearing heavy load--it looks like the majority of load is carried through the pan itself. But the rocker panel undoubtably provides lateral support to the jack point.

I also think it's a good idea to pull the carpet out to check the upper surface of the pan. I didn't find any rust there, but I've seen some posts where people found the pan rusted through (although I think that's more a problem with the first gennies).

Some links that might help:
http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=881836
http://www.mypearl.dds.nl/CRXRUSTFAQ/index.html (but don't use foam, it holds water)

This might help, too:
http://wwwx.cs.unc.edu/~hays/crx/rocker_panel/index.html

Is it worth it? I have no idea. I'm doing it, but it's my midlife crisis, and I know I'm crazy. Ask me in a few years. ('

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