aznpoopy
09-08-2003, 10:29 AM
i checked my car over for rust this weekend. fixed some of it. took alot longer then i expected. anyway this might be of some help to some s14 owners. besides the obvious common areas, there are some damn unexpected places rust will pop up on our cars.
under the hood, look at the areas where the hood 'sits' on the frame. there are rubber stoppers in the hood that allow it to sit on metal areas without causing damage. right? wrong! apparently those rubber stoppers got hard and crusty after many years and started taking off the under-hood coating! i had pretty bad rust in quite a few areas. i sanded it off with a 3m sander pen. then i used a rust->primer converter, sanded the resultant primer off (to get off that rust that u can't see). finally i coated it with a thick coat of rubber spray. i figured that would let the rubber stoppers sit there without causing any damage.
the second place i didn't expect to find rust... the plastic liner that meets the passnger and driver side windows. the portions of the liner that met the top of the car were actually peeling away from the car, forming a nice little gap for water to collect. this was a BIG gap too, easily 3/4 of an inch across and maybe 5 inches long. my friend attributed this to bad nissan build quality. there was no damage or signs of bad wear. i guess being baked for so many years warped the plastic/rubber and it pulled away from the car. we didn't know how to fix it, so i cleaned up spots of rust at the rim and sealed em.
those were the big two surprises. otherwise... the water run off that sits under the hood, the hinges that hold the hood up and the trunk hinges too, plenty of nicks in the front of the hood by the grill and headlights, two spots on the door where someone smacked it while opening their door :mad: , and the wheel wells. take those damn mud guards off if you have em! and clean the wheel well lining!
comments : blue emerald FN2 is an impossible color to match and nobody carries a spray on or touch up. gotta go to the dealer for an exact match. i apologize in advance for noobness if this has been covered.
sorri for the long post. i hope this helps someone.
under the hood, look at the areas where the hood 'sits' on the frame. there are rubber stoppers in the hood that allow it to sit on metal areas without causing damage. right? wrong! apparently those rubber stoppers got hard and crusty after many years and started taking off the under-hood coating! i had pretty bad rust in quite a few areas. i sanded it off with a 3m sander pen. then i used a rust->primer converter, sanded the resultant primer off (to get off that rust that u can't see). finally i coated it with a thick coat of rubber spray. i figured that would let the rubber stoppers sit there without causing any damage.
the second place i didn't expect to find rust... the plastic liner that meets the passnger and driver side windows. the portions of the liner that met the top of the car were actually peeling away from the car, forming a nice little gap for water to collect. this was a BIG gap too, easily 3/4 of an inch across and maybe 5 inches long. my friend attributed this to bad nissan build quality. there was no damage or signs of bad wear. i guess being baked for so many years warped the plastic/rubber and it pulled away from the car. we didn't know how to fix it, so i cleaned up spots of rust at the rim and sealed em.
those were the big two surprises. otherwise... the water run off that sits under the hood, the hinges that hold the hood up and the trunk hinges too, plenty of nicks in the front of the hood by the grill and headlights, two spots on the door where someone smacked it while opening their door :mad: , and the wheel wells. take those damn mud guards off if you have em! and clean the wheel well lining!
comments : blue emerald FN2 is an impossible color to match and nobody carries a spray on or touch up. gotta go to the dealer for an exact match. i apologize in advance for noobness if this has been covered.
sorri for the long post. i hope this helps someone.