Rusted car. Please help

[johnboy1065]

Hey ya'll,

I recently noticed that I have BAD rust on my 1998 Nissan 240sx. I am wanting to cut out the rust and replace it with sheet metal but have no experience in this.

The parts that are rusted are:

1. The drivers side floor pan.
2. The left and right rocker panels.

I saw online that you can buy the entire floor pan for around 600 dollars. I know that you can just cut out the part thats rusted and weld sheet metal in there instead of buying the actual floor pan. Does anyone know of what gauge sheet metal to buy or a good place online to buy it?

The left and right rocker panels have a lot of curvature to them so I'm thinking I would be better off buying them already pre-made and just weld them in there. Anyone know where I could buy those at?

I'm REAL inexperienced in body repair but I am willing to try my best. Also have a friend that is a welder for a living that will help me. Just need advice on what and where to buy these things.


Thank you,
John

[OrangeVirus1]

Home depot sells some pretty large sized sheet metal.

[johnboy1065]

Home depot sells some pretty large sized sheet metal.

Thank you,

Does anyone know around what gauge I should maybe buy? I'd like to know before I start cutting on the car.

[STL240SXDRIFT]

Unless you plan to use this car as practice...Please go have a professional do it. My advice (how I learned...) is to find an auto body repair class/cert at a near by tech school. They teach panel repair/rust repair, how to use bodyfiller, lay primer and paint. ITS NOT THAT HARD TO DO...but have someone experienced teach you. Always go get some scrap metal from a junkyard (same gauge) and practice metal working, sanding, and painting on it first. Hope this helps...and next time ask types of questions like this in the small questions thread.

[johnboy1065]

Unless you plan to use this car as practice...Please go have a professional do it. My advice (how I learned...) is to find an auto body repair class/cert at a near by tech school. They teach panel repair/rust repair, how to use bodyfiller, lay primer and paint. ITS NOT THAT HARD TO DO...but have someone experienced teach you. Always go get some scrap metal from a junkyard (same gauge) and practice metal working, sanding, and painting on it first. Hope this helps...and next time ask types of questions like this in the small questions thread.

Thanks for the reply. No I do not plan on using this car to practice on. I care a lot about this car. I may not actually do the work on the car yet. I'm not sure yet. I'll see if my friend who is experienced thinks we can pull it off.

I am more concerned with where to find the sheetmetal/parts.

So the floor panels off of a junkyard car seems to be the best bet? How about for rocker panels? I'd rather buy them new if possible.

[xoxide]

Do not try this yourself if you have no experience. If you want to do it right, you need to buy actual rockers and floorpans. You drill the factory spot welds out and pull the old rusted parts out, then mock the new ones in and spot weld them back at the factory places. If you are not experienced and do not have a good welder, just bring it to a body shop to be done right. Unless its a full out track car, dont just weld in sheetmetal floors.

[Gold Coast S14]

This will decimate all, after you put about fifteen grand in it... Or more, if we have to, overnight parts from japan.

[johnboy1065]

This will decimate all, after you put about fifteen grand in it... Or more, if we have to, overnight parts from japan.

coolbeans :cool:

[collegekid]

Just call around and get some quotes.

Can you post up pictures of said Rust? That way we can actually give you an idea of how many hours it should take. Also remember to try and find some local small shop welder rather than some super huge ass body shop thats known internationally. It's just metal and its not a ferrari. Just ask to see some of their work before you pay $100 to some kid who borrows his dads welder.

I had a sizable amount of rust removed from my car and it cost me $600. Took them one day from about 3 pm to late at night to finish.

I had
-a giant rust hole in my wheel well
-rusting around the seam weld behind the strut tower in the same wheel well
-some rust around the wiper motor (underneath the cowl)
-some rusting near the passenger wheel well
-cut out and removal of my rusted sunroof drain (had my sunroof deleted by them as well, so no need for it anymore)

I also suggest you find any and all rust on your car, just get it done once and be done with it. Make sure you paint it with atleast something right after.

[blessedhellrider]

pics would be nice .
maybe find a parts car/junk yard and cut the parts you need.
if you want to try and do it yourself ,im sure you can find how-to vids on youtube.