3gee Advice

[halxi]

Well i stopped by a body shop and had them give me an estimate on what it would cost to fix the rust spot in my car, they said anywhere from $300-$1400

$300 be a cheap cutout repair and they said it will probably rust around the cut out where they welded it back in, didnt make much sense to me but ok, so the guy kept going and it finally came to they may have to replace the whole rear quarter panel for a 2x3 in rust spot thats not even all the way through in some spots, i was just like "HUH?" and thats WITHOUT paint

so heres the rust spot



anyways, down to the point... i love the car, great little car and i want to keep it, put a new motor in, mod it up, and all that stuff... but $1400 is more then the car is worth, so here i am seeking advice on what to do...

options would be,

keep it how it is, drive it for a year or so, sell it, buy a truck

keep it how it is, drive it for a year or so, sell it, buy a newer accord (94 coupe)

or go at it, fix it up, dump money into it, get it runnin good, make it look nice, fix the body problems

personally $1400 is a little much to me so final question, does anybody in the denver (colorado) area have the know how to fix this rust spot? or does anybody in the denver area know of a place that i could get it fixed right, but fairly cheap?

Any advice is appriciated!

[deevergote]

I would say to get the "cheap" option. It's better than bondo, and if they do it right it really shouldn't be an issue. I had that done to my 92 at Maaco, and it's holding up just fine. A friend of mine is doing the full 1/4 replacement, and that seems a little extreme. Hell, bondo would really be ok if you know what you are doing! As long as you aren't looking for a show car, you'll be good.

[halxi]

haha, definatly not a show car, the rust just needs to be gone so it will clean up fairly nice yaknow?

Going for the 'sleeper' look, for exterior appearence mods, going for JDM corners (if i can find them at the time), clear bumper lenses, tint, drop, and 16"rims... thats pretty much it

[YK86]

Go for the cutout and bondo option. I would spray alot of undercoating right away on the back side of the wheel well. This will help alot in the long run. I fixed some rust before (same amount of rust on both sides, fixed by grinding out the rust and bondoed). After painting, I sprayed one side with undercoating and that side had only one bubble reappear in 4 years. The non undercoated side had about the same amount as when I first fixed it which was quite a bit.

[danronian]

I would just try cutting and rivetting a panel in yourself, then use bondo and make it look good, and then prime and paint it with touch up paint. Afterwards possibly do the prep work yourself and get it painted at Maaco for $200. Otherwise I would just leave it as it is.

[halxi]

I would just try cutting and rivetting a panel in yourself, then use bondo and make it look good, and then prime and paint it with touch up paint. Afterwards possibly do the prep work yourself and get it painted at Maaco for $200. Otherwise I would just leave it as it is.

those are pretty much my exact plans.

I just dont have the tools i need to do a cutout and fix it which is why im going to have it done professionally if they will do the cutout for me and spray some undercoating on, then ill have them send it back to me with just the bare metal and ill start sanding everything down and fixing all the dings/dents in the front end.

Ive been told that if you do all the prep work yourself a Maaco paintjob will hold up well, is this true or did those people just get lucky with Maaco?

[YK86]

My car was a Maaco job. I didn't take care of it well (I was using dish detergent back then to wash since I didn't know any better which pretty much strips any wax on the car and not waxing after exposes it to all the elements bad for paint) and it still held up fine for 3 years. It did start fading afterwards and at this point (7 years after the original job) it kind of looks like my car is primered LOL. The first 3 years, everyone was amazed at how nice it was for a cheapo job. I got good value out of mine and I have no hesitations going back there again to paint an older car. I didn't even do any of my own prep work last time. The only complaint I had was a bit of overspray (they took care of it when I complained though) and they didn't seem to use proper flexing agents for painting the bumper. When I hit a branch during a storm, the paint cracked and with in a week, a pretty big area had flaked off.

If I were to do it again, I'd follow the steps accordlx posted (it should come out if you do a search) and it should come out even better. The maaco i went to had a better rep than most places (I shopped around) and they now use only Dupont base/clear paint unlike before where they used Sherwin-Williams enamel based paints for the cheap jobs.

So next time around, I would do my own prep, they would use better paint, and I now know how to take care of the paint so i wouldn't be surprised if it stayed looking nice for 5+ years instead of just 3 like last time.