Hi all I’m new here, I’ve had my S2000 about two years now, I’d a couple of rust bubbles on the arches and start of the sills both sides, nothing major so I thought,
took it to my panel beaters to get it tidied up, he stripped it back and just kept finding rust rust and more rust, so I decided to take it back and brought it to a welding company who specialise in cars, it’s there now three weeks the sills are completely rotting along with both arches,

anyway after that essay my question is when’s enough enough and is it common to scrap an S2000 shell because of rust or can everything be fixed

 

Sills/rockers will need to be replaced. So will the rear quarters. I suppose a really good body person that does metal work could make and patch in panels for the arches, but likely cost more than just replacing the rear quarters, although rear quarter panels are a lot more work than replacing something like front fenders.

I would just get it estimated and decide if it is worth it to you. With the price of these cars rising, unless it is astronomical (and knowing another car may have arch rust lurking in there too) it may be worth it to you to repair.

 

That is commonly referred to as Honda Cancer. It rusts from the inside out, so the metal can fall apart as you try to clean it up and grind it off on the outside, just as you noted. On a car like the S2000 I say it is definitely worth saving, if it was a Civic I'd say push it off a cliff.

New metal will not rust as bad so I say save it if you can, and fix the car. The OEM setup used rubber strips on the wheel well arches and that traps moisture and salt over the years, it kills that area of the vehicle. When you get it fixed don't go back to using the rubber strips, and treat the repaired area with 3m cavity wax to ensure it never rusts again.

I've worked on some 90's Hondas in past months, not nearly as bad as your S2000 sounds though. I take out the interior panels and inspect and treat the inside surface of the outer body panels to keep them from rusting further where they have not rusted through yet.

 

Yep - just get all new fenders etc. Paint. BAM. Shame you didn't start with that from the beginning - sounds like you have put some effort and $ into it already. Good luck!

 

Yes I’ll be up to €2500 by the time it’s painted, honestly I don’t mind that it’s why I didn’t go down the road of filler or fibreglass I won’t be selling the car it’s something I bought to keep and enjoy,
that’s where my question really came from the wonder do these S2000s get scrapped because of rust or is everything fixable,
I don’t have an endless budget plus I’ve three other cars draining me too so hopefully this Honda is sorted soon and I get it out on the road for the one maybe two days of summer we get in Ireland

 

I have a '58 MGA and am active on the MGA forums. The MGA is worth about $18,000 to $22,000 U.S. for an enthusiast restoration. Every second thread on the forum is about rust repair.

My friend did a restoration and if you look at posts #1 through #3, you will see the unhappy specimen he started with. He fixed it all in his garage with a hammer, a welder and about a hundred clamps!

1958 MGA Coupe driver quality restoration thread : MGA Forum : MG Experience Forums : The MG Experience