arandomnonce

It has come to my attention that the previous owner stanced my beloved s2k and scraped the frame rails. I was under the impression that it wasn't a big deal as they are not structural and I didn't pay attention to it. I am currently trying to sell this car. Clearly this could be dealbreaker to a potential buyer. The underside seemed free of rust otherwise.

Photos of scraped frame rails here.

Three questions:
How important are the frame rails to the structure of the car?

How would one go about fixing them? I was thinking rubbing rust off and spraying undercoat as the basics.

How much would one estimate this would cost to do?

Thank you in advance.

Soviet

Don't have any advice but holy shit that cat, header, and those frame rails!

darcyw

replace the lower cat cover. replace the header with an unstanced OEM header. remove the surface rust from the rails and prep with quality primer, paint, then undercoat, and paint to match.

good luck. This is what I would do.

darcy

arandomnonce

Thank you! I will likely do that!

Car Analogy

There is this paint called por15. Used a lot by car restoration guys. They swear by it. Its amazing stuff.

You paint it right over rust. Its hard as nails. Rust won't return.

You do have to scrape of loose, scaley rust, which it doesn't seem you have (so you can skip this step). You also have to clean it first with this etching spray they include. Then hose it off. Doesn't even have to be 100% dry before you apply the paint. You can just brush it on.

Don't get any on your skin, it'll take weeks to come off. Also don't dip brush into can to apply. Pour into another container first. It cures from moisture. Brush will contaminate paint and cause it to harden in can, so you won't be able to reuse later.

It can be topcoated with regular paint. They also sell topcoat products. Doesn't require topcoating unless it sees sunlight, which this won't.

This is your least effort path and also path for longest lasting results.

engifineer

You can get POR from some parts stores, Amazon, etc. Works well from talking to friends who have used it. I am more concerned about how much material has been removed from those areas. Hard to tell the full extent from the pictures.

Sorry your car had to endure being in stancetard land previously! A friend bought a 350Z to build an autox car out of .. it had been stanced. Ended up replacing subrames, driveshaft, exhaust, all subrame bolts, etc just to fix what the previous dummy had done to ruin the car. Then he could start building for his class. I try to be a "its your car" kinda guy, But if you are going to do this to a car, keep it or basically sell it for a huge discount since you likely have damaged the car with mods that made it slower around corners to start with .. all for the sake of hard parking :P

darcyw

I get my POR supplies from our local Canadian Tire- I have also used this extensively with much success- with proper prep work.

thumbs up product!
darcy

reversible

Ouch, that sucks mate. Would that constitute as frame damage in a professional inspection?