Rust On Strut Towers

[toranarod]

9 hours ago, Shoota_77 said:

Yes, not as bad but still f'ing bad!  Not to be too much of a Danny downer but the thing that would scare me is that if its in there, its probably plenty of other places too.

I have spent many hours under  the car I pulled it apart before I got the RWC for the owner transfer. YES there is rust in other places. Soon as I have finished the strut towers I will show you where else. I intend to remove as much as possible and treat what i cannot. Then just manage things as years go by.  The other point is no accidents damage that i can find she is nice and straight all the panels and door line up looks great on the out side.

 

 

 

Edited October 6, 2020 by toranarod

[toranarod]

13 hours ago, Kinkstaah said:

I legitimately had a nightmare last night about rust in my car due to this thread.

Thanks.

Would you like the phone number of my therapist maybe we can get a group discount. It is my fault Sorry.

[Kinkstaah]

10 hours ago, toranarod said:

Would you like the phone number of my therapist maybe we can get a group discount. It is my fault Sorry.

I appreciate that! Of course, while I can't see any rust that I'm aware of... you never know.... whats lurking....

[ominous music]

[toranarod]

1 hour ago, Kinkstaah said:

I appreciate that! Of course, while I can't see any rust that I'm aware of... you never know.... whats lurking....

[ominous music]

I very sad to see the awesome cars suffering from time taking its toll. Sometimes I think of it like this the sooner I start the body restoration rust prevention the better I will at lest be ahead of every body else. Every body who owns a skyline that wants to keep it for the future will come to this work kicking and screaming. As a great musician once said "Rust never sleeps, Neil Young".  Then with the prices of theses cars going up so fast its making this work worth while. 

this is what she looks like on the outside. 

[GTSBoy]

1 hour ago, toranarod said:

Every body who owns a skyline that wants to keep it for the future will come to this work kicking and screaming

Not everyone. My car was only in Japan for 6 years and appears to not have seen salt in the ~23000km it did. Some of us got lucky.

[phelbas]

Yeah I made a list of all the problem areas after watching. various garage defend videos and reading endless forum posts and while this is something to look at (along with rusty diffuser brackets, saggy trunk gas struts, rust on backing plate behind seat, and so on and so forth) my 19 year old R34 looks like the day it was made on the strut towers and I don't think that will change.

Not every car in Japan saw road salt - many left the country while still young. 

Edited October 7, 2020 by phelbas

[joshuaho96]

http://blog.garage-yoshida.net/archives/12205

This blog post is pretty good for discussing what issues exist in the R34 chassis as far as rust goes.

Strut tower rust is inevitable on the R33 and R34 chassis if it's still factory, the questions is just how quickly the rust will progress. If you have a flawless example and you monitor the integrity of the sealant between the seams you can prevent rust entirely by resealing the strut tower panel overlap area but if you don't pay close attention it will start rusting. One tell-tale sign is when the flat spot-welded portion on the top next to the strut brace area starts to bulge like this:

If the panel hasn't lifted from the sealant like that it's still ok. If you repair the struts in this state the panels can still be saved, but they will probably be pitted pretty good when you cut it back.

The other two common rust spots on the R33/R34 chassis are under the plastic cowl and the drain just forward of the doors:

These parts tend to be hidden, if rust is bad on the visible parts the cowl area could have holes in it.

Edited October 7, 2020 by joshuaho96

[phelbas]

Interesting. One thing though, in the garage-yoshida pictures, they mention

"of course car 127 was used in the special environment of Hokkaido, so it will take decades to reach this point in normal use," and repeatedly mention water/moisture.

Rust only progresses with water (for example, driving in rain) or humidity above about 50%.

Without a climate controlled garage the latter is the main risk for people who do not daily drive their r34s.

I'm taking a guess that if you do not drive in rain, as a policy, or store the car in Brisbane, then the kinds of rust progression shown in the pictures are unlikely but of course the beginnings of them may become visible so it is neat to see the problem areas exposed.

 

[joshuaho96]

2 hours ago, phelbas said:

Interesting. One thing though, in the garage-yoshida pictures, they mention

"of course car 127 was used in the special environment of Hokkaido, so it will take decades to reach this point in normal use," and repeatedly mention water/moisture.

Rust only progresses with water (for example, driving in rain) or humidity above about 50%.

Without a climate controlled garage the latter is the main risk for people who do not daily drive their r34s.

I'm taking a guess that if you do not drive in rain, as a policy, or store the car in Brisbane, then the kinds of rust progression shown in the pictures are unlikely but of course the beginnings of them may become visible so it is neat to see the problem areas exposed.

 

Yeah if you live in the desert it'll be fine. What I've noticed is that cars stored outdoors tend to get water in unexpected ways as ambient temps drop below dew point at night causing water to accumulate on the chassis. Also stuff like poorly adjusted sprinklers spraying on cars is a thing as well. The dew can be especially bad in seaside areas because it can be salty. I suspect the reason why pretty much every R33 has strut tower rust is because Japan is humid and the concept of an enclosed garage doesn't exist in the vast majority of Japanese homes outside of homes for the very rich.

[GTSBoy]

Most of populated Australia gets <500mm rainfall. We're nearly desert.

[toranarod]

On 10/7/2020 at 12:02 PM, GTSBoy said:

Not everyone. My car was only in Japan for 6 years and appears to not have seen salt in the ~23000km it did. Some of us got lucky.

This is true. I apologies for my previous post, making such a blanket statement. They’re going to many with no rust to just a bit and then like my red one got it bad.

 I to own a second r34 that is almost factory condition was real barn find.  No rust and all straight under the floor and on the chassis rails. Like you I plan to keep it that way.

[toranarod]

To keep the job moving I watch one of the SR Autobodies videos. That guy and his Videos have been so helpful not just for inspiration but tip and trick about panel separation and rust prevention.  

https://www.facebook.com/230766920921566/videos/590784358186675

 

[toranarod]

SR Autobodies  mentions a rust prevention and converter in one of his Videos called "Rust i Sol" Anybody in Australia able to obtain this product I cannot find it.   Metaflux Rust-i-Sol

[GTSBoy]

You don't need anything more sophisticated than the good old Ranex. They're all just phosphoric acid.

[toranarod]

This is where its up to at the moment. still lots of cleaning to do.  

[toranarod]

[GTSBoy]

Starting to look much nicer.

[trel]

That looks great. Really good work there. I've been restoring various parts slowly around my car and I've noticed I have roughly 5cm of surface rust on the pass. side seam, the tower in general feels and sounds ok though so hopefully it hasn't gone too far. Good to see threads like this. It's the next thing I'm going to tackle.

[admS15]

1 hour ago, trel said:

That looks great. Really good work there. I've been restoring various parts slowly around my car and I've noticed I have roughly 5cm of surface rust on the pass. side seam, the tower in general feels and sounds ok though so hopefully it hasn't gone too far. Good to see threads like this. It's the next thing I'm going to tackle.

After seeing this thread pop up again, i decided to check my 33 out too. The towers on mine also seem fine but i could see some rust on the seem closer to the wing panel on drivers side, 5-7cm section. I lifted the seem and the rust wasn't bad at all, i cleaned it up and got it bare then used some rust coverter before priming, dabbing some paint on and then resealing. Ive made the decision to at some point remove all the seam sealer along the whole length and towers on both sides to check what may be lurking for piece of mind. 

Does anyone have any recommendations on what the correct product is for seam sealing?

[elohim_imanu]

I have used these two.

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/carbond-310ml-black-940fc-pu-adhesive-and-sealant_p0298510

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/gorilla-940fc-pu-sealant-310ml-grey/p/343001