[Dayne]

I own a 1995 Nissan 240sx. I was told that you guys here would be the best source of advice for the problem I'm faced with.

In 2003 I had another 95 240, but one day on my way to work some ****** ran a redlight and it was totaled. A few weeks ago my wife told me to come to her job so we could go to dinner, and when I arrived there a white 95 240 sat parked with ribbon on it. I was stoked. After a few days however, I began to hear somewhat of a grinding rotational noise and I smelled fuel. I took it to the shop to have the grinding noise checked out and the fuel lines looked at. I got a call from the shop telling me to come down because they wanted to show me something.

With the car on the lift the guy showed me that rust was all over underneath the car. The fuel smell i was smelling was coming from the fuel lines that run alongside the right of the car. They were rusted and leaking fuel. There were two cracks about a foot long and a little less than half an inch wide. One ran along the back of the spare tire well, and the other was along the passenger side of the frame. He told me that the serious problem was from the rear up to the engine. He said the engine looked good.

I took the car, at the advice of the mechanic, to a body shop to see what could be done. The body shop guy told me to get rid of the car. He pointed out three or four areas on the body panels that had painted over rust spots that were around the size of a nickel to the size of a 50 cent piece. He told me that in the process of fixing these problems there's no telling what he'll find and it would cost me 5G's+. So I'm looking for an alternative. I want to do as much of the work as possible to cut costs/learn. I have been at present looking at the product Rust Bullet and wondered if anyone has experience with this product or with another product? I also wanted to get any input possible on this problem.

[budthespud]

Look for another car that has a blown motor or trans and do the swap. This would be cheaper in the long run and you can do some detailing in the motor compartment when you install the motor and trans. Plus you would have a parts car too which in turn can save you quite a bit of money if you keep the car for awhile. If there is as much rust as you say then she would be a waste of time to do anything with it. Good luck!!!

[kenseth17]

I agree with bud. From what you describe it seems like it is pretty rusty, and yes there can be a lot hiding once you get into the work. The only way to find out for sure is to start removing paint. A body in better shape may be better both time and money wise. Its quite a bit of work taking something that is really rusty and welding in new parts or patches all over the car. Anywhere the metal is weak, or has holes, the only way it will last is to get rid of it and replace with new metal. Also check the insides of the panels. Rust is a battle and always fighting to come back, so do the most you can to stop it, replace bad metal, blast less severe spots, and don't forget to coat the inside of panels with a rust proofing coating. I guess you could always strip a few panels, to see more what you are dealing with, but you may be better off looking for something that has a better body like Bud suggested. Add to that the fact you will have to probably replace all your fuel lines and other parts. That is a unibody car, so you don't want rockers and floor pans and other structual parts of the car to be weak with rust. It would be different if it were something kind of rare that has a lot of value, but that car you would be better off finding a rust free body.