Terrorist 5.0
Active Member
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2023
- Messages
- 546
- Reaction score
- 217
Hi everyone. The car is performing great, and I am very happy with it, but, it can be performing better. I want to install a 3.31 ring and pinion (replacing the stock 3.08 ring and pinion) and rebuild the limited slip. I am able to do this in my garage so the cost shouldn't be too bad at all. I also want to see about having my spare HO lower intake ported. There is one big problem that I can't get past though, and for good reason...
My car has the infamous frame rail rust. It isn't bad enough that I consider it dangerous, but it is concerning. To guess, I would say the car has 2-5 years before I start seeing holes, and I can't in good conscience drive my car fast and have fun when I know it could just decide to split in half. There have been many rotted out cars still hooning away, and ending up fine, but I don't like to rely on being lucky.
I would tackle this myself, but I live in an apartment building, meaning if I so much as pick up a wrench, the Strata is on me and will take away my parking spot. Then my poor car has to live outside, where rust is an even bigger issue.
The car is in pretty good shape other than the frame rails. There is some surface rust near the rear of the car that I am planning to strip off and protect with some etching primer and cover with POR-15. There are two small holes where the black boxes behind the rear wheels used to be from all the dirt buildup, but that is relatively isolated, and can be easily taken care of. I am also planning to cut the spare tire well and weld in a flat piece of sheet metal, effectively cutting out where most of the surface rust and peeling factory undercoating is.
My main question is, for the people who have climbed this slippery slope, how much did it cost fixing the rot? I am not able to pull the engine and K member as my apartment doesn't allow it, and I don't have anyone who would be able to accommodate my project. If I were to just drive the car to a shop and hand them the keys, how much would it cost?
I am in Burnaby so CAD please
, and if anyone has any recommendations shop wise, that would be really helpful. I emailed The Infamous Project and he threw out a ballpark estimate of about 1000 CAD per side not including taking the powertrain out. If that is the case I am more than happy to do so!
The way I see it, I could buy another Mustang that I don't know the history, how it was treated, and all that, or fix my current Mustang and keep the same car I know and love, and painstakingly made nice again. I've made many memories in this car, and the car made me a better mechanic. It is my favorite color, model year, optioned just the way I like it. I truly believe god himself guided me to this car, and I'm not gonna give up on it easy.
So what do you guys think?
My car has the infamous frame rail rust. It isn't bad enough that I consider it dangerous, but it is concerning. To guess, I would say the car has 2-5 years before I start seeing holes, and I can't in good conscience drive my car fast and have fun when I know it could just decide to split in half. There have been many rotted out cars still hooning away, and ending up fine, but I don't like to rely on being lucky.
I would tackle this myself, but I live in an apartment building, meaning if I so much as pick up a wrench, the Strata is on me and will take away my parking spot. Then my poor car has to live outside, where rust is an even bigger issue.
The car is in pretty good shape other than the frame rails. There is some surface rust near the rear of the car that I am planning to strip off and protect with some etching primer and cover with POR-15. There are two small holes where the black boxes behind the rear wheels used to be from all the dirt buildup, but that is relatively isolated, and can be easily taken care of. I am also planning to cut the spare tire well and weld in a flat piece of sheet metal, effectively cutting out where most of the surface rust and peeling factory undercoating is.
My main question is, for the people who have climbed this slippery slope, how much did it cost fixing the rot? I am not able to pull the engine and K member as my apartment doesn't allow it, and I don't have anyone who would be able to accommodate my project. If I were to just drive the car to a shop and hand them the keys, how much would it cost?
I am in Burnaby so CAD please
, and if anyone has any recommendations shop wise, that would be really helpful. I emailed The Infamous Project and he threw out a ballpark estimate of about 1000 CAD per side not including taking the powertrain out. If that is the case I am more than happy to do so!The way I see it, I could buy another Mustang that I don't know the history, how it was treated, and all that, or fix my current Mustang and keep the same car I know and love, and painstakingly made nice again. I've made many memories in this car, and the car made me a better mechanic. It is my favorite color, model year, optioned just the way I like it. I truly believe god himself guided me to this car, and I'm not gonna give up on it easy.
So what do you guys think?
