[dangerousdave]

Good luck and good on you for taking it on. After seeing so many cars broken on here the last few years for the :gay:est of reasons, recently we've seen a few of these projects start, makes my day every one I see

I can see why they have though, I'm 3/4 of the way through sorting my rear rails that are rotten...I've seen better shells on here scrapped. The problem is that the area where they rot is so complex by design and is a pain to sort. Replacing the rails would be an absolute nightmare, I have a 5k mile rear end that I could use so if it were easy to fit that's the route I would be going down! I've had to cut both diff hanger bar mounts and toe arm brackets off just to get at the rot that's behind them it's that bad! Easily will have around 100-150 hours in it by the time it's stripped back and stonechipped, with the supply of shells it's easier to swap it all. That said any car that's not had wax in the box sections will be rotting from what I've seen, the two skins only touch eachother in small places for spotwelds leaving large voids to trap moisture with no exit so it will just sit and do its thing until the void fills with a biscuit like layer of rust which grows to the point that it blows the outer skin and that's when you know you have problems! I must have easily cut out 2-3kg of rust and replaced it with only a few hundred grams of sheet steel!

 

[dangerousdave]

I understand entirely, those breakers are a waste but assuming the shells live on then it's not all bad. sadly I think that day is drawing far too close as although most over here are religiously undersealed they often are still bare inside the rails which is a far more important area than it getting surface scabs on the accessible flat panels!