[salguod]

I may have found the end of my 2002 Type S. It's a 2 owner, high mileage car (251K) that's lived in Ohio since new. It was undercoated at new and the unit body is in very good shape over all. There are small spots on each quarter near the rockers and a bit around the fuel door. It's otherwise pretty nice.

I put the car on the lift today to diagnose a rattle in the front end (play in the LH ball joint & LH outer tie rod plus loose stabilizer mounts). While under there, I took a good look at the under body. It's very clean, especially considering the mileage and location. The floors are clean and rust free front and rear except for a spot under the rear seat.

There was one big exception, the forward mount of the LR control arm. As you can see from the attached pics, it's nearly completely rusted away. Is there any hope for repairing this? Considering how good the rest of the car is, and how string it is mechanically, it seems a shame that it might be done in by a lone rusty control arm mount.

Thoughts?

 

[salguod]

For reference, here's the rest of the under body to show how clean the rest of it is.

 

[marko16]

This is when you need the old guy down the street who can fix anything. I think a plate could be welded in there. Finding someone to do it might be a problem, then again what do I know. If you can't find someone, you need that demo derby, off-road racer dude who's always welding shit to their car. As a rust belt person I only saw that kind of rust on my 94 Saturn. The front cradle was at the point you could peel off the rust, but what remained still worked.

 

[salguod]

This is when you need the old guy down the street who can fix anything. I think a plate could be welded in there. ...

Funny you should mention that. My job is design & engineering work at a custom car shop called FormaCars and one of our techs is that guy. Well, he's only 50, not really that old. (Careful, I'm 50 too. ) He's a former body shop owner who's built several drag cars from scratch. I showed him the pictures and he said "No big deal. 4-5 hours work."

He and I are going to put it on the lift tomorrow so he can assess it.

I'm also thinking that the main structural element is inside the part that's rusted away, so it probably looks worse than it is. Hopefully.

 

[remyrounds]

Wow that is bad. We are so lucky our cars here really do not rust.

 

[salguod]

Wow that is bad. We are so lucky our cars here really do not rust.

The sad part is the other side is absolutely fine (see attached) and, as you can see in the other pics, the rest of the chassis is quite good. This is by far the worst rust on the car.

My daughter drives a 2005 Mazda3 with 200K and it's full of holes. Both quarters, doors, rusted very badly. (I probably need to get it on the lift and check out the structural points too.) My RSX is far, far better, except for this.

 

[salguod]

Put it back on the lift for review with our shop tech and, as I had hoped, it isn't as bad as it appears. Inside the outer panel which is rusted away is a welded in tube and the threaded portion is above that. So there's a long bolt though a tube to a threaded "nut" in the frame rail above. The tube and frame rail is all still intact and still solid.

So, while it's ugly, it's still structurally sound. I plan on removing the rest of the loose rust and treating it with a rust converter to stabilize the area.

 

[marko16]

Drivers side always gets more salt. They put more in the middle of the road to melt and run down. Passing cars always give you a splash and if it's parked in the road it gets splashed more. Odd my passenger door sill has a couple of holes from it rusting as well. My undercarriage looks very good however. Too bad as I have a newer motor in the one that is rusting the most. Be nice to get a car from the south that needs a motor