My horrific rust repair project

So, after poking around my '91 RA, I discovered some serious rot in the RR turret area where the inner and out wheel houses are welded to and separated by the inner body shell. In the wheel well there's normally seam sealer that keeps water from getting up in there, but after 25 years it all turned to rock and fell out, and a lot of moisture got up in the seam and rotted everything the hell out. (Car was in Canada for a decade before I got a hold of it).

Weird thing is that it's literally the only spot on the car with any rust, the rest of it is spotless. I've toyed with the idea of stripping it to the bare shell, having it acid dipped and redoing the whole thing, but I don't have a rotisserie that I'd need to properly complete the job, so I'm just going to focus on rebuilding the rusted area and working/blending that into the existing shell. Here's what I have done so far:

This is before I started, after drilling out spot welds to remove what was left of the turret skin, then I had to cut out the rusty areas of the body shell and replace with new welded in patch panels so I'd have something to even weld to, and then reattaching the turret skin and patching it back together with some fabricated pieces. I almost got it finished but had to pack it in and head back to Africa for another 4-5 months.

Here’s what I started with

Someone’s been busy good on you

I would have finished it but didn’t get time before I had to ship out again

Time waits for no one mate I know the feeling. Least you stated

Catch 22 of working in Africa. I have good money to spend on my car but no time to do anything lol

Great bit of fab work mate

Looks like a good repair job, must be difficult to find the time to work on it. Just keep tucking that money away and the R will eventually find a way for you to spent it

This damn thing will be 30 years old by the time I get to drive it hahahahahahaha

Impressive stuff! Mine comes off the road next month and I'm going to do a full strip down and resto.....can't wait to see what little surprises wait for me

Why you not put your videos on here me Pete

I was just home, but had to pack up and move 4 states away, so I didn't get time to work on it at all damn it.

Right then, I'm back in the states, so it's time to get on with it. As I poked around this thing, I discovered that at some point the car was involved in a fender bender, and had a new right rear quarter panel put on it, and the job was not done properly. No weld through primer on any of the spot weld flanges, no cavity wax, and very little seam sealer. All this caused moisture to enter just about everywhere the quarter was spot welded to the car, so it developed alot of rust on the flanges. And worst of all, the new quarter was overlapped onto the old one! You NEVER EVER do that! Proper patch jobs are butt welded, not lap welded. You should have seen how much body filler was over the weld seam to smooth the horrible transition.

I decided that if I wanted to do this job right, the quarter had to come off. I know it's pretty brave removing a quarter panel that's no longer available, but I was very careful drilling out all the spot welds. I'll clean up the rust on the flanges and cut out and replace what isn't salvageable. I do have arch repair panels from a 5 door that will help me out with about 50% of it, along with a 5 door sill that I'll have to modify. The flanges will be properly treated with zinc primer before spot welding, and before it goes on the entire interior cavity will be coated in POR 15 to ensure this is never a problem again.

Surprisingly, the inner wheel arch and sill reinforcement are still available in Japan (cost me $260 in just shipping though, ouch), so those parts will be genuine Nissan. Good thing too since the inner wheel arch is about impossible for me to fabricate.

Enjoy some pics.

Wow! Some good work being done Ryan,

Wow is the word
doing rear quarters properly is pretty tricky/skilled work and only tends get done right by those who love the car or seriously decent body specialist .
If want new quarters you can find them but be silly money with shipping etc .
Keep up the good work ...

Nice to see it been saved keep on at it

Only LH side quarter is available anymore, RH side is no longer, and when it was they were terribly expensive. I can save this. I was a body tech for many years when I was younger, haven’t forgotten everything. Once repaired the quarter will go back on with a combination of welding and 3M impact resistant structural adhesive. (Which with that stuff, I better make sure it’s where I want it, because it will never come back off again even if you want it to)

I would be able to make the inner wheel arch too, but that requires equipment I don’t own, like an English wheel and shrinker/stretcher, and the inner arch also includes part of the inner frame structure as part of it, so I just decided to get one from Nissan since it’s still available

Both quarters still available but not direct via Nissan. Specialist japan part source suppliers still have some available, they silly money though .

Great work! Don't think I've seen a pulsar yet that hasn't got accident damage lol

Wow! scary what can be hiding underneath. Good to know the inner wheel arch and sill reinforcement sections are still available though. Sounds like its in the right hands

Yea the total for both items was like $250, but I got killed on shipping