Car bodywork: Rough cost for rust repair?

I’m toying with the idea of buying what appears to be an appreciating future classic (Honda S2000) but there is rust around the rear arches and sills. Price of the car reflects the condition but just want to know roughly how much the rust pictured below would be to get sorted properly – cut out, new metal welded in, respray, etc.

Those photos do not tell much

What you can see is probably 5 times as deep under it.

Looks pretty rough tbh. A full repair to “appreciating classic* will probably be as much as the cars costing just looking at it there I reckon you’ll be looking for outer arches , inner arch repairs and inner/outer sill repairs + paint work.

You’ll be lucky to find anywhere that does that to a good standard cheap.

What are we talking? £1000? £5000? Even if it’s a couple of grand I reckon it’s still worth it given the price of the car vs price of others at the moment.

I think for a proper job your erring to the upper end -and I think there’s high potential to exceed it when you get it up on a ramp.

If your looking at it as an appreciating classic.

If your just wanting to own a cheap s2000 for a while then you could get it nailed together cheap enough

Well the idea is to keep it as a genuine appreciating classic. Might be better off upping the budget a couple of grand and buying an older higher mileage one but with no rust.

Cheers.

When it comes to classics.

Buy as best condition as you can afford.

I’d even get an engine rebuild over treating rust.

Once rust is in you’ll never stop it short of a full strip blast/dip.

Depends how bad it is, and how well you want it fixed.

A new rear quarter is £600 ish, then it depends how you want it fitted, complete quarter or just cut out a patch panel

You need to see what condition the inner arch is, you wont know what the inner sill is like until you cut the outer sill.

You can get it roughly patched up and paint thrown at it cheaply, or spend a couple of grand plus getting new quarters, patch/make up inner arches, make up/repair sills and decent paint.

Paint costs, prep and quality vary a lot, I have seen cars painted for a grand, bit of orange peel, blisters next year etc. £500 rear quarter re sprays with blisters after a month.

I don’t know these cars but Trail Rat’s right to be pessimistic- rust’s an iceberg, as soon as you see a little there’s usually more hiding. It might well be realistic to just take a “stop the rot” approach for now and basically stabilise it but that really depends on where it’s got to and where it’s not.

It’s mostly your “appreciating classic” thoughts that ring an alarm bell though, since that really requires it to be put back into top condision. It’ll probably do someone great as a cheaper, fun, awesome little car. In fact, I reckon that’s exactly what the previous owner thought, totally ignored arch rust right beside very good tyres is exactly the sort of thing I’d do.

And if the price is right, the engines out of these are in demand I think, so there’s probably a limit to exactly how badly wrong it can go. So… any clues as to price? And as a financial adviser would ask, “how risk-averse are you”?

It’s a smidge over £5k. Over the years I’ve missed out on various appreciating classic cars – decided at various times not to buy: NSX at £15k, R32 GTR at £12k, S15 Silvia Spec R at £8k, RX7 at £6k… you get the picture, and they’re all worth at least double those prices now.
S2000 seems to be the next one and I don’t want to miss out again. High mileage UK ones in decent nick are close to £10k and even the very cheapest on the Jap auction sites are £10k+ now.
Got a bit of cash to play with, have a normal car and a toy (KTM 990SM) so it really is to be a garage queen brought out for a few sunny weekends every year whilst steadily increasing in value.

High mileage UK ones in decent nick are close to £10k and even the very cheapest on the Jap auction sites are £10k+ now.

The car in the original photo will never be a jap import price car.

The quarter panel looks like it could be a bit of a can of worms but if it’s cut out and new panel welded in then it should be fine. just speak to whoever does it and ask them what their plan of action would be. Is it a common area for them to rust ? They might make a repair panel to weld in the arch

I had to replace both front wings on my e46 due to rust – parts were £400, colour matching was another £420. That was on a car that’s probably worth £2500 to the right buyer. I was told the pabels could be repaired, but I know rust, its like cancer, it always returns.

Genuine BMW parts.

never really seen a rusty one normally

scabby rusty arches are sometimes signs of poor repair

Rusting around the wheel arch liners is common. The liners rub the paint and protection away and trap moisture between the liner and the arch.

I’m definitely with trail_rat on this. I’ve had a string of JDM cars, and tin owrm always seems to be an issue. I’d say 2k upwards for that – I don’t know S2ks, but if that was, say, an FD, an S Body, an MX5 or a DC2 then that would be a multiple layers underneath that for quite a large area, likely encroaching on a rear suspension mounting point as well.
The cosmetics are always just the start. The labour to get it to an ‘investment’ standard won’t be cheap either. I’m sure it could be bodged for a grand, but that wouldn’t be the level of work needed for an investment.

Again, no experience of the S2k, but if I saw that on an MX5, I’d know that the drain tubes from the hood drain were blocked and the sills had been swimming pools, so were likely buggered for quite a lot of their length.

A new rear quarter is £600 ish, then it depends how you want it fitted, complete quarter or just cut out a patch panel

Definitely not trying to be petulant, but is that ‘guide price for a quarter’, or specifically one for an S2k? My experience of JDM cars is that bodywork parts tend to be silly expensive, if they’re even available.

Is there anything special about this car? (otherwise mint, mega low miles or something?)

£5k for a rusty s2k is not that cheap if its just an average car.

Definitely not trying to be petulant, but is that ‘guide price for a quarter’, or specifically one for an S2k? My experience of JDM cars is that bodywork parts tend to be silly expensive, if they’re even available.

Currently shows as £680+shipping+vat currently on parts-honda.uk, so £820.

whats the rest of the underside/inner arches like? Outer sills/wings are unlikely to be the worst part.
Remember ditched 205 Gti’s are always worth less than non ditched 205’s for example.
A repaired S2000 will be less than an unrepaired S2000.
Assume this isn’t the first one you’ve looked at?
There’s a reason sellers leverage “original paint’, ‘unmolested’ etc as selling points

I don’t know as much about cars as the others on here but that amount of visible rust surely means a lot more hidden so I would be walking away from that car fast. Its not that rare a car and if you want it for investment you need to buy a minter not one needing so much work. If its been neglected so as to get so much rust what else is going on?

I’d be paying to get a proper inspection done on the car before any commitment. S2000’s do have issues with rear suspension corrosion as well and with a combination of visual rust and being a pivotal repair to come / maybe getting a better car , it may tip the scales as you could end up with a money pit. Engines are good. Built a Westfield and put one in there. Watch out for timing chain rattles . Parts are expensive for these cars, so be aware of that. I can’t see they will make that much money in the next few years, but being that Honda never made anything to replace them with , will keep them buoyant.