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RUST and Cosmetics


Nytrosfinder
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Under my back seat the floor has rusted out completely to the point that I can see my suspension coils through the floor... if anyone has some info about panel fabrication let me know.... My plan is to go to a local junk yard where i know there is an 88 pathfinder and cut out the floor if its in good condition and weld it back in....

 

I also gotta do the same an fabricate a new passenger side Rocker panel...

 

I am replacing my rear brakes due to rusted out mounting brackets and surface rusted calipers...

 

I will be putting a coating of paint on the under side of the whole car...

I will also be rebuilding the rear axle cause of a leak and a bad wheel bearing...

 

I will also be painting it flat black like I saw on my friends 1991 Toyota Tacoma... which looked hot!

 

If anyone knows about blacked out lights, painting, body fabrication, brakes, FRONT MANUAL LOCKING WARN HUBS for IFS.... please share your information

 

SEE MY POST ABOUT PARTS IN THE CLASSIFIED!

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My plan is to go to a local junk yard where i know there is an 88 pathfinder and cut out the floor if its in good condition and weld it back in....
Good luck finding one. You're better off getting a sheet of 22ga metal and making a floor.
I also gotta do the same an fabricate a new passenger side Rocker panel...
Same as 1st reply, or use fiberglass.
FRONT MANUAL LOCKING WARN HUBS for IFS.... please share your information
27 spline, IIRC. Remove your auto hubs and bolt 'em on.

 

And don't take the response "use the search function" as a bad thing. Nobody is telling you to get lost, its just that many, many, many of the more basic starter "how do I..." questions have been answered in much greater detail than anyone could answer in this single post.

By searching, you'll not only get a much more detailed answer but might find a better solution than the few members who respond to your post might have for you.

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I am in the same boat as you with the rusted out floorboard. Best advice is to build your own as said before. Coat the bottom if the truck before you paint it with a rust converter instead of just painting over the old rust.

 

All of the rust on mine is getting this treatment and a repaint right now along with a lot of welding. But then again my Pathfinder is kinda being completely re-engineered anyway.

 

As for blacked out lights, do you mean black out drive lights?

Edited by DM1975
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Underrearseathole.jpg

 

How my 88 looked after I cut out all the rust.

 

You might also want to look under your carpet at all the panel seams, they tend to rust out also leaving holes that aren't noticable with the carpet covering them. This is what I foune under my pedals:

 

 

88driversfloor.jpg

 

Had the same issue on the passenger footwell allong with the seam in the rear seat footwell, and the seam where the cargo floor meets the dip for the rear seats.

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but did your carpet light on fire? :wacko:

 

mine had the same holes as GG's did in pretty much the exact same spot. The holes in the floorboard weren't as bad, so i used fiberglass and JB weld for the small holes. I heard someone around here used a cookie tray instead of sheet metal for the floor board which i think would work very well. The hole under my rear passenger seat required a piece of sheet metal, red sealant and rivets to fix.

 

check your local laws about painting or covering the headlight and tail lights. more often than not it's illegal unless they are removable before dusk and after dawn.

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You would think it would have been burning, but no, you couldn't even tell the floor was gone with the carpet in there. I too used sheetmetal, some is screwed in place other is welded, all the repairs are covered with fiberglass on the inside.

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I have done a LOT of rust body repair, specifically floors. I got my experience on a '70 mercedes coupe so it was all trial and error. What I found to be helpful is get cardboard about the thickness of cereal box and use that to cut to shape your patch, it is very easy to cut and you just keep trying and re-shaping until it is perfect. Mark on the cardboard with sharpie how you want your bends to be. Then when the cardboard is perfect, it is easy to trace the shape onto sheet metal and cut that out; chances are you'll need to fine-tune that a tad but you'll be very close. I repaired the lower portion of my driver's side fender in this method on my '91 pathy just the other day.

 

Here's a tip, the absolute BEST rust paint out there is called "Zero Rust", it was designed for painting bridges. It is pretty expesive and REALLY stinks, but it is bullet proof and will stand up to absolutely anything. I've used this stuff a lot and it has never let me down, it is perfect for rust repair work and chassis painting.

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Here's a tip, the absolute BEST rust paint out there is called "Zero Rust", it was designed for painting bridges. It is pretty expesive and REALLY stinks, but it is bullet proof and will stand up to absolutely anything. I've used this stuff a lot and it has never let me down, it is perfect for rust repair work and chassis painting.

 

Isn't that stuff suposed to be applied increadibly thick also? The last bridge paint I had to use was about as thick as tar and you had to apply it at a nominal 3/8" thickness.

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Actually it applies just like regular paint; it may be a tad more viscous, but it's extra thickness is negligable. It comes in aerosol form, but I prefer to brush it on as you can really get it into creases and cover large areas without the need to mask. Speaking of masks, I usually wear one when I paint with this stuff, it stinks. When I can, I'll put some pictures up of places where I've used it and the results.

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Underrearseathole.jpg

 

How my 88 looked after I cut out all the rust.

 

You might also want to look under your carpet at all the panel seams, they tend to rust out also leaving holes that aren't noticable with the carpet covering them. This is what I foune under my pedals:

88driversfloor.jpg

 

Had the same issue on the passenger footwell allong with the seam in the rear seat footwell, and the seam where the cargo floor meets the dip for the rear seats.

 

My floor board looks EXACTLY like that! I will take a look under my driver seat area... but so far from the under side of the car, when i washed it off with my pressure washer, behind the rear seats is the only place where i found rust, besides a little surface rust on the frame which i cleaned up with a wire brush and some rust-oleum paint.

 

any ideas about the gas tank? Got a small spot forming on there...

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any ideas about the gas tank? Got a small spot forming on there...

 

Actually on the tank? Or on the skid, the access cover(cargo floor)....? My access cover rotted out on the 88 also, so I made a new cover for it (the brown square at the top of the rear seat area pic).

 

If it is on the tank its self then fill the tank, and then take a wire brush to the spot and gently scour the spot and hope it is surface only. I would also hit it with some naval jelly, or other rust converting chemicals then paint it.

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Actually on the tank? Or on the skid, the access cover(cargo floor)....? My access cover rotted out on the 88 also, so I made a new cover for it (the brown square at the top of the rear seat area pic).

 

If it is on the tank its self then fill the tank, and then take a wire brush to the spot and gently scour the spot and hope it is surface only. I would also hit it with some naval jelly, or other rust converting chemicals then paint it.

 

fill it with what exactly?

 

Here is my tank right now:

 

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o207/SF...0219091726b.jpg

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You have it dropped eh. In that case drain everything out of it and leave the openings open and work away on it.

 

 

I ment fill it with gas, if it was on the truck and you didn't want to catch a stray spark, then having the tank full greatly reduces the fire hazard because there will be almost no fumes.

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You have it dropped eh. In that case drain everything out of it and leave the openings open and work away on it.

I ment fill it with gas, if it was on the truck and you didn't want to catch a stray spark, then having the tank full greatly reduces the fire hazard because there will be almost no fumes.

 

 

Thanks man I appreciate it... Any words on the topic are really helpful...

 

And the reason I dropped the tank is because she stopped running. The motor will crank, but wont start so i assumed it was the fuel pump or filter. ( she has over 250,000 on her so i had to take a look) and my sending unit is bad as well....

 

Here are the photos of my interior rust:

 

http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o207/SF...=0218091756.jpg

http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o207/SF...=0218091805.jpg

http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o207/SF...0218091806a.jpg

http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o207/SF...=0218091808.jpg

http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o207/SF...=0219091454.jpg

 

Best ones, and you can see the top of my coils in this one

http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o207/SF...=0219091721.jpg.

http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o207/SF...0219091721a.jpg

 

 

And yes, I know i have carpet to remove on my wheel wells to look under as well...

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Yeah, it can get bad if left unchecked. I planned to remove my rear seats before I even found out how bad mine was, so just slapping sheetmetal over the hole was no biggy because I wouldn't have to figure out how to remount the seat belts. I turned the space into a storage compartment with the lid acting as an extention of the cargo floor. Here is my phot album for my 88, you can see more of the rust and repairs:

 

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y143/grim...8%20Pathfinder/

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Yeah, it can get bad if left unchecked. I planned to remove my rear seats before I even found out how bad mine was, so just slapping sheetmetal over the hole was no biggy because I wouldn't have to figure out how to remount the seat belts. I turned the space into a storage compartment with the lid acting as an extention of the cargo floor. Here is my phot album for my 88, you can see more of the rust and repairs:

 

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y143/grim...8%20Pathfinder/

 

So you just threw sheet metal over the rust holes and then turned it into storage space?

 

Now I can see that working, but i still want to have functional Rear seats.

 

Would you recommend the Idea of cutting the floor panels out of another pathfinder with that section being rust free? Or go get sheet metal and fabricate my own panels?

 

And I checked under my pedals and i got some surface rust so i might just through a few layers of black rust-oleum paint over that...

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You could "cut and paste", would probably make reattaching the seatbelts and seat retainers much easier.

 

Yeah, I just cut out all the rust, then threw a piece of sheet metal over the hole, attached the one under the rear seats with sheet metal screws.

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GG with all that body rust, how was the frame on that 88?

 

What do you mean by GG?

 

And the Frame was beautiful! I know nissan pathy's had rust problems with the frames but this was so clean... few spots where i took a wire brush to it, but nothing past slight surface rust. I ended up painting it too!

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GGG (GrimGreG?) :ph33r:

 

When you put the herculiner down on your cargo area in the 88 did you have to pull up the stock sound deadening ashpalt stuff that is already there under the carpet or just prep it like the rest of the floor and roll it on?

 

If you did pull it up how exactly did you do it? I have messed with that stuff a little in lightening my autocross car but it took forwever and was a messy business...

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I removed it in the cargo area, on the floor pans I left the really stuborn stuff. For the cargo floor I just smacked it with a rubber mallet and it cracked apart for a good bit of it. Then I took a scraper and the mallet and chiseld the rest off.

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