Forced black roof? repaint?

[oblivionskate]

Hey, first time 240 owner looking for a few suggestions. I'll use this thread as a mini introduction also. I bought my s13 back in November after my accident with 1 original owner and 150k miles. Bought it for a cheap price and ever since I bought it I've been impressed. Coming from a 93 e36 325is with about 70 more horses,LSD, and better mpg I can say that this car somehow tops it in the overall "sports car" category. Even with oe spec suspension (has coilovers now) sadly it was on par with my e36 with koni's. Contrary to 240 religion, I didn't buy a 240sx to drift into walls in (no offence to the drifters ). Once I find a winter vehicle this is going to be a summer daily and autocross car. But back to the meat and patatas. I bought the car knowing it has roof rust issue and i'm looking for ideas on how to fix it cosmetically and "structurally". When I say structurally I'm referring to preventing leaks, rust,etc.

1. Paint the roof black (which i despise but its cheaper) and of course sand the rust down and use chassis saver to stop and prevent future rusting.

2. Get it painted the original color if its even possible which will cost more but have the guarantee that I'll never have to worry about leaks and further rusting.

Basically I'm asking is the issue big enough that it needs to have professional attention or is that issue not big enough to bother spending the money and just DIY.





AND here's the culprit of the problem, 4 months of drifts, with a topping of 4 months of SALT.



And this is the reason I have my 240sx. Some old lady decided it was a great day to t bone me

[silviaks2nr]

Looks like the metal work will cost a lot more than paint either way. Is the bottom of the car rotten too? It would probably be cheaper to just get another car and then sell this one to some kid who just wants to drift it into a pole.

[Z_Spool]

Or here's an idea... hopefully you or someone else would be willing to put the time and money into making this car not suck. Too much to ask?

Seriously, there are a couple of ways to remedy this properly. All of which are going to require a decent amount of time, funds and skill. First, the windshield is going to need to come out, then you can either:

1. get to work with sheet metal, shears, body hammers, dollies, files, a welder, etc. and cut out the rust to patch with new metal.
2. Find a donor at a junkyard or what have you, that you can cut the offending section from to graft onto your body.
3. get a new roof skin from an OEM supplier. I believe Russell at NissanParts.CC should still be able to get you an S13 hatch Sunroof skin.

Once the roof is repaired, have the roof painted either the stock color or black (I personally prefer black roofs on hatches) and get a new windshield installed. If you've got the space/skill/tools to do it yourself, you could actually do it without dropping too much coin. If you want a shop to do it, with a new roof skin, you could expect to easily spend more than $5k


This looks to be a good looking, nearly original hatch, that just has a little cancer to remedy. It's best not to make-shift any repairs as that'll just make matters worse when it comes time to fix it properly. You can definitely do it yourself though, just make sure you do it right. Make sure to spend some time browsing the build section on here as there are both examples of building one right and wrong to draw inspiration and caution from. Good luck on the new chassis.

[Bushido]

Forced black roof? repaint?

I are confuse.

cutting=no roof

[ShakotanGazelle]

just replace the roof

go to jy and cut entire roof off a car, at the pillars, pull all glass from your car, drill all spotwelds holding the roof in, repeat on your new roof, align new roof on car, weld, and repaint.

[Magoo1222]

You can still order a brand new roof skin from Nissan IIRC. A few hundred bucks, weld the bitch in, repaint whatever color you wish, never worry about it re-spreading, all the OEM swag.

[oblivionskate]

Thanks guys, I had no idea about the whole roof skin thing. I'll look more into that. And I'm not too sure about the whole cutting roof plan and finding donors. I always hear the whole "go to the junkyard" thing on forums from folks who live in popular places but in pretty much any city in Michigan you wont find 240's just sitting in junkyards. Perks of living in the home of the motorcity.

[oblivionskate]

Originally Posted by silviaks2nr

Looks like the metal work will cost a lot more than paint either way. Is the bottom of the car rotten too? It would probably be cheaper to just get another car and then sell this one to some kid who just wants to drift it into a pole.

And I have the infamous frame rail rust on the driver side, but fortunately it's not too bad. I'm going to cut out the rusted section and weld new ones from Xcessive. This is why the original owner was selling the car. He was an old rich Nissan enthusiast who dumped a lot of money into this car at shops but couldn't turn a wrench himself. Saw that frame rail estimate and wanted no part in it. Sad to see someone who had the car for almost 25 years give it up for a simple job.