GTR Forum banner

Rust where the boot struts join the body.... R35

4K views 32 replies 12 participants last post by  Tinyflier 
#1 ·
So I’ve been to view a R35 GTR today and where the passenger side strut joins the boot it’s pretty rusty.... both struts are bubbling also.

I know water sits there!

anyone else seen or had this problem?
 
#2 ·
I've seen it in a photo of a car on eBay before (had blue wheels), one strut had detached at the base. I have read it's a real PITA to fix as hard to get to the inner panel area but.....that said I'm sure I've also seen on here (forum) someone say they have fixed it. Either way it's a hassle to fix by the looks of it.
 
#4 ·
There’s been a few cars for sale with this issue, you’d be right in saying it’s a hard area to access for a repair. The metal seams to be really thin in that area and could do with beefing up.
As John states above keep the water galley clear to make sure there’s no standing water in that area.
 
#13 ·
Every time it rains or I wash the car I go to unblock or clean this area

wipe it down etc

not surprised a lot of 35s having this issue
So I’ve been to view a R35 GTR today and where the passenger side strut joins the boot it’s pretty rusty.... both struts are bubbling also.

I know water sits there!

anyone else seen or had this problem?
No, but I did mine immediately after reading this report. I cut the foam rubber away on both sides of the car . Nice gap now , tested with can water , all good.
 
#6 ·
Yes, always give them a poke when you wash it.

The same thing would happen when I had a Lotus Esprit with the pop up headlights. The drain hole would become blocked so the lights would end up sitting in water which was not a good idea.
 
#12 ·
Mine is going in to bodyshop soon to have that very problem sorted,

They intend to cut out the rusting part, fabricate a metal plate to fit, weld on a captive nut, weld plate to inner side of the wing and finish to match OEM.

I've always tried to keep the drain channels free but they block so easily. I'll have a word with the bodyshop about freeing up the drain channel when its all stripped down.

David
 
#17 ·
 
#18 ·
As posted earlier I've had the issue with rust attacking the LHS boot strut mounting even though I've tried to keep the (hairs breadth!) drain channel free. In mine it silts up even with dust in the atmosphere being washed into the channel from rain showers, let alone the general crud that accumulates when using the car.

Here are images of how it was looking, in the first couple of images the car had been sitting on my drive for perhaps 3 weeks (?) and prior to that the channel had been cleaned and was free running! You could actually see the metal around the body joint flexing around the strut mounting point - horrendous!

261986


261987


RHS was unaffected.

261988


On Monday (after having had a chat with Phil (Bodyshop manager) and Dave (owner - who used to have a GTR) at Prestige Parkway in Manchester, car went in for some surgery! The plan was to remove bumper, cut out the offending rusty metal, shape a replacement piece and weld it in, then make an OEM finish and paint it,

If you have ever wondered where that water actually drains to, look here. This is with the plastic bracket that seems to be the root cause having been removed. Some of the crud is the mounting mastic, but there is clear build up of debris in the seam of the wing/boot.

261989


On the RHS, this is before they removed the offending bracket.

261990


This shows the new plate after being shaped , a new rivnut having been welded inside and the plate then welded in place.

261991

261992


Painted.

261993


Reassembled, as you can see they improved the drain channel by simply removing a small portion of the plastic bracket (on both sides).

261995


Have been very impressed by the work done and the care and attention to detail from Prestige Parkway, as they said - they wanted to make sure this was a permanent solution to the root cause and not just a fix to the end result of a poor design. Now with a proper drain channel I hope the water runoff will actually be strong enough to wash debris straight thorough and not accumulate in the hidden seam.

Car was ready for collection today (Thursday, although I wasn't able to get there, so tomorrow I'll have it back), effectively 3 days "end to end" but obviously at least part of that was spent waiting for paint to harden before polishing and re-assembly.

Happy days! Their next job is to attend to stone chipping on front bumper.

David
 
#24 ·
Under that plastic mounting bracket there looks like some kind of rubber type seal, does it make any difference cutting that out to improve the flow? I want to do something to improve the situation but without removing the bumper. At the moment I use a wooden "burger stick (big cocktail stick)" to try and keep it clear, but this only allows a 3-4mm hole for drainage.
Just fed up with constantly doing this every couple of weeks.
 
#25 ·
I think there is some foam under the bracket that some have removed as well as increasing the size of the drain outlet.

As the water does not drain into anything eg a drain tube, but simply runs down the body and out of the bottom of the bumper, I can't imagine that enlarging the opening/removing the foam can be anything but an improvement.

I'll be keeping a watch on how clean (or not!) the inside of the boot channel is now its been opened up. I'd imagine if there is now no blockage the channel itself should keep fairly clean.
 
#27 ·
Have collected car and am deeply impressed by the workmanship. To my eyes (!) the repaired LH side is indistinguishable from OEM RH side.

Been advised there was no foam under/around the plastic support bracket, so they simply cut a 15mm semi-circle in the bracket on both sides to give a proper outlet for water flow. As I said before with the size of the outlet am sure any debris that falls into the channel will wash straight out and not silt up.

Prestige also gave the car a full deep clean and hand wax and in the glare of the bodyshop high intensity lamps it looked superb!

Will be booking car in again in a few weeks time to have front bumper re-painted as it is stone shipped quite markedly in places. Was walked through their colour matching/re-painting process and they guarantee a complete colour match to wings/bonnet.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top