Rusty 944 advice

[Dial944]

Hello chaps, I was hoping someone might be able to give me some words of advice with regards to rust repairs on my 944.

The sills and bottom corners of the wheelarchs, which did look pristine when I purchased it in september, are begining to show show some rust after a winters use. What's the best way of going about repairing these?
Popping a camera down the door vents shows the inner sills to look ok, with just a little surface rust towards the bottom so I think just the outer panel will need replacing.
I've seen several repair panels for sale on ebay but these seem to vary from the originals by quite a bit. I'm aware you can get get the sill section for reasonable money from Porsche themselves but then how to go about repairing the corners of the wings? My experience shaping sheet metal is almost nil so I imagine a curved piece like this will be quite difficult to make. Are there any good suppliers for wing repair panels? Again the ebay panels seem to just be flat sheet which would surely stand out against the shape of the wing itself.

Any advice with this would be really appreciated as it appears getting these repairs done at a specialist would outweigh the value of the car, so not really a good option here.

Thanks
David

[Dial944]

rubystone said:

Slightly odd that from no sign of rot to this advance stage takes just a few months of what was a mild winter? Had someone lashed then up before you bought the car?

It does look like it has been bodged up at some point. The stoneguard here is in much better condition than around the wheelarch where it is all cracked and faded.

[Dial944]

All really helpful replies, much appreciated.

The car is a relatively high mileage daily driver so certainly not worth investing a great deal into. As much as I enjoy driving this one realistically anything more than £1000 to get this sorted would likely see me selling the car on.

As suggested I'll get a second opinion from a specialist on the extent of the rust around the seatbelt and suspension mounts. Fingers crossed that just a simple outer panel replacement plus clean up of the inner sill is needed.

[Dial944]

Ryvita said:

...Picking up this thread, can anyone recommend a good place to get this kind of work done in the Surrey area? Would need sill / panel cut out and repair.

Probably worth giving a quick update here.

Sills were repaired last year. In the end the inner sills were not too far gone at all and it was fairly straightforward for the bodyshop to fabricate a new outer panel. This despite there being several patches welded in and some holes which had just been filled and painted over.



I'm aware I've been quite lucky here, there are plenty of accounts of people stripping back the outer sill and finding nothing but rot beneath.

What state are yours in? Mine had gone where the wheelarch meets the sill in particular, whilst the section around the jacking point was still solid. If it is just the outer panel that needs doing I should think any competent bodyshop should be able to do a good job of it, no need to be looking for a specialist.