Any panel beaters here?!

[skoty]

Not a Toyota I'm afraid but....

I take my s14 to ONROAD for a warrant inspection. Carried out a full service on it the day before at work and didn't notice anything that it should fail on during the service.

I failed the warrant because they claimed I had 'structual' rust by my LHF strut tower near where the fender panel bolts to the body (very common on silvias I've noticed) Is there any panel beaters that can verify this is ACTUALLY strutual as the piece of steel plate appears to be glued on therfore can't be strutual? I'm a mechanic, not a panel beater so can some shed some light on this.




Thanks,

skoty.

[kim0663]

i am no panelbeater but my opinion is, wheel arches are considered structural, i wouldn't see why that won't be called one.

Its only surface isn't it? doesn't look too bad just sand it down and spray can it

[skoty]

The rust isn't on the wheel arch though... Maybe its hard to tell by the image but that rust is on a steel plate that isn't actually welded/bolted to the body/strut tower from what I can see

[Nuty|Mike]

take it somewhere else onroad are picky pricks

[Mr Revhead]

doesnt have to be welded to be structural!
epoxy and gluing is becoming a lot more common in cars.

maybe they are worried its like old cars, the little you see on top is just the tip of the iceberg!

hard to see in that pic, but is it just surface corrosion? if so sand it back and prep and spray

[Anth_555]

it is welded on but its not hard to fix just get the wire wheel on a drill that will clean it off paint in and seal it again all fixed

[skoty]

Theres rust on the other side I saw but minor. Any repairs MUST be carried out by a qualified panel beater with evidence - quoted ($600-700!) as they reckon they need to replace that piece which also involves removing the fender panel etc. Home jobs arnt good enough for Onroad warrants.

Don't you think these guys are being a little bit pedantic?! Bare in mind with my last warrant at Onroad I had the same amount of rust there and I passed - WTF

[Anth_555]

lol wire whell it and make sure theres no rust there and show them b4 you paint it. you just have to show them the rush has been removed correctly it shouldnt matter who dose it and from the looks of it its only sureface rust. when we do rust work at work we just have to show them we have welded a patch or cleaned it off

[Truenotch]

Just fix it, wait for 28 days and go somewhere else .

[Mr Revhead]

it will be entered into the WOF system

[skoty]

it will be entered into the WOF system

....So when your car goes through a warrant inspection and fails, that information get shared in some sort of data base for other warrant inspecters to view outside the company?

For instance, I took my car to Onroad and it fails on rust as it did. So I then take it to say Joe Bloggs Automotive - can he then view on his computer why it failed at Onroad?

[Truenotch]

Yep they have an online link between all the wof places.

[Emperor]

wb a offline wof place out in the whops?

[Bling]

find a BETTER WOF place, fix the rust, paint match it (if fussy) and go elsewhere.

Thats what i'd do anyway, it pays dividends to NOT go to places like On Road / VTNZ etc

wb a offline wof place out in the whops?

or order a mail order WOF

[rollaholic]

it wont say where the rust was though. find half decent mechanic, if he questions it (may not even check) tell him it failed a wof for rust, you fixed it, show him where, tell him 28 days passed so you need a new wof check.

really shouldnt be a problem.

[skoty]

it wont say where the rust was though. find half decent mechanic, if he questions it (may not even check) tell him it failed a wof for rust, you fixed it, show him where, tell him 28 days passed so you need a new wof check.

really shouldnt be a problem.

Yeah thats the plan

[d1 mule]

uoy got quoted $700 to fix that, that is an absoloute joke.

2 weeks ago i had bout "A" pillars in my hilux repaired for rust, had a couple of pen size holes each. Had steel plates welded in, preped and painted for $200. it was WAY worse than that, now its bloody mint.

(was at on road in chch and they dite even ask to see the recipt or anything so technically i could have done it myself)

but like ppl have said, wire wheel, prime, paint, sorted .

[skoty]

So everyone probably wants to know the verdict to my dramas with the rust...

I cleaned up the rust to bare metal and drove down for a re-check at vtnz (run by the same crowd as onroad) I told the guy that I got failed at onroad due to the surface rust by my strut tower - he replied with 'that dumb cu*t' - actual words said and slapped a sticker on the window

That week I applied some rust converter, sanded the area down and did a tidy primmer patch with a run of new silicon down the plate. Looks good without spending the $700 the panel beater quoted me! Also repaired another minor area while I was at it

[Bling]

moral of the story:

Don't go to Onroad / VTNZ type WOF places and fix car problems at home to save big $$$

[skoty]

moral of the story:

Don't go to Onroad / VTNZ type WOF places and fix car problems at home to save big $$$

Correct