Just bought a Jimny – stripped it down, now wondering how far to go with rust pr

I'm not sure how I feel about bed liner on the outside of cars, I know it's durable but it's not exactly aesthetic either depends on the colour and how textured the finish is I suppose. If you are taking the shell off then there will never be an easier time to swap 8n a new motor. I think if I had the facilities I would be taking it really apart and making it perfect.

Sjimpie wrote:

 
So i actually plan on building this car out a bit for overlanding, and would like to keep it for a while! 

I'm still debating on if i should put in a Liana m16a engine, i could do all of it now in 1 go, strip down completely, sandblast and treat it, put in the new engine and fix all the leaking stuff. I'm also going to paint the outside with raptor liner.


 

If you want to spend your time in the garage doing a "restoration," you definitely can.  You will have many fun hours of flicking rust into your eyes, and will discover just how amazingly messy degreasing large and heavy (and small and easily lost) parts can be.  Restorations can be fun, but they are not fast.  Do a body-off semi-restoration yourself, and you will not be driving the Jimny for a long time.

Or you can patch it up a bit, like the two most experienced people on this forum recommend above, and go overlanding in a few short weeks from now.  You will learn about the car as you use it -- it will force you to -- and more importantly, you will be enjoying the car for what it is intended for, and making happy memories.

In short:
If you want to go overlanding, do that.  Don't set yourself up for months or years of not doing what you bought the Jimny to do.


Someone gave me this advice when I was starting out with cars, a few decades ago, and he was 100% right.  Go out, have fun.  You can always do a restoration later.