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Just had a call from the garage where we sometimes get my partners Jimny worked on to say that the clunking noise i’d asked them to investigate had been found. It was the body to chassis mount failing in the rear offside due to corrosion. I’d noticed it rusting last autumn and but some rust converter and some primer on as a short term thing. Hauling us on holiday with a large load might have been the last straw for it. The garage says that both sides will need repairing and it’s probably six hours work per side.
The front cross member is also rusty at both ends. That’s the rail directly under the radiator which may be part of the body, but I’m not sure.
That’s another big job apparently.
The car is T registered so is about 20 years old but it has only done a little over 43,000 miles from new. She’s owned it since it was three years old. It’s otherwise in quite good condition although the rear door has a dint due to my elbow when slipping over.. The rear floor has signs of rust along the joint under the back seats (rust converter applied) but the jack well looks like new with no rust at all. The sills have had some patch welding in the past. The four wheel drive works fine as vacuum pipes were replaced a few years ago. Suspension bushes have been replaced.
Repair costs are probably more than it’s worth but it is a nice car to have as a backup and bad weather driver to our other (also old) car. I also like it for town driving as its so easy to park in multi storey car parks rtc. Any thoughts or suggestions?
If you talk to Martin the admin Mlines he is able to get you just about any repair panel you need at a good price so other than labour it needn't be a massive problem to fix and like you've said it's otherwise a decent little second car so yeah fix it and keep it. If you have had it a while it's not like it really owes you a lot.
Temeraire (2018 quasar grey automatic)
One of the last 200ish of the gen3s, probably.
ADOS Attention Deficit Ooooh Shiny!
I'd second what Lambert says - after all, the cheapest car is the one you already own!
If you buy something else there is of course, the risk that you are buying someone elses problems
Had a response from Martin. As expected, he sells parts but not repair panels. It's therefore a case like project rust bucket
www.bigjimny.com/index.php/forum/8-my-ji...-project-rust-bucket
where a lot of fabricating and welding is needed. That's way beyond my skills set. It's not as far gone as project rust bucket with respect to the floors etc but I suspect the back corners may be similar when the back bumper comes off. I've retrieved it from the garage and will think about it a little but end of life looks more likely. Oh, and it's only done 41,000 miles.
I took it to a couple of restorers who came out with outrageous estimates and the garage which has done some work on it in the past offered to take it of my hands to allow their apprentice to train on it, taking the body off the chassis. While undecided on what to do I was advised of a retired person who has repaired huge numbers of land rovers and he's welded it up for us. Not the tidiest of repairs but they're hidden and look solid. I'll have to touch up the rust proofing though as not as good as I'd like. Got it back and it's been MoT'd so its back on the road for winter hooray.
We had thought of buying a replacement but our budget would probably have just bought one with more problems. Now hoping that we can get a few more years out of it. I may treat it to a steel wheel refurbishment (or buy replacements if I can find some good standard ones) as they're getting a bit rusty, Personally I like the look of five spoke alloys but my partner prefers the original steel wheels and its her car.
A happy ending.
I was also going to say "get it fixed". It owes you nothing a a good repair in these known rot spots could see another 20 years out of it.
A newer one could be just as rotten and will cost a lot more.
Pump the repair full of wax.
Have fun
Mike
Yokohama Geolanders, Sony head unit, NAUTILUS Air Horn, DRL conversion, Rear cargo space, Elvis Bobblehead, transfer Guard, Indian hanging Elephant, Koni Heavy track dampers, Custom SS exhaust, Voodoo Doll, Adventure Rack with LED ight bar, vintage ERIBA caravan usually attached (yes it's slow)
Can anyone kindly advise of the colour code for this metallic blue colour as I'd like to try and get some for some touch up work.
Perhaps listing the range of Suzuki standard colours is something for the Wiki pages?
Also, is there a known standard colour for the steel wheels, as they're not quite silver but as a silvery grey I think. I'd like to keep them a standard colour when repainting?
Interesting read despite it being an older thread; just went through this a few months ago with my own 21 year old Jimny - consequences of two decades of being unkept and some bodged jobs. It failed horrifically this year, but 3 weeks later came through without any advisories. Mainly welding-related - I think it had slipped through just because it had never been to a 'proper' MOT test station who do things thoroughly.
Persevered with the support of forum peeps and here we are; best decision I made keeping it and its gone one to give me hours of joy messing around and improving it in subtle ways.
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