Peydidy

I love the way your interior looks

tommy

Danke!

Couple of small changes to be done at month-end, when I'm not being crushed at work...

David N.

Tommy, your coupe looks awesome!

tommy

So I should be picking up the car today. As I said, I was missing the pins on the underside of the sunroof deflector, so those will be put in, and the deflector reattached in total. They noticed rust in that area on the body, so I'll deal with that in the spring - don't really feel like tackling another rust issue on my car again, and don't have many open sunroof days left this year anyway, probably.

Also said that I need front wheel bearings; thought I had an issue with the rotors, but I guess I was wrong. Have a Dodge Avenger rental, btw (Enterprise keeps having no smaller cars, which is really annoying) - the car must be how driving American cars was like in 1985, seriously, this car is one POS. The Alfa influence in Dodge products can't come soon enough (Dart looks pretty decent, surprisingly).

Think I really need to prepare myself for buying something about this time next year; would love to drive this car for another 2-3 years, but not sure it's in the cards.

LILBENZ230

You need wheel bearings so the car is junk? Retire the sunroof, replace the wheel bearings and keep driving.

edgarinho10

Buy another roof

tommy

That would cost more than the value of the car.

Yes, I'm going to just ignore Matt's posts from now on.

LILBENZ230

Maybe I didn't understand fully. The structure of the car around the pano roof is rusting? By "retire the roof" I meant don't open it anymore.. not chop it off or anything like that. You should be able to get 2-3 more years out of the thing easily.

tommy

On the coupe, there's a hinged front portion that tilts up when the sunroof is opened. Underneath there is where the metal is rusting.

If I couldn't open up the coupe's sunroof, that would ruin the most fun part of it! I'm sure I'll just get it fixed after winter next year, assuming nothing else goes wrong, but it's another thing to add to the fix list...

tommy

Looks like my hand is being forced on this issue. The rivets on the passenger's side popped out BECAUSE of the rust there. So either seal up the sunroof or properly deal with it. Guess which I'm going to be going with? Yep - more $$$$ out the window!
Shop won't be able to get to it before early October, but current estimate is $1500, which includes dealing with the windshield as well. Since I've had other rust taken care of this past 12-month period, it's not surprising that this would need to be replaced as well (esp. knowing the sh*tty paint process in 2001-03), and since all of that other metal has been fixed, my current rationalization is that I might as well go for it.

So for those of you keeping track at home, that's
new front fenders, both sides
lower passenger's side door
both rear quarterpanels around wheelwells
lower metal portions right in front of rear wheels, both sides
respray of hood
and now, the sunroof area. That's a pretty impressive total of sheetmetal!

LILBENZ230

You've just totally rebuilt it. I'd have sealed up the sunroof rather than pay $1500 repairing a $350 car, but that's just me. Hopefully you can get 200k+ out of it. Still cheaper than buying a new car.

edgarinho10

Just do the fenders yourself!

tommy

You have no heart, then.

I really couldn't live with the car without the sunroof. And it's not like the cancer wouldn't continue growing underneath, meaning that the area just behind the windshield would decay, and it would grow back along the roof as well.

I'd say my car's worth at least $399, mister.

Edgar - all of the other rust except for the sunroof area has already been done, so they're sunk costs at this point, pun intended.

LILBENZ230

Well then surely once you fix this issue you'll be good to continue driving it for a long while. I mean you've spent a 500 Abarth in repairs.

tommy

Maybe two, with mods.

And stop calling me Shirley.

jcnash

^^ LOL.
Tommy..I hear ya man! I have the same love-hate relationship with my coupe, although I think mine if holding up a little better than yours. I dont have rust in the sun-roof area, but I did have the infamous broken hinge on one of the side tracks that caused a stick of metal to project up and it wouldnt let me shut the roof. Macguyvered that isht myself with some chicken wire..coz Im bad like that!
I also got all the rust taken care off back in Oct 2010. There was tons in the usual spots - rear quarter panels along the wheel well, inside the side skirt, edges of front quarter panels etc. No rust has returned, except for a little bit starting to now in the quarter panels.
Ive been thinking about possible future options for my car. I could never get myself to sell it though...lol.
I considered converting it to a dedicated track car for a while, but considering its a 10 year old car, Ill probably get like 3 track days out of it. Then I considered making it my winter beater (considering the snowy, salty mess our roads are in for 6 months a year!). But seems like I might be going back to school for a year next year, so looks like my coupey will be my only care for a couple more years, and if its still running in like 2015, Ill retire it to winter only service.
You should think about options like that too....totally not worth selling our cars now. Besides if its your winter car or secondary car or track car etc., who cares if the sunroof has rust in it? LOL

LILBENZ230

Reminds me of my dad.. he says that kind of stuff. As a matter of fact you guys are probably of similar ages. He is 53.

tommy

Oh you kids today - no respect for your elders!

He's 7 years older than me, thanks. Wouldn't that still make him old enough to be my father in Georgia?

One good thing - found out the bearing replacement solved what I thought was the vibrations from worn rotors, so my brakes are fine. Hey, I'm grasping at straws here!

jcnash; if my crx weren't set up so well for tracking and so badly for daily driving, I would totally go with the ccoupe as winter car bit, but I'm still stuck with the ccoupe being my dd year-round car. Looked at the pics they took of the rust in front of the sunroof - very scary. So the appt to take care of the rust in early Oct will be set tomorrow; might ask them how much to redo the headliner while they're at it - the sagging in the rear (the hatch headliner, not me) has been an annoyance, and might kill two birds with one stone. Something to think about.

David N.

That is one thing that has really disappointed me with this car. The amount of rust is unreal. I had quite a bit repaired under MB Canada's goodwill warranty, but it is now returning on the bottom edge of both front doors, as well as one of the rear fenders.

I've had three different body shop guys tell me to get it rust proofed with either KROWN or Rust Check. I am still debating if I want to bother as I am not convinced at the effectiveness of such treatments.

Tracey469

Thanks Tommy - nice to see how other coupes are progressing over time. Looking forward to seeing some more photo's when you get a chance.

Curious about the mods4cars module - sounds almost like the feature already built into the key remote, no? Have to google that one...

tommy

Similar, yes. Couple of differences; runs by RF not IR, so it has much longer range than the stock key, won't die on you at the receiver on the door handle like the stock one, and you won't look like an idiot by pointing your key at your door for 30 seconds like stock.

Give you an example - (this is when the sunroof is working properly) when it's hot outside and I'm leaving work for the parking lot - hit unlock 3 times, sunroof goes up. Hit it again, and the sunroof goes all the way open, and the door windows go down, all well before I get even close to my car. Much simpler to do than stock. I really love the feature; the cost I guess is too high for some, but compare it to trying to fix your IR receivers, and it's a bargain.

edgarinho10

Where could you get the module from?

tommy

Their website is here:

mods4cars.com

tommy

Monday, October 8th - car goes under the knife.

Judging by the pic, there really is a ton of rust under the deflector; they took a pic for me. Very scary. Have the new rivets already, so just waiting for the 8th with some lovely tape at the top of the windshield. Good thing it's not winter.

EDIT: Also realized that my parking card slides in nicely into those grooves on the underside of the armrest, which I will now switch to thinking is not an overengineered piece of silliness.

infected

Hope all goes well. Let see some photo updates here, Tommy.