This is a Toyota Aygo from 2007. As you can see, the rust is getting pretty bad where sills meet the floor. It’s the same on both sides near rear wheels. The rest of the floor, body and mechanical parts are very clean and in good shape. The car passed its last inspection three months ago but the rust is obviously spreading and there’s no way I’ll pass the next inspection after two years or the car will be safe to drive, especially since the rust is exactly where rear jack points are.
How much labour do you think welding would require? Is it going to be expensive? Sure, it’s a shitbox from 2007 and scrapping the car before the next inspection sounds like the easy way but the rest of the car is actually in a very good shape mechanically and cosmetically, and very nice to drive, so I’d prefer to keep it, assuming a body shop can fix the rust damage for something like under 500 Euros. What do you recommend?
I am not an expert by any means, but depending on the mileage on the car and how much life you expect to get out of it, I feel that taking care of the rust now will be better sooner than later. My guess for price would be 1000 max, anything over that you should consider holding off on and using the car until you can’t anymore, maintaining the basics (oils, tires, brakes, fluids, etc) and putting the money towards another vehicle or down payment if possible.
That looks like it’s gonna be a ton of work if repair panels are even available. I dunno what labor prices are in Lithuania, but in the US that could easily cost $5k or more. They’ll have to strip the interior, cutout the rust, shape patch panels to fit, weld them in, repaint, and reinstall the interior.
That sounds like lots of work, I can buy two rust-free Aygos/C1s/107s for that price and keep the current one as a parts donor, lol. Though is ripping out the interior necessary? I thought the bottom floor was not the same as the interior floor under the carpet (based on the height difference and part placement underneath the car), though I might be wrong.
It’ll be necessary to remove the interior so they can access both sides of the panel for removal/installation and not catch anything on fire while welding.
Best bet will be to ask around local autobody shops since they’ll have the most accurate estimates. I’d personally just sell the car if it becomes a bigger issue. Repairing is likely cost prohibitive.
The rust has penetrated and eaten clean through that pinch weld which means a decent section of the body needs to be cut out and rewelded with a hand formed panel. It’s hard to tell exactly how far up into the body it may have eaten and i highly doubt that’s the only rust intrusion spot.
may need a body shop estimate but that can range from slap some sheet steel on it and spray paint it for $250 to a rather significant amount of panel forming that could run $1500+ in labor quite quickly. Wont’ really know unless a professional sticks a camera up in it, but I will tell you rust is an ugly cancer that, if you see it in one place, it exists in 10 others…
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