Celle

I decided to give my 1989 Carrera a thorough bodywork restoration and new paint job, due to several small dents and scratches resulting from a previous ownership.

When stripping down the car, I encountered a few areas of hidden rust. All this rust was in an early stadium, so it seems we were kinda "just in time" to get this easily fixed without having to weld in new bodywork sections. By the way, the rust looks worse on the photos than in reality (courtesy of Canon...)

As a reference, I live in an Atlantic climate, with quite wet winters and unpredictable summers (sometimes hot, sometimes rainy/chilly). The car has always been parked inside overnight, but spent lots of days of his life outside on a parking lot.

The photos are here http://www.imageinn.be/carrera_celle

Edgy01

You have caught most of the typical places. (Amazing with all the galvanization!) Also check down in the rocker panels and the rear below the tail lights,--lots of nasty stuff collects in there. Discovered best when the tail lights are pulled out.

Dan

Peter Bull

I can't see that you have looked there, so if you have not. You might also want to take a look inside the rear wheelwells. The point where the outer and inner bodywork meets in the front of the wheelwells collect a lot of dirt and seems to be a classical rust spot.

Celle

Thanks Edgy and Peter. I looked there as well and found nothing.

Uli911

If you want to find more rust check the sheet metal left/right to the engine and in the doors

Marc Shaw

It might be different on my 964, but I found a tiny bit at the edge of the headlight buckets - easy to see once the trim and headlight are out.

Mafrc

Celle

Thanks guys. Looked at all those places and found nothing worth mentioning. What I did find was some light rust in the lower "gutter" of the windscreen frame, below the rubber sealing. This would have led eventually to rust "creeping" out from below the rubber windscreen seal, like you see on many older 911's.

It is obvious to me that galvanizing the body was a good decision by Porsche. Also, it seems that 15-16 years of age is a good time to tear down your Porsche and start looking for hidden rust (in a humid or semi-humid climate, that is). It's fun to do (if you like to work on your car) and you learn a lot about how your car is put together...

By the way, long live the Bentley manual