[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by order99

Oh, the poor wee bairn...

I have no idea how tiny your repair budget is-but is it possible to replace the gas tank entirely? That should do wonders for the rust in the fuel.

I doubt I can find a tank that would be proper without having one built, this tank looks pretty good and was supposedly coated (aka dipped and sealed), however the fuel fitting is UNDER 1/8" and any little thing in the tank would clog it.

I could justify up to maybe $3k for this project but I really really do not want to spend more than $800, the floor pans should be around $300 or so welded in, repaint I have found a do it at home in spare time guy but I haven't gotten a price down yet, I am not decided on if his level of "quality" will be good enough or not, I am not picky but my main reason for paint is to derust to prevent further rust, surface rust seems to be mainly on the front suspension area, the very rear of the car, the doors and hinges and along "edges" like the fenders, their seams, the edge of the hoods and the bottom edge of the framework.

Originally Posted by order99

Also, it looks like you might need to replace a few of those body areas entirely-if you forgo the cost of replacement panels you can always cut back to the unrusted metal and bridge the gaps with a few layers of fiberglass(at least on the areas not subject to critical loads!)

I am working on getting the floor pans cut out and flat sheetmetal welded in, I don't think any of the other body areas will be problematic (at least not yet)

Originally Posted by order99

I love the classic looks of your Justy-I have no idea what your Cd is but I honestly can't think of any Aero mods that wouldn't ruin the lines. I suppose you could delete the passenger-side mirror and fashion an underflow tray for the body. The grill looks pretty minimal as is, a block might actually be overkill at this point. Some transparent headlight covers might help a little, but you stated you were on a budget...

Never heard of this called a Justy in Japan they are called Ladybugs, a grill block is NOT what I am thinking of, there is one very poor picture showing the bottom of the car, basically the area under that front hood is wide open to the bottom near the front tires, besides my broken washer bottle and a spare tire there is absolutely nothing under that hood and no reason for it to be open underneith by the tires.

Originally Posted by order99

And for what it's worth, my '93 Festiva has a faded red backside, a primer grey front and a (recently replaced) white drivers-side door. Oddly enough, I haven't has a single break-in so far!

LoL I have never had a breakin on any car good or bad.

Anyway the exhaust smell is shown, if you look at the air intake boot on the side of my engine you will see a gap between the aluminum intake and the rubber boot that gap just happens to be directly above the joint between the muffler and the decompression chamber try though I might it won't seal perfectly as it must to make the car run correctly, just tightening that joint and reducing the leakage increased my power enough that I could shift into 3rd gear at 20mph instead of nearly 30mph. I am looking at putting in a Felpro fibreglass gasket as recommended on the subaru forum to see if that takes care of things, I also need to duct tape or ??? the boot.

Also It is possible that the heater box is leaking near the manifold gaskets but I could not see any exhaust from that area but then again it might be getting sucked through the heater system which I didn't completely dissassemble, although the heat system on this car is from the exhaust it is not identical to the VW system, the heater in this car will burn holes through your leg and will actually keep you warm, I can't say the VW system ever could do that.