What to do with the VC SL...

[Drewie]

I am tossing around what to do with our VC SL 202 auto, we have had it for around 16 years,
mechanically it runs fine, all original running gear done around 240,000km, problem is the rust is starting to take hold, the lip around the boot that the rubber seal goes on has some bad rust and is letting water into the boot, and I noticed there is rust around the front windscreen plus a few other places, it is not worth paying to have the rust fixed as it would be too costly, so do I just keep driving it until some thing major goes wrong then send it to the scrap metal yard, or sell it unregistered as a donor car for some one doing up one, as it has some nice options like air cond and power steering, and has had quite a few new bits fitted over the years, like brand new starter motor, radiator, power steering rack, tyres, battery etc. Or do I wreck it sell what I can then send to the scrap metal man.
From a few feet away it looks like a nice tidy VC as most of the rust is hidden out of sight, not sure what to do!

[ari666]

tough call. as a parts car you will only get 500- (maybe) a grand. no chance you could fix it yourself?

[vk.jonno]

make it a drag car or something, thatd be fun

[ari666]

i have a couple of empty 205 liter oil drums you can haz for tubs

[VBRED]

You could donate it to me. The body is probably better then mine?

[VK SL 3800]

Depends how bad the rust is, they all rust out the boot lip seal, back window and front window, the body under the top of the guards, you may find it looks worse then it actually is, my vk had the boot lip rusted out, so i got some right angle aluminum and cut the whole original lip off and used the aluminum it as a replacement after giving it a good clean up and rust proof. Back window was completely rusted through at the bottom where it cant be seen, so i got some metal mend (top stuff) and filled in all the holes and put the window back in, windows are very easy to do on the early girls. Point is fixing rust in those areas is not real expensive and is pretty much a DIY job as it doesnt matter how good your repair looks as it cannot be seen.

I attached a couple of pics of what my vk was like, couldnt find any pics of the final product though. Anyway you wouldnt know what ive done by looking at it.

[Drewie]

How did you attach the right angle aluminium to the remaining lip? Sounds like a good cheapish fix.

[ari666]

I attached a couple of pics of what my vk was like,

you are lucky. mine is much much worse than that.

[VK SL 3800]

How did you attach the right angle aluminum to the remaining lip? Sounds like a good cheapish fix.

What i did was cut all of the old lip off across the top and top corners so its flat and then make the aluminum bend around the corner and overlap the goods bits of lip which i left. After bending it to shape i just riveted it on, then put high quality silicon around the bottom to seal between the aluminum and the body, silicon gets covered by the rubber so isnt out in the elements, been on over a year and hasnt gone brown or started to lift ect. Will take a pic if i find time.