Volvo S80 engine cleaning

[Georgeandkira]

Since you mentioned repainting your car, I suggest you ask around at body shops which do both metal body work and painting (most of them?). The paint job, however value based, will cost something and I bet a good shop will give you a better package deal.

If you're going to keep the car another 700K (ha-ha) you don't want plastic 'fill-jobs'.

[Gentil79]

I’m not considering going to paint shop to do welding and painting as well because it’s very expensive. A decent respray in the UK is more than £3k alone. I just want to do the metal work first for the MOT. The car does indeed need a full respray because every single panel is damaged, but that won’t happen for a long time. I considered vinyl wrap, but the body has to be in good condition with no dents, bubble or deep scratches. The cheapest wrapping job would cost at least £1800 and I got a lot of quotes.

[SnineT]

Gentil, I'd be inclined to get it up in the air and get the screwdriver out on the rear areas affected working from inside to out, you might find there's some suspension dependant rot in there where all you can do is either get the new sections welded in or call time on the car,

Regarding the paint, you can brush paint it yourself, as long as you take your time and prep to ensure a good key, silver would be a no no but either matt or normal Black should come out ok, with hand painting it can look good if you know how to do it, when you lay paint you'l notice it pulls the brush lines together if done right, that or invest in a modest semi pro spray gun and a poly tent big enough to give you a few feet either side of the car,

Personally I think you're chasing the wind with this one, sometimes you just have to say to much work, it's a shame with the rot as if it was able to get an MOT it would've been a good cheap beater for a while but trust me cars like this are like a piece of string and that string can go on forever.

[Gentil79]

Originally Posted by SnineT

Gentil, I'd be inclined to get it up in the air and get the screwdriver out on the rear areas affected working from inside to out, you might find there's some suspension dependant rot in there where all you can do is either get the new sections welded in or call time on the car,

Regarding the paint, you can brush paint it yourself, as long as you take your time and prep to ensure a good key, silver would be a no no but either matt or normal Black should come out ok, with hand painting it can look good if you know how to do it, when you lay paint you'l notice it pulls the brush lines together if done right, that or invest in a modest semi pro spray gun and a poly tent big enough to give you a few feet either side of the car,

Personally I think you're chasing the wind with this one, sometimes you just have to say to much work, it's a shame with the rot as if it was able to get an MOT it would've been a good cheap beater for a while but trust me cars like this are like a piece of string and that string can go on forever.

It has been up and it doesn’t go any further. However, it affects 3 areas, such as the sill, outer arch and inner arch.
The affected sections will be cut off and new sections from a donor car will be welded in, instead of fabricating new metal. Quicker, easier and cheaper. Also, because it comes from a donor car, we know it’s good quality metal. I’ll just paint the repaired area in black as you suggested for the time being.

At the end of the day, it’s a project car and it’s to be recovered in small steps. I’m still using it almost daily until the MoT runs out and it drives really well considering the use it had.