landon.alder

So as some of you may know, I bought my civic about 6 months ago and it now has about 150,000 miles on it. Its a '95 ej1 and as I was getting ready to install a sub I was recently given, I began to start looking under the carpet in my trunk.

I noticed some body damage on the passenger side, which looks like this:







As you can see, they must've filled it in with bondo or something, but now its started to crack and has a couple small holes where I can see all the way through.

The carpet is still clean, so nothing has been getting in from the road I guess.

I continued looking and snapped a couple pics from the underside of the trunk area that I took pictures of above:





When I look under the car, everthing seems straight and I don't see any signs of any bondo work on the frame or anything. I also took a couple pics of under the hood:





Now here, I can't tell whether that is from the factory or also a bondo job.

My questions for you guys are,

1. Do you think that the body of my car is still "structurally sound", i.e. should I continue to put money into this car or is it too beat up to where I should find a "clean" body and start from there.

2. Are the pictures from under the hood bondo work also, or are the areas I circled normally like that?


Thanks for any and all opinions

delsolproblems

The picture isn't clear enough to tell, not that one necessarily could from the pic. Scrape off a tiny bit of paint from the area under the hood and see if it's bondo or rust underneath. Sand the spot you scraped off the paint with some 400-500 grit and cover with a little dab of paint. If this is all of the damage, your car should still be very sound. The rust in the trunk area should be removed with a wire wheel. The area should be welded with patches and/or braces applied where needed. It should be covered with self-etch primer on both sides of metal worked on or on any areas of bare metal. It should then be scuffed and at least sealed if not painted.

JSPECSIR

the stuff circled in red is just factory seam sealer. it supposed to look like that. they build econo cars not show cars. the corner of your trunk needs to be hammered/dollied back into a decent resemblance of what it use to be, and new seam sealer put back to seal it up at a minimum. the rust could be grinded out and self etched and sprayed with an enamel to prevent it from rusting back if you wish. if any of the spot welds are broken you could weld it back or glue it back with proper adhesives.

i wouldnt be too terribly upset, you have to consider how old the car is. if thats all thats wrong with it youve done good.

delsolproblems

Sorry, I guess I didn't really look at the second to last pic. The top red circle is obviously seam sealer but I wasn't sure the bottom was.

itsnotfast

There is probably a good bit of bondo in the rear quarter.

ferio252

It is what it is. Nothing to have sleepless nights over.

landon.alder

Ah oh, well thanks for letting me know what's up. I was starting to get worried