Just looking for opinions I've just bought an rs turbo which is pretty rotten. It needs battery tray and area above battery tray. Fuse box panel, front chassis legs are rotten,sills inner and outer, arches inner and outer, sunroof tray may be rotten as well. My mate is a fabricator and offered to weld it up for me as I have got most of the panels to fix. But I have a cracking mk4 1300 bonus shell that is fitted with a 2 litre blacktop on bike carbs my dilemma is what do I do fix it or reshell it and make a sleeper or a turbo replica.

 

Restore it, it'll be more rewarding in the end

 

Gotta agree ^^^^ you need to repair it will be worth more in thw long ru being a genuine rst rarher then a reshell

 

Restore it mate defo

 

Is it a S1 or 2? If it was a Series 1 i'd want to restore but a 2, i'd be tempted to just reshell it really..

 

series 2

 

reshell it mate ,or you will soon spend double or treble what the car is worth as a rule of thumb

 

That was my thinking, if it was a S1 it would have been worth it if it came out mint..

 

Ultimately its up to you, a lot of people say once its re shelled it aint a genuine rs turbo any more, but it will probably be the cheaper option, I'd say restore but that's just me

 

The cost to restore is not worrying me. I have most of the bits and i'll get the welding done by a mate the only big cost is painting it really. Plus the car was very cheap lots of good bits on it as well.

 

Reshell it into a good shell or break it and crush the rotten shell.

 

Reshell, unless you have the means to DIY resto. It's all well and true people telling you to restore it but you'll be £5k in before you know it. I'd only reshell into a genuine rot free shell though, no point going to the same effort to put it in a non Rs shell. It's your money at the end of the day that's going to be spent.

 

I'd break it, save some extra cash on top of what you get for parts... and buy a clean/straight RST in the first place.


Cheers,
Grant

 

Reshell everytime mate. A rough shell will always be just that,a rough shell and unless your replacing every panel it won't be worth bothering.
Unless the car has historical or sentimental value don't bother,you could Reshell one nicely in a week.

 

I would say restore it but it might turn into a nightmare. Reshell will properly be easier.

 

Restore.

 

Defo restore is uts going to be done right as these cars are going up in value and tbh you will struggle to find a real clean good shell any way

 

if you have the parts and a guy to weld it you got to restore it really would be abit silly not to itll be a hard process but well worth it in the end

 

Restore. Genuine S2's are only gonna go up in value.
RS turbo engined bonuses probably won't!!

 

The most sensible suggestion.

 

have to agree with grant aswell on this .unless its a genuine low mile low owner car with full history as that is where the value will be in this car in the future

 

Sentimental value is a thought too, if it has a meaning in some way then it'd be understandable.

 

Find a genuine one would be near impossible in top order and if you do it will get good money

The guy has the means to repair it and has the repair panels seems a no brainer to me

 

I would rather a clean bonus turbo over a rotten rs

If you can tackle the restoration yourself then do it, if not don't bother

Just leave the paint too a professional

 

I always say fix the RS shell, regardless of condition. At the end of the day it'll be an RS, not a simple 'Escort' with the RS stuff on it.

Consider the insurance when you tell them its got a bigger engine, turbo'd with fuel injection.
Bigger brakes, aftermarket bumpers, bodykit and spoiler, sports seats... then all the mods that'll be fit(samco hoses for example) etc etc.

However if you decide to Bonus it. Then its better news for us that'll still have a S2 in years to come by, the more that get reshelled the more return in investment we'll see when the time comes to sell.