strut tower rust

[Frank Ewald]

I've got a hole in my NX's rear strut tower and an estimated $2500 Can.
to parts/labour to replace both rear strut towers. This is a year round
daily driver that has seen a lot of road salt, but has also been rust
proofed annually and carefully maintained. Unfortunately, it wasn't
until this year that I realized that the rear towers were rust magnets
or I'd have had so much rust proofing sprayed on them!!
Found the rust when I installed RSTB and ShigSpeeds rear mounts.  It
has exploded since I installed the coilovers - there just wasn't
anything there before. I've searched on SR20forums and nissanforums but
haven't found anything specific to rst rust - although I'm sure in the
last year or two that I have run across that. Now that I want it, I
can't find it.

Check here for pictures taken recently
http://www3.sympatico.ca/frank_ewald/car/

I think it's worth the expense but I'd like to hear from others. Have
you replaced your rear strut towers? Did you get into more problems
once you've started? Will my car handle the same? The body shop is
reputable and one of the key people is very into modifying cars. (BTW,
Josh - he was quite impressed by the Active Tuning RSTB) My A pillars
and bottom panels look good, but what else should I look for. I've
owned the car since new and love it, but I don't want to pour $$ into a
project that other list members may have found to be a losing battle.
I've also replaced my power steering lines which had rusted - I wasn't
ready to pull all of the lines out.

Regards,
Frank