The unexected pop-up headlamp escapade.- weld-a-thon 2 the rust strikes back

[philibusmo]

I have been rattling around in this for about a month now and have been enjoying it a great deal. It's fast, comfy and generally excellent all around. I have done an oil change, wax oiled the under side which was very solid with just a couple of very small surface rust scabs beginning to form and found it has a small power steering leak so have had to top it up a couple of times.

 

The tyres were a bit shit, so I finally bit the bullet and spent over £400 on a set of four brand new Dunlops.

 

Today I decided to pressure wash the rear arches to get rid of the mud and stop them from rusting. It was jacked up, wheels off and I set to it with the pressure washer. I noticed a small section of underseal fall off, revealing a small rust hole. I made the mistake of poking this rust hole which got bigger and bigger. More pealing underseal was found at the back of the arch, and on the other side which is even worse.

[philibusmo]

The rust had been bubbling away behind the plastic body kit and rear bumper as well as under the aged and knackered under seal. I think this was put away wet in 2005 and has been sat quietly rotting for the past 9 years until I go my mitts on it.

 

Well looks like weld-a-thon 2 THE RUST STRIKES BACK

[cort16]

eep

[New POD]

No turbots, but it is a Manuel - which is the main reason I decided to go for this one.

 

Amazngly the insuracne on this is about half the price of the insurance on my 1.1 Fiesta. I don't quite understand how that works.

Nobody who has owned one, is 17 and crashes a lot ? Statistics Dude. That's all. Honda Jazz goes faster than a 1.0 3 cylinder corsa, but nobody crashes them.

 

Women of a certain age buy MINI coopers, and ones and they drive them like they were 1.0 metro's, hence insurance lower than a 1.25 fiesta.

[cort16]

As one roll of mig wire ends another begins.

If they designed those plastic kits to rot out metal they couldn't have done a better job. I don't mean on this car either I mean in general . There's a tidy fourtrak that goes around here I know for a fact is just fibre glass, rust and rainbow tears under the kit.

Here's hoping it's just localised to around the body kit.

[Jim Bell]

Jeebers.

[Barry Cade]

Ah well, if you're gonna poke something, you have to take responsibility for the aftermath. It may take all your wages, and even your house.

[HMC]

At least you had a one month honeymoon before you found the grot. Hopefully this won't do a Y10 and that will be all the weldage needed!

[lisbon_road]

Look on the bright side - if that rot is hidden under plastic trim, you don't need to do a cosmetically amazing job of fixing it.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yeah but now you've got some 1337 car welding 5killz0rz you're not going to want to do a lash-up job on it so now you're gonna feel obliged to take it off the road for a while and do a pukka slow-burn metalwork job on it!

[philibusmo]

Today I was mostly cutting a hole in the rear arch tub. This is the only section that is structural and rusty - its gone on both sides.

Here's the view of the hole from outside with the rear hatch shut because I'd and closed the hatch and then couldn't be arsed to get the key to open it.Here's the view from the underside.

 

I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped as I slept in until about 10 and then the the heavens opened at about 3PM and didn't stop until just before the grand prix was on.

 

I'm going to try and get this area welded up on both sides this week, that should make it structurally sound at least. Then I'll slap some rust converter around and cover the rest of the holes with gaffa tape for the moment until I have less hectic time to really crack on with this.That should stop it getting any worse for the time being and with the body kit and bumper back on it should still look really smart externally.

 

I won't be leaving it like that for too long and will hopefully be able to get going on this again in about a month.

[gtd2000]

Well, if anybody was qualified to sort this car out, that would be you, especially after watching the Lancia effort! 

[philibusmo]

I now have the above section welded up, along with a section of the front edge of the arch. Not as pretty as I normally like, but as its going to be under a piece of body kit its fine for the moment. Welding on this metal is so much easier than welding on the Lancia, the steel seems to be about double the thickness and doesn't blow through anywhere near as easily. I think this may be the easiest car to weld I have ever had.

 

Here is a view from the top, where the strut top and arch have been welded up. This welded in very nicely, it was the section below this inside the strut top that was a pain in the arse but turned out ok after some work.

And the arch:

Next I'll crack on with the other side which is a good bit worse. The last three holes on this side can be bodged up with gaffa tape for the moment as they are no-where near any structure and I can come back to them later. If it stays dry I should have this at least mostly done by the middle of next week.