Ka-rry on welding

[Station]

I have a 2000 plate Ka in frog-esque green.

It had previously failed it's MOT on (wait for it) excessive corrosion on the rear of the sills, some of the floor pan near the belt anchorage and an exhaust pipe you could play like a bassoon.

 

I'm wanting to know - once these rust, is there no hope for someone with average welding skills? I've not looked properly, there's a hole big enough to fit my head through but the rest of the car is solid, or solider than the big rusty hole in the sill.

 

It's overall a nice car and quite tidy and only 60k miles. I've not driven one before and found it all very modern and ergonomic.

[Station]

Bearing in mind it failed on three points of welding required, and the car was given to me for free, it should be worth a punt at fixing it, unless it has gone way too far (which it probably has doing a search on forums):

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

I suspect this Ka could provide a year's motoring for little more than £100 in consumables and scrapyard parts (provided, of course, that you are willing to spend every weekend until Christmas welding the damn thing back together).

 

Could we have some XXX-rated pics of the crusty bits ?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

That's a smart little car in a lovely colour, I'd applaud an attempt to fix it.  

[fordperv]

I'm sure many people on here, including me have repaired worse, take inspiration from people's weldathon threads and grab your grinder with both hands and start cutting, look at it this way it owes you nowt so it won't hurt you having a go

[jakebullet]

Fuel flap area isn't a hideous mess so either it's a not bad car, or it already been wobbed to death. Go for it.

[Station]

Well I fixed three of the seven fails in a few minutes. A) Reg plate bulb loose reg plate bulb not working.

Went back down to the garage as I was too curious. On closer examination - the worst part isn't that bad. I like how these newer cars do away with rust traps like the area in the front of the rear wheels. This can be plated using two bits of metal, one curved and one flat. I'm worried that there's no actual clean metal to weld to and the next MOT station uses a crowbar. :'(

 

The other one is a one inch hole next to a HUGE repair plate (it's been welded several times before). And the last one is a small angular bracket that has completely hilariously holed. I'll cut this out and attempt to make a comical replica. The other was a bit of crustiness on the edge of a section that I eliminated using a wire brush in drill' and covered in that bitumin waxoyl (of which the whole underside is covered).

It's not as bad as I thought but I have no hope of this seeing beyond 2015. I've never seen any else as bad though, and I own an MR2.

Worst part is bend before the back box - are those flexi pipe things acceptable for MOTs? Bandaging it up will take the p155.

 

The previous owner looked like she 'loved' it as receipts for things like nice tailored floor mats, a boot tidy with girly accessories in and head gasket and full service last year. It was probably called 'Kermit'. I won't give it a name as I'll probably be pouring baked beans from a fragment of it in six months.

 

Hoping to get it MOTd on Monday, bwuhahaha! Hope tester has a really weak hammering motion.

[Station]

I forgot to say I found £1.22 under the seat. Can this get any betterer?

[Bren]

Pics please.

[Station]

Here's the Flickr page, linking to non websites on an iPhone is impossible:

 

https://flickr.com/photos/96593341@N06/sets/72157647508180066

[Dave_Q]

Yes it looks bad, but surely worth saving?

 

One day in the moderately distant future, I guarantee* these will command massive old school Ford tax, due to them all having dissolved away by their 8th birthday.

 

You will be able to sell this for £20,000 in the year 2030 and retire, or something.

[SambaS]

Welderr up!

[crapcarcollector]

haha, 

 

You'd never believe I bought (Last week) a green Ka Collection (2000), sight unseen of the the bay for 100 notes for my son to learn in. I had a collection adventure involving trailers and cross county escapades. 

 

I didn't post it on here because I thought i'd be ridiculed by Junkman for buying something post 1985 with all the attraction of herpes. 

 

Mine is just as rotten as yours, they could be twins !

 

Wish I'd posted a live collection caper now!  

[KruJoe]

Bollocks to what Junkman says. Get it posted! I hope there's pics.

[vulgalour]

Ford made the floor of the Ka out of Hobnobs, FAKT.

 

Seriously, what was going on at Ford when they made these?  As a spiritual successor to the Fiesta they're absolutely top notch, good fun to drive, not too uncomfortable and feel really roomy and light inside thanks to the big windows.  They spoiled it all by seemingly rust-proofing the bare metal with a solution of battery acid and sea water.

 

Still, yours isn't as bad as the one my brother had (also green), the body of which moved independently of the seats and that was a car he paid cash money for.

[Cavcraft]

I think I've had three of these now. Every single one was put straight onto my truck and taken to Deeside Metals.

 

FRAG IT IMMEDIATELY.

[Sigmund Fraud]

I didn't post it on here because I thought i'd be ridiculed by Junkman for buying something post 1985 with all the attraction of herpes.

 

Ka's are Autoshite-approved : they have awkward styling, an image problem, they are powered by a 50-year-old OHV engine and many would develop terminal rust even before their first MoT was due... They really are like a Maestro for the '00s !!!

[crapcarcollector]

Sorry, I must do better. will post a retrospective thread and ongoing MOT capers. 

[Partridge]

Why not? If you f**k it up, and there's no reason why you should, it doesn't matter. Seems like an ideal car to learn how to weld on.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

If you are prepared to get busy with the mig on this, I suggest getting back on the Justy which seems far more 'worthy'. These Ka's are a fun steer but not worth repairing, you can buy much younger ones for pennies.

[Rusty_Rocket]

My pal, who is a grade-A welder always moans about this era of ford, saying that the steel used is so difficult to weld perfectly.

 

If it's ok around the fuel filler and at the base of the windscreen pillars, I'd say give it a go.  Just don't spend any money on it- these truly are 'throwaway' cars.

[Station]

Six hours later, all rust cut out (apart from the 99% of rust which wasn't spotted by mot tester) and plates welded in, everything was either flat or a bit curved and was fairly straight forward. Slathered with tetroseal to hide my dodgy weld seams and hopefully get it mot'd this week.

 

It looks like the justy still isn't sold so will make a start on that next. Hopefully mot and sell it after that purely for someone to ask 'IZ DIS STILL 200 QUID MSTE?'

[fordperv]

Ford made the floor of the Ka out of Rich Tea biscuits, FAKT.

 

efa

[Bren]

My pal, who is a grade-A welder always moans about this era of ford, saying that the steel used is so difficult to weld perfectly.

 

If it's ok around the fuel filler and at the base of the windscreen pillars, I'd say give it a go.  Just don't spend any money on it- these truly are 'throwaway' cars.

When I repaired other half fiesta the best way is to aim the wire at the fresh metal and let it "spill" onto the existing steel.

 

I have just looked at an MOT failure focus on ebay - the car was on a Y plate. The sills had simply disappeared at the front - the worst I have seen.

[t400ble]

Remember buying one for scrap and it being so bad it was shocking

[Station]

I did that bridging thing - on something like this, you'll spend all day cutting out stuff until you're left with gaps that would be difficult and too costly to repair. It's a 200 quid car with MOT.

 

Here is some of the rust in 'HiFi':

 

The exhaust probably has never been changed. Surprisingly, this is also rusted to hell:

 

 

Here is the worst of the rust - this is a hole about 2 inches wide, and 10 inches long. The metal has simply disintegrated. Either this had a dodgy MOT last year, or the infamous rust problems on these are true. The black stuff is silicone sealant. It's also 'protected' by Tetroseal all over.

 

 

It also had rusted through onto the other side of the sill:

 

 

The little 'bridge seam' thing on the bottle is pretty much consistent around the car. The metal quality in these are absolutely dreadful.

 

Here's what was produced from the hole area with a bit of knocking with a dustbrush. The sill was full of those 'slabs' of solid, rusty metal, the type where you stick your hand in and there are piles in there.

 

 

I had it up on all fours (with axle stands) while working on it. I wasn't sure if jacking it up at all would be OK, but it was OK:

 

 

This was from the final sweep up. I think even the leaves were part of the body:

 

 

The colour is really nice, I think it'll look really nice when it's washed and polished (if it passes the MOT):

 

[Minimad5]

Bitch you Craaaazy !

Well done for preserving this crack KAck.
Now you can use them welding skills on the Justy

[mat_the_cat]

 The black stuff is silicone sealant.

 

Depending on the type of silicone this can promote rust - the stuff which smells like vinegar is a no-no on steel. Neutral cure is safe though.

[dangerousdave]

im sure when ford made the ka they took hints from bl and fiat on rust proofing lol

[320touring]

I've got a soft spot for these ever since I drove a mate's one to Gibralter..

 

Really are fun to fling about,assuming all components are in their correct place and functioning.

 

Good work on welding it up-fingers crossed for the mot