Rust Buckets

[They_all_do_that_sir]

My mk3 mondeo had a huge amount of rust underneath - about the last 50% was orange. The front half was ok, I think the slightly leaky turbot dizzler had coated most of the front with enough oily goodness to preserve it.

 

All the door bottoms were bubbly and the drivers side rear arch was starting to let go.

 

The V70 has no rust at all anywhere. There are some paint blemishes but overall it's pretty minty for a 14yr old motor

[Chas4545]

Recentish Vw golf front wings stuffed with sound deadener at the factory are going bad, allegedly.

[fordperv]

D for doom?

D for Dagenham dustbin, no doubt it was a British built one because everyone knows the best ones were built at genk

[They_all_do_that_sir]

D for Dagenham dustbin, no doubt it was a British built one because everyone knows the best ones were built at genk

Have ford finally shed their dodgy rust proofing?

[2MB]

Have ford finally shed their dodgy rust proofing?

I wouldn't say so having seen some of the fords I've used for work. Ones in my current job aren't too bad but 12 plate Transit I used in my last job had rust coming through above the windscreen and the rear wheel tub was rotting out (although that was triggered by unrepaired damage)

[cort16]

Does anyone remember the episode of deals on wheel in which cockney gobshite Mike Brewer bought an xr2i from trade to sell on. He was all wink, wink don't try this at home but I'm okay because I'm a car dealer, put it in for it's MOT and it failed on it's arse because it was totally rotten? 

I've not go anything again Mike Brewer really I just enjoyed the cockyness followed by the crushing blow of finding out he's bought a rusty shite heap. A feeling I've felt many times myself.

[Richard]

I remember that. He paid quite strong money iirc. Maybe it was deliberate to show how easy it is to be buy a rotter.

[lisbon_road]

I remember an Austin 1300 a friend bought for the engine.  It looked really good.  Then we lifted the carpets.  Someone had spent so  many hours welding it, there were patches and weld everywhere.

 

A Dolomite I went to look at with a friend, I think only four years old, was totally rotten.  The doors just had huge holes in the inside and outside.

 

And in 1983 I remember when the scrap yards just filled up with Sunbeam Alpines.  Floors all gone, loads of them, just a few years old.

 

I've been lucky.  I have had HB Vivas, far better than Vauxhall's reputation.   My Mk1 Sierra is/was a Gent one and I remember the first MOT I took it for and the examiner came out from under the car and asked me why it wasn't rusty.  And my Mk3 Astra is very good too.

[saucedoctor]

1987 Escort, which I bought in 1992. It had already had plates welded in the boot. First MoT in my ownership, and it needed a plate on the front crossmember. The next year it need 500-odd quid of welding:chassis legs, floor pans, windscreen base. A disgrace. A mate had a 2 door one of the same vintage, and it was even worse.

 

My mother also had a Ka which was starting to quite seriously rot @ 3 years old. Traded in on a new Rover 25 sillytronic.

[Uncle Jimmy]

As much as the type of car it depends on who's owned it. A lot of Fiats and Fords that are thought of as rust buckets would have been kept on the street, whilst more expensive Volvos and Benzes would have been in garages and cleaned more often.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Wifey had a fairly early ford Ka - utter joke. Was such a great wee car in most respects but the rust was unreal.

 

After the first MOT in our ownership (for which it needed loads of welding) the tester advised we should sell it immediately cos it won't pass the next one without a mega weldathon

[dangerousdave]

its unfair to single out fords as rot boxes all cars in the 70,s / 80,s could rot but the worst were the Japanese I remember a joke going round when I was at school "stick a penny banger in an old Datsun itll blow up " and through the mid 90,s a common sight was montegos with rotten arches I remember a friend of mine had a c plate metro he sat in it one day and ended up sat on the floor it had rotted through the seams on each side so the floor fell out

[Craig the Princess]

Saw the worst rust on a car being driven I'd seen for a long time at the weekend, an R-reg Jag XK8 convertable. It must have been accident repair and the passenger side rear quarter had a 6 inch by 3 inch hole and the surrounding panel was all bollocked.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I recall a P reg 120Y Craptsun in my local scrapyard in mid 1982 - six years old. The front wings were held on with silver gaffa tape and the whole thing was completely fucked. The same yard had a number of N-P reg Alfasuds in similar dire staights.

Sierras were awful for rust, as bad as the Cortina. With any eighties Ford you opened the bonnet and looked for 'Ford Werke Actiengessellschaft" (AG) on the VIN plate. If it was German built it was alright, if it wasn't, it wasn't. South African built Cortina Mark 5's were just appalling because they had no rustproofing at all.

 

The most rust resistant car I can recall from the seventies was the Allegro - you never seemed to see rotten ones - same with the Princess. They were faded, battered, but rarely rusted out. Vivas and Chevettes weren't toooo bad iirc but Escort Mark 1's were shit.

[bub2006]

Worst car for rust I owned was the c plated ford fiesta I mentioned in the cheap cars thread. No boot floor left. Made itself known how bed when I lost the spare wheel between selston and annesly badger box road. I have yet to sort out the metro and get it on the road but hoping that don't turn into a rot box.

[purplebargeken]

I was given a T reg Dolly 1850 that had been a one owner from new car. The old boy bought it for his wife and sadly it had been left to stand for many years. The car was so rotten that it yielded very little.

 

I was genuinely worried when it was lifted onto the scrap lorry as I had never seen so much daylight through the underneath of a car before (or since).

[Lord Sterling]

I reckon, so far, I've fairly lucky with rusty cars. I've always had rusty cars but the wose parts on them have been wings and sills. Underneath many of cars seem to have been fairly solid.

 

My KV6 had a comically badly bodged over wing:

 

 

Suffice to say, wing was immediately changed for one that was the same actual colour. Sill had been patched up and the underside coated with some anti-rust shite.

 

 

My E-reg 825 again had some rust/rot which concentrated on small areas like the front wing and rear sills.

 

 

Motherly_one's Micra had recently found itself with a hole in the drivers side sill. Took it down to my tame mechanic Mahmoud who had recently opened up a bodywork/paint shop next door to his premises. I'd asked them to do the sill but I didn't want one of those Black tide marks, so the rot was cut out, new metal welded in, a tiny bit of wob to smooth things out, anti-rust treated and painted over in the right colour. It's as if there was any corrosion.

 

The Micra has spent most of its life living outside in all weathers (bar one year it spent sitting in a garage) it's still almost as solid as it was when it was bought.

 

 

Merc has some rot, particularly above the drivers side wheel arch inside the engine. This is really gonna need some work at some point, I also reckon the sills are pretty crispy but thankfully covered by cladding. It is gonna need some metal work at some point soon though. A new drivers side wing has been bought, now it just needs to go on which will hopefully happen on Friday.

[Sudsprint]

Those Simca 1100/1300 hatchbacks rusted like buggery.

 

Never seen anything so bad as a P reg one of those when it was about 7 years old.

[chaseracer]

Ford Transit Harbour Police van... rear floor was falling out all over... it was about 7 years old.  No idea what caused it, they're usually fine.

 

Errrmm......

 

[Hendry]

I remember my dads brown 1986 D reg Maestro 1.3 City in Poo Brown, he bought it in 1991 and it looked pristine, 2 years later the rear arches, sills and door bottoms were non existent, the colour was probably the colour to buy a Maestro in as it his the rust well, he finally got rid in 1994 when all the electrics packed in and went haywire and it had to be parked on the top of a hill facing downwards to bump start it every day, best bit was he got £1100 p/ex allowance for it against a 1991 H reg Orion from the local Ford dealer, oddly IIRC when it finally went in 2000 it wasn't all that rusty considering Fords reputation.

 

I had a P reg mk3 Golf 1.4 SE in 2009 as a stop gap and it was riddled with rust and had been tickled with a welder in the past, the parts of the sills only visible when you open the doors were the worst, by comparison the R reg mk3 Astra I had 3 years earlier with similar mileage and not all they well looked after by my old man before he gave me it was mint by comparison, paintwork was fucked but no rust other than minor bubbling on the rear arch lips caused by poor design meaning the lips collected dirt which got wet and rotted the lips.

[chaseracer]

Many was the 80s 2CV that received a new chassis under warranty shortly before its first MOT...

[Inspector Morose]

As they were a converted saloon, BX estates do not have a great reputation for keeping rust at bay. Anything rearwards of the passenger doors is usually a prime candidate. Add to that front inner wings, sills (cills) and the bit that the rear subframe bolts onto the body (why in gods name put a safety critical mounting inside a sealed box so any water that enters it cannot escape?): it's a full time job keeping an eye out for the rust!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Any C D or E reg Ford was made out of recycled alfasuds with a bit of extra rock salt chucked in the mix

[Split_Pin]

Worst one I saw was the works hack E reg Fiesta. By 1997, it had no boot floor, cover sills, arches, Hadrian wings, rotten and collapsing scuttle, ditto front crossmember Engine banged off the bulkhead when you dipped the clutch. Nobody would drive it except me, being a foolish and plucky 18 year old. Pile of shite.

 

To balance the argument, the work also had a Nissan Cherry D reg. Was 10 years old but at the front it was spotless but the back arches literally flapped in the wind. It was rear ended by another car and it folded in to the back seat cushion. Also, pile of shite.

 

To further redress the balance, the work had an E reg Fiat 127 Fiorino. It died at 9 years old from engine grenadation but not a spot of rust anyhere.

 

The onslaught of rust on my Corsa is also a right old war to keep at bay. Thankfully my local garage has sorted that for now but 90s Vauxhalls were just as bad as Fords. Ok up to ten years old then the body seems to implode.

[Felly Magic]

South African built Mercs rot for a laugh, seen quite a few C classes with galloping rot everywhere

[purplebargeken]

3 door Micra's seem especially prone to rot at that particular point. Odd.

[Hendry]

Worst one I saw was the works hack E reg Fiesta. By 1997, it had no boot floor, cover sills, arches, Hadrian wings, rotten and collapsing scuttle, ditto front crossmember Engine banged off the bulkhead when you dipped the clutch. Nobody would drive it except me, being a foolish and plucky 18 year old. Pile of shite.

To balance the argument, the work also had a Nissan Cherry D reg. Was 10 years old but at the front it was spotless but the back arches literally flapped in the wind. It was rear ended by another car and it folded in to the back seat cushion. Also, pile of shite.

To further redress the balance, the work had an E reg Fiat 127 Fiorino. It died at 9 years old from engine grenadation but not a spot of rust anyhere.

The onslaught of rust on my Corsa is also a right old war to keep at bay. Thankfully my local garage has sorted that for now but 90s Vauxhalls were just as bad as Fords. Ok up to ten years old then the body seems to implode.

My old April 2005 reg Astra H had surface rust on the outside of the rear arches where the edge of the bumper meets the body on the drivers side and the paint had all fell off round the edge of the passenger rear arch when I bought it in January 2010 but then it'd been owned by a farmer from Lanark since 8 months old and despite having FSH and being immaculate inside it was not well cared for at all, the underside wasn't brilliant either, the heatshield above the back box had rotted off, and the centrebox heatshield holes where its screwed onto the car had expanded as they all do so I bought a new one and went to loosen off the nuts that hold it on from their threads so I could fit the new shield and do up the nuts again, on loosening the nuts the threads were so rusty they snapped clean off with slight pressure. A lot of the metal bits in the engine bay, e.g. brackets, mounts etc and suspension mountings were rusted to buggery on a 48K miles 4.5 years old car.

 

My sisters first car a 2000 X plate Corsa B 1.2 SXi in Arden Blue was rusty as too in 2009 when it'd only done 85K with FSH, the bonnet particularly was rotten right along the leading edge, she wrote it off before I got a chance to look underneath but I'm in no doubt it was rotten underneath too.

[Vince70]

My auntie has one of those awful Nissan Note (Renault Modus) ) things which she bought when it was 3/4 years old it's on a 56 plate and last year it needed welding underneath to get it through a ticket.

 

I never thought that cars rotted out underneath anymore apart from Fords and Mazdas but the problem is I still think a 56 reg car is new and keep forgetting that cars like that are now classed as old outside the Autoshite circle.

[derskine]

That scrap red 340 is definitely the worst I've owned but I have owned (and repaired) some howlers.

 

[Spiny Norman]

Dad's FE Victor. Left the showroom sometime in 1976, & scrapped due to galloping rust everywhere before I could learn to drive in it in 1982.