21st century rotters

[New POD]

I wonder what proportion of these rusty cars have been into an insurance approved bodyshop at some point? These bastards don't give a shit as long as the paint almost matches, and no rust appears in the next 12 months.  I had the 2 front wings of our old mk3 cavalier replaced by one of these places. All was well for 3 years, but when I looked under the plastic trim, they hadn't bothered to actually apply any paint or protection on the inside of the wings.  The place no longer is in business, so hopefully, the owner is now working as a tyre fitters mate at kwiksave fit as karma

[Station]

Daewoo Matiz - my brothers looks like it's been hit by a land mine underneath.

Astra Mk3 rear arches! Why do they all go here and nowhere else on the car!

[lisbon_road]

Mk3 Astra rear arches go I think because the horizontal part isn't welded so there is probably some flexing letting water in.  um, they're not 21st century of course.........

[Ghosty]

K11s. The last ones are 51/02 plate - I regularly see them with buggered sills etc.

[twosmoke300]

It used to always be tailgates that rusted first on Vauxhalls

[CHRIS1980]

My Bora is starting to bubble on the front wings by the mudflap,it looks as though it's rubbed the paint off and then rusted. Series 2 Land Rover Discoverys rot the chassis away quite merilly. But then it is a Land Rover,in fact it may be on the options list like little dents around the rivets on Defenders.

[cort16]

My Mates got a 56 plate Peugeot Boxer like this. He said "can you weld up a little hole in the sill?" By the end of it I could get my arm and part of my head in the cavity I cut out.

I patched it up the best I could but the floor was rotted under chassis legs and the front subframe, which I had no interest in getting into so just wedged some metal in as far as it'd go and welded it up.

 

 

 

 

[cort16]

As said already I think a lot of cause on grot on cars that are obviously rotten before their time is poor accident repairs. Things are ground back removing zinc coating, new panels aren't sealed on the inside and  seam sealer isn't applied in the the right places. Also 2 panels not being seam welded together properly leads to moisture getting in pin holes in the welds and it rusts out from there..  The Others like Pumas and Ka's are bad designs and shit cheap steel.

 

I was thinking the other day that you don't see a lot of rotten MG or Rovers from the 90's onward. Any idea why? There's loads in the scrappies but that's because they've got plenty other things to go wrong with them but galloping grot doesn't seem to be one of them. Could it be, because their old biffer owners washed them and took care of them in their formative years?

[Luxxo Waftybarger]

Partly due to no one washing their cars anymore and partly the council shovelling mountains of grit til it's 2 inches deep onto the roads from October til May after the OMGSNOWCHOAS of 2010/11. If it was a legal requirement to user winter tyres during winter garages would coin it but we'd also have loads more chod still roadworthy.

[Lacquer Peel]

Use winter tyres instead of gritting? That's an interesting idea.

I'm sure a lot of the problems in winter are people expecting to drive on ice-free roads when it's very hard to guarantee sometimes.

[Aston Martin]

Merc Sprinters

[Luxxo Waftybarger]

Use winter tyres instead of gritting? That's an interesting idea.

I'm sure a lot of the problems in winter are people expecting to drive on ice-free roads when it's very hard to guarantee sometimes.

Of course winter tyres wouldn't solve it but they'd certainly help reduce demand for grit when the snow comes down thick. In Iceland they just fit winter tyres and accept you have to drive sideways at 10mph. Great fun.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

Mercedes W220 S Class. The one my brother had was shamefully rusty after only a few years- holes in it at five years old. It was appallingly unreliable too.

 

The W140 he had before it wasn't much better either. That had rusty front and rear wings, sunroof and boot lid when he traded it in - and wasn't an old car. Made before 2000 though - so perhaps not one for this thread.

[Lacquer Peel]

I bought a cheapy Xsara the other night, hatchback not embryo, the sills look pretty buggered on it. I think they're bad for rotting from the inside out due to inadequate drainage.

[bigfella2]

That 206 in the first picture is deffinately not normal for a 206. I would have thought that 206's would have been one of the cars quite resistant to rot. I seem to be seeing quite a few Citroen piccaso's with patches welded on the sills.

[ShiteRider]

I spent 11 years at a vag bodyshop, your not be surprised that most of the range was shite due to poor design/materials used/assembly.

Few examples we're all familiar with that i used to regularly repair as warranty work.

Mk4 golf front wheel arches ( foam dam on the inner wing forces the dirt shield into the back of the arch, wearing it down to bare metal)

Inside edge of jetta and polo bonnets. (the factory seam sealer hardens, cracks and traps water)

Mk5 golfs ( rear arch lips, sills due to anti stone chip coating trapping water, bottom of the wings where it bolts in the sill, as well as the usual arches)

Touran ( tailgates on the horizontal swage line+ the usual wings and bonnets)

They'd loads of problems when they were nearly new and 10-15 years of british seasons combined with owners who either don't bother to, or know how to maintain a car properly means it's unsurprising that some of these cars are ending up in the scrappers due to rot, not mechanical failure.

[bub2006]

I bought a cheapy Xsara the other night, hatchback not embryo, the sills look pretty buggered on it. I think they're bad for rotting from the inside out due to inadequate drainage.

I'll be that in mind mate,any tips or just keep it clean? Thanks

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

This 2000 Focus just squeaks in. It's gotta be bad accident repair or something, but it's very impressive.

 

[Sealtainn]

No, I had a 2001 Focus saloon 4 years ago up here in Shetland and the bottom of both front doors was rusting all the way along

[philibusmo]

Renault Avantime

Plastic body panels obviously don't rot, the aluminium roof rails get some corrosion blebs but remain solid and just end up looking scruffy. The metalwork underneath is mostly lifted from a Mk3 Espace and that stays rust free to, its only the metal work (specifically a box section that runs behind the sills) which I think was welded in place just for the Avantime which rots at a ferocious pace. This is what they looked like on my well looked after example before I cut them out and welded my own box section back in:

 

[Ghosty]

Suzuki Jimny?

[In The Pit]

I was thinking the other day that you don't see a lot of rotten MG or Rovers from the 90's onward. Any idea why? There's loads in the scrappies but that's because they've got plenty other things to go wrong with them but galloping grot doesn't seem to be one of them. Could it be, because their old biffer owners washed them and took care of them in their formative years?

I think it's because they were well built, there are loads of Rovers were I live and many people on here across the UK have said the same.  They have proved to be long lasting compared to many other brands. I don't find that MG or Rovers are driven by older people in fact lots of young people particularly girls drive the Rover 25/MG ZR.

'Car Mechanics' magazine recently looked at cars built between 1998 and 2008 and said that cars are getting worst for rust than in the late 80's and 90's.  The most rust prone were high end cars Jaguar, Mercedes Benz, BMW and Land Rover.  The French came out top with Citroen, Renault and Peugeot being the most rust resistant.

[Cavcraft]

We all know that the Ford KA can rust like a '70s Lancia but let's turn our attention to the other cars that really should of been galvanised.

 

May I nominate the Peugeot 206?

 

 

Check out the sills on this 03 plated beauty.

 

 

I'll give them their due, I very very rarely see rotten Peugeots from that era on.

[Cavcraft]

2000 onwards 'new shape' Transits are starting to rot like their predecessors now.

[sierraman]

2000 onwards 'new shape' Transits are starting to rot like their predecessors now.

Too right, I had one at 18 month old with rust on the chassis legs seams.

[Luxxo Waftybarger]

BMW E46. Mine is crusty round the arches, random scabs of rot on the panels all over and now the windscreen seal is starting to lift from subterranean rust bubbling from underneath.