Rotten cars

[Datsuncog]

Looks nice, yeah?

 

 

Reasonably straight,yeah?

 

 

 

Ooops.

 

 

After 8 months of pleasurable and faultless motoring (no, really), the MOT tester could barely keep a straight face when he had to inform me that the sills were composed entirely of plastic bags and resin stuffed in behind lengths of plastic electrical conduit, which had then been wobbed over and painted.

 

I mean, SERIOUSLY?!?

 

Here's a sample I kept as a souvenir, for some batshit reason.

 

 

I think I'm still stunned because this was plainly a much more involved and labour-intensive job than just welding the damn thing up properly.

 

Turned out the 2.5TD lump was also fatally compromised as well as the galloping floor rot, sooo...

 

 

Nighty-night, sweet prince.

[skoda_fan]

Way back I owned the archetypal rotbox for precisely one day: an Austin 1100. I bought it because I loved the "big Mini" feel of them and it seemed ok. Got it home and jacked it up and the rear subframe virtually fell off. Off to the scrappy it went. More recently my Felicia Fun used to rust for laughs, though in total contrast to the 1100 I persevered with it for 19 years.

[0ldCh0d]

Not quite a car i know, but,Ford Transit Mk6's, They are the modern equivalent of a 1990's Land Rover Discovery with regards to rust/holes/General crustyness of the bodywork/underneath.

[Skut]

Fiats have been known to be a little frilly. My aunts 126 went to the breakers over rust although presumably not as bad as this one. That recycled Soviet steel was nit a good idea. Would have been better off staying as a T34.

[Skizzer]

One word on this subject: Rancho.

 

 

 

That second shot is under the scuttle. That’s going to be a laugh.

[tooSavvy]

Spent last evening watching the 'Bramble Cortina'.... fortunatly the guy has what seems like 1/2 a shells worth of 'good sections'.

 

Looking at [straight through] the shell, he is a lucky guy..

[sierraman]

I can say it’s far easier to trowel some Poundland ‘All Purpose’ Filler over bunched up chicken wire than welding terminally rotten sills up. Shovel it on then a very generous coat of some thick and gloopy paint.

 

I once fashioned some new wheel arches for a Mk4 Fiesta from filler and bits of biscuit tin riveted in place. Once I’d painted it it looked passable and ended up outlasting the car.

[The_Equalizer]

My 1998 W202 C230K Merc. I bought it when it was 14-years-old and soon discovered that there were impressive holes in the inner rear arches as well as crusty jacking points and other non-structural odds-n-sods. I did manage to keep it on the road for a further five years which included a mega welding bill for a complete new sill/bits of the floor etc. Its final MoT fail was on the other sill, but by then the boot floor was pretty much totally gone too and I decided enough was enough.

 

By pure chance some chap and his son asked about the car when it was sitting on my driveway post MoT fail. He was convinced he could get it back on the road despite my warnings about serious rot. What was more surprising was he was true to his word. He managed to get it all done and it appear about three months later with a fresh ticket. The really annoying thing was it was a really lovely car to drive and a rather rare manual version to boot - still at least it got to live another day.

[HMC]

W124 estate last year, rear subframe barely attached to the car, front inner wings with huge bodged up holes.

 

Dire. Really did give my old car mojo a kicking it hasn’t recovered from.

[Squirrel2]

Here’s what greeted me when I removed the dash and interior of my Land Rover 110 to reveal the horror that was once upon a time its bulkhead..

 

 

On the outside there is nothing remaining of the panel below the air vents and the bonnet hinges have completely detached..

 

 

Fifteen years of being parked less than a mile from the sea have speeded the dissolving process.

This is beyond welding and I have a good, non-rusty bulkhead squirrelled away to do a swap when I can get on with it. The chassis under this heap is not too bad thanks to regular blasting with wax and old engine oil and only requires new front dumb irons.

 

Squirrel2

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Heres an old P100 I bought a few years back, still had a short MOT:

 

 

Maserati chassis leg

 

[spike60]

Im fucking terrified of taking the sill covers off mine tbf.. Mines a 97 and on 104k so not really leggy and ive SORn'ed it in winter for a few years running now, But scared shitless of whats lurking or not this summer is the time mine have got to come off!

 

I welded at college but i havent done it for a few years mind.. this summer im getting a MIG setup and some decent axle stands as i FUCKING HATE NEW CARS (except smol suzukis) and i love my E39 more than i ever would any bird, and i plan to try and keep it from being swept up

 

Spike did you refit the covers after welding mate? or just toss them?

I tossed the one I took off, the other side had been missing long before we got it and that sill is in much better condition though the drain holes were blocked. 

I have a few pics, not many, and if you want I'll tell you my findings and thoughts by PM. Spike.

[Laseraligningfoofooflanges]

I tossed the one I took off, the other side had been missing long before we got it and that sill is in much better condition though the drain holes were blocked. 

I have a few pics, not many, and if you want I'll tell you my findings and thoughts by PM. Spike.

If you would please spike i would be most grateful, i found on mine that the side with the mudguard piece missing was far worse! I should of replace it at the time to keep the salt from flying up.. but alas i got my E39 when i was just a daft kid!

 

Cheers spike! 

[sheffcortinacentre]

Jag & sd1 are different pcds,got a set of 4 sd1 vittesse alloys Inc nuts but no centre caps if anyone's interested.

[HillmanImp]

Time to roll out the Lancia pictures again for the first time in a while.

Famous Lancia subframe mounts.



All I did was really patch that thing together to get it on the road. It needed a full resoration.

When we had it up for sale, some bloke asked about it. I asked what his experience of restoring cars was and he said he had none so I explained that this needed a LOT of work and it probably wasn't for him. He kind of took offence to that and bought it.

He sold it a few weeks later for about half the price he paid us for it.

[Tickman]

Mine has 2 weeks left to live. I have nowhere to weld it and the amount it needs is too expensive in labour to get done.

 

A few months back as i was pulling away, there was a loud bang from the back, further inspection shows it was its arse collapsing as the rear cross member imploded due to corrosion.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm going to do the obvious thing and ask what is going to happen to it when the MOT expires?

 

*goes off to punch myself repeatedly as it would be less painful than welding up a Land Rover*

 

[sutty2006]

I'm going to do the obvious thing and ask what is going to happen to it when the MOT expires?

 

*goes off to punch myself repeatedly as it would be less painful than welding up a Land Rover*

 

I did think the same.... but I think I’ve a better will power than you. No one should suffer at the hands of a rusty landrover

[Flat4]

Waiting on pictures of my new Legacy when it's getting a quote for the welding....

 

Mean while I'm going to paint the existing Legacy before it goes the same way!

[theshadow]

never laughed as much.. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: buy british,        

[Timewaster]

I do not understand why Land Rover aren't a complete laughing stock.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think the Discovery 1,2 and 3 were handsome machines.

The original Range Rover is a fantastic bit of kit, years ahead of the competition (unlike the defender which is the complete opposite).

 

I have no love at all for a Freelander although I admit the second generation were a good looking car.

 

But the galloping rot, bottom of the league reliability, epic running costs, dickhead / drug dealer / footballer image and catastrophic depreciation make me wonder why anyone would buy one.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I do not understand why Land Rover aren't a complete laughing stock.

Haven't they just announced big job losses? LRs used to be rotten but rugged. Now they unreliable, rotten and fragile. I think people are finally waking up...

[richardthestag]

talking of Land Rover

 

This is what I threw away from a 1972 nut n bolt rebuild. = 40+ years of welding patches over patches

 

 

 

 

 

on my daily here is the crossmember after 22 years of daily motoring. lasted not to bad methinks

 

this is it when it was barely wrestled out. only time I had to use the cutting disc was on the base of the goalposts. the rest just sort of fell out

 

last year here is the front nearside footwell corner on same car, now 24 years old. untouched LR original metal. Car still had an MoT and had another a week later

 

 

 

[sierraman]

I hope you didn’t chuck all that rusty tin in the first picture away. That’s a £1500 ‘Barn Find’ on EBay!

[DodgyBastard]

I have thousands of photos of rusty cars but here's a selection from the same place.

 

DSC_1275 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

DSC_1353 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

DSC_1411 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

DSC_3448 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

DSC_0979 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

DSC_0091 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

DSC_0147 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

DSC_0185 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

DSC_0191 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

DSC_0210 by srblythe, on Flickr

[sierraman]

Possibly in Scotland the harsher winter weather means worse rust. Where my dad lives in Somerset there’s loads of rust free old stuff but with fucked clutches and brakes due to the hilly area.

[Timewaster]

I remember years ago my mates uncle had a farm with a yard full of old crap he should have scrapped years ago.

We were depositing more crap in the yard when he said to me, "my grans old mini is parked over there, must be about the same age as yours" (that I had at the time, sold e day before prices went through the roof).

"Ain't no mini here chief"...

 

 

"It's in that hedge!"

 

Sure enough, wading and stomping into the hedge, about 2ft. in I could see the distinctive rear quarter shape.

 

Pushing in to the hedge a bit further I could make out a bit more..

 

"There are no doors!" I called back to him.

 

"Look on the floor!"

 

Sure enough, the doors lay on the floor either side of the car with hedge growing over and through them.

 

I decided to let the hedge keep the car, and to my knowledge it is still there.

[Andyrew]

More from the "light corrosion" disco

 

 

 

 

You'd have to be bloody stupid to weld that up . . . . Ermm

[w00dy]

My Opel Monza looked pretty straight from the outside. Once I'd poked around a bit, I wondered how it hadn't simply collapsed in on itself and created a brown hole.

[tul66]

Suddenly my 28 year old Lancia Thema doesn't seem so bad after all.

[Mrcento]

I'm going to do the obvious thing and ask what is going to happen to it when the MOT expires?

 

*goes off to punch myself repeatedly as it would be less painful than welding up a Land Rover*

 

 

Likely sold on for the engine to wind up in a Defender

 

To be fair, that's exactly what i saved it from 3 years ago, It was bought off a breaker because the engine was destined to go into an old N/A defender for a conversion, but the customer had cold feet (or more likely found his defender was more rotten than he expected) and the breaker decided to shift it on as "spares", so it's lived 3 years longer than it would have if i hadn't got it.

 

To be honest, i really don't want to let it go, it's mechanically good bar a little bit of a whine in 4th and 5th gear on partial throttle (they all do it, sir, live for years like that), rear shocks getting very tired....starter motor has got a little lazy the past few weeks, 1 swivel a bit weepy as it has been from day one of ownership and never got worse, only needed topped up twice in 3 years, aside from that it's absolutely fine. Tons of "new" bits like tyres, brakes etc on it last year to get it through MOT (then the saga of the rear diff that failied on the way home from the MOT resulted in a "new" one of them too), it's just structurally gone. Love the old thing, just long past the point of viability for anyone who can't do the welding themselves. Had hoped to get a unit and tackle it but hasn't happened either. Sad times!.