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Rotten cars


Bren

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Looks nice, yeah?

 

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Reasonably straight,yeah?

 

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Ooops.

 

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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.

 

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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...

 

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Nighty-night, sweet prince.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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..

 

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

 

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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

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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.

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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!  8)

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

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Famous Lancia subframe mounts.

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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.

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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.

 

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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*

 

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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

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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.

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talking of Land Rover

 

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

 

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

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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

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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 :D

 

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

 

19245996226_8a2e0890a3_c.jpgDSC_1275 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

19275814991_cb4ff10ce1_c.jpgDSC_1353 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

19265852772_ca150f3d5a_c.jpgDSC_1411 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

19440736084_2ba1454632_c.jpgDSC_3448 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

32325017492_385d0b374f_c.jpgDSC_0979 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

31633065584_b04f98c7c6_c.jpgDSC_0091 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

32355050611_01d59fe905_c.jpgDSC_0147 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

31664979533_073afc6aab_c.jpgDSC_0185 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

32097932640_ebed3e279f_c.jpgDSC_0191 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

32097841710_409f2d5b8e_c.jpgDSC_0210 by srblythe, on Flickr

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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.

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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!.

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