9976
Omega General Help / Re: It's only a small hole........
« on: 23 September 2020, 00:52:35 »
The trouble with the Omega is that it was designed and built down to a budget...
Body plugs, trim clips and framing trims are all attached directly to painted sheet metal with zero barrier protection. Eventually the normal vibrations from even the engine idling, let alone driving and weather causes patches of bare metal to from round ALL the contact points and eventually they rot away.
I'm sure Nick will have checked it, but have I would wager that the grommet on the vertical face at the end of the sill, about 3" right of that patch and hidden behind the wheel arch filler is crusty around the edges.
I defy you to not find evidence of paint damage if you randomly remove one of the plastic ring clips from the bottom edge of the sill cover caused by the movement/vibration... and if it's doing that to a part that can be seen, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's happening between the sill cover and the floor.
Same where the headlight trims meet the bumper/the window rain channel trims meet the rear quarters or the rear wiper cover plate meets the tailgate (and that has a rubber edge
)/where the bumpers and door trims meet panels... etc
Not suggesting that they're anything like rust free, but, as an example, an E39 5 Series will have less corrosion on it than a similar mileage/age/history Omega, and that's almost entirely because they were better designed with almost no uninsulated contact between trim and paint.
Ultimately, the design life expectancy of pretty much any car, especially a budget exec from a mainstream firm, is 100,000 miles and not a minute more, especially with a strong fleet customer base (at the time) buying new cars every 2 years. It didn't even need to be built well enough to have its first state inspection in any market that the Omega was sold in as far as the sales people cared.
Credit where it's due though, it's only really as they passed the 15 year old mark that they are starting to dissolve enough to become serious... just be under no illusion that this has been going on from the second they left Russelheim
Body plugs, trim clips and framing trims are all attached directly to painted sheet metal with zero barrier protection. Eventually the normal vibrations from even the engine idling, let alone driving and weather causes patches of bare metal to from round ALL the contact points and eventually they rot away.
I'm sure Nick will have checked it, but have I would wager that the grommet on the vertical face at the end of the sill, about 3" right of that patch and hidden behind the wheel arch filler is crusty around the edges.
I defy you to not find evidence of paint damage if you randomly remove one of the plastic ring clips from the bottom edge of the sill cover caused by the movement/vibration... and if it's doing that to a part that can be seen, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's happening between the sill cover and the floor.
Same where the headlight trims meet the bumper/the window rain channel trims meet the rear quarters or the rear wiper cover plate meets the tailgate (and that has a rubber edge
)/where the bumpers and door trims meet panels... etcNot suggesting that they're anything like rust free, but, as an example, an E39 5 Series will have less corrosion on it than a similar mileage/age/history Omega, and that's almost entirely because they were better designed with almost no uninsulated contact between trim and paint.
Ultimately, the design life expectancy of pretty much any car, especially a budget exec from a mainstream firm, is 100,000 miles and not a minute more, especially with a strong fleet customer base (at the time) buying new cars every 2 years. It didn't even need to be built well enough to have its first state inspection in any market that the Omega was sold in as far as the sales people cared.
Credit where it's due though, it's only really as they passed the 15 year old mark that they are starting to dissolve enough to become serious... just be under no illusion that this has been going on from the second they left Russelheim
