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[Nick W]

We didn't take a picture of the damage, as it wasn't too bad:





the circle is roughly the size of the hole, and the square is where decent weldable metal started. I had to do a small repair to the top of the chassis rail which wasn't helped by the A/C pipe in the area. While I was doing this, Amba picked away at a tiny flake of underseal on the other, good side.
 


Some gentle digging by hand with the little chisel you see in the picture revealed this hole:





There's a little more, but you get the idea.


The important thing to remember, is that this side looked good, the underseal was complete and almost unmarked. This is a smart, tidy looking, well-looked after car that is used everyday. I've suggested before that worrying about scabby sills or wheelarches is not as important as a proper poke about on the front chassis rails: I hope this explains why, as this car looked no worse than any of the others I've seen before.


I've made a start on the repair, which will be done tomorrow.


And I'll do the hole in the rear floor that started this 'little job'




Amba included this pic too, but don't look at it.....





 


 


 


 

[dave the builder]

I scraped a lot of factory underseal off mine around that area when i got it ,
wasn't stuck well at all in some places, so i Hammerite'd it and re-applied underseal in some places

[VXL V6]

Usual starting point for the rust is where the reinforcement plate is for the engine cradle.

[Nick W]

Exactly. There are several layers of thin sheetmetal here, and some of the resulting 'box sections' have various holes in them.
What isn't clear on the 'good side', is that the powder coating on the ARB is shot, and there's clear evidence of something leaking down from the top of the radiator. A long time ago.

[Doctor Gollum]

Not helped by being spot welded rather than seam welded. If the seam sealer is slapped on rather than actually forced into the seam, then eventually it comes away and water gets behind it and the rest is basically where it ends up here...

If you're really unlucky the chassis rails can get clogged with plant detritus and rot out where the steering box platesare tacked on

[amba]

We have some rot and the start of a hole just forward of the steering box mountings.Nick intends fabricating another plate and fixing the 2 front steering box mounting bolts through it and tacking it above and below the areas of rust .
I’ve just been following behind with the under seal and Brush ,although I did replace both TRE,s
Thanks Nick
See you tomorrow for part 2 of hopefully “ The Great Escape”

[Doctor Gollum]

On my black estate, the worst part of that rail was the side next to the exhaust. Fortunately once all the scabby stuff knocked off, it was still solid, so treated and undersealed it.

That said, underneath that car looked like it had been parked in the Mancchester Shit canal

[amba]

I couldnt believe how such a small area of what just looked like surface rust turned into the need for Nick to do such an extensive repair on the drivers side.

Passenger side was a visible hole when I replaced the front discs last week so expect surgery on that side.

This all started with the need to repair a small hole in the floor pan just by the passenger footwell so glad and hopeful it has been caught in time to give me another couple of years use from what really is such a great car.

Fingers crossed Nick can perform the "Life Saving Surgery " tomorrow 

[Doctor Gollum]

If he can't, no one can

[Nick W]

Not helped by being spot welded rather than seam welded. If the seam sealer is slapped on rather than actually forced into the seam, then eventually it comes away and water gets behind it and the rest is basically where it ends up here...

If you're really unlucky the chassis rails can get clogged with plant detritus and rot out where the steering box platesare tacked on

Funny you should say that.


Funny, because it isn't your car/job

[dave the builder]

if the holes are too big to weld plates on I'll platerboard and skim em for ya 

[Doctor Gollum]

Not helped by being spot welded rather than seam welded. If the seam sealer is slapped on rather than actually forced into the seam, then eventually it comes away and water gets behind it and the rest is basically where it ends up here...

If you're really unlucky the chassis rails can get clogged with plant detritus and rot out where the steering box platesare tacked on

Funny you should say that.


Funny, because it isn't your car/job

There's that... but that's not to say I'm not sympathetic to the issue

[amba]

Now I could bond and set it ...but joining metal

[Doctor Gollum]

if the holes are too big to weld plates on I'll platerboard and skim em for ya 

Use the green stuff... It gets a bit soggy there

[Nick W]

if the holes are too big to weld plates on I'll platerboard and skim em for ya 

You oppsing bodger!


Tube of Tigerseal, and several coats of schutz.


Followed by a change of owner.....