Extermin8

[steve_earwig]

I think the moral of this story is if you see a small patch of rust on your sill, don't just spray it with underseal and forget it


When I got it 4 years ago the D8 was covered in small bits of damage, stuff that didn't work, had no spare or jack and was obviously neglected. I fixed it up but I never planned on keeping it as long as I have and now it's caught up with me. I haven’t investigated yet but there’s a row of spot welds along the bottom (above the flange with the jacking points on it) that feel like dimples, where the corrosion around them has spread the sheet metal, so this is how much it looks like:


The driver's side feel fine, no dimples. The flange itself (apart from being a bit mangled) feels fine and before you suggest it, it's bone dry in there.

Well, after all the trouble it's given me lately and now this, I think it's time to call it a day. I'm not going to scrap it (hell, it's worth about 3 grand!) but it'll need repairing and I have two voices in my head - one says fix it properly, you wouldn't want to sell something dangerous and the other says fukkem, caveat emptor and all that - fill it with polyurethane foam and punt it. Oddly that one sounds like Goran... I can’t get a cover sill, Pug do a replacement but it’s about 300 quid! So I was thinking to cut out all the corrosion and plate it. What do you guys think?

Anyway, some good news: Yesterday the D9 flew past it's safety test (=MOT), I asked the guy if there were any problems and he said it's like new I also enjoyed the way it jumped off of the rollers when he put the handbrake on Btw another new feature of the test here is they park the front wheels on two plates over the pit and these move about, presumably to test the suspension without levering it about etc. It looked very odd to me anyway.

More bad news: I gave the D9 to my other half to avoid all the limitations of my visa (i.e. having to pay everything for a year but only getting registration until August, then having to do it all again 'cos it's all valueless without registration ) but she's never insured a car before the D8 last September and that policy's less than a year old. Plus the insurance has gone up again. Bottom line, it cost me about 600 quid to put it on the road including the wonderful 3rd party only insurance

[Welly]

Pah! - superficial rust that's all that is hey it can't be as bad as some of the shitters out there fella.

Whoever buys it will just sort it out themselves (or just leave it)

Big bummer about all that registration/insurance malachy tough - cut's badly into your maintenance budget I would think

[steve_earwig]

Superficial rust you can get your fingers through? The undersealing just peeled off, I now have a 6" hole in the sill And that was just using my fingers! Inside there seems to be some sort of box at the bottom of the B-post, I probed this hard with a screwdriver and it went through in one place. I shoved it in further and found something soft but not the carpet. Oh, that'll be the seat belt then

I'd like to know why this has happened so I can stop it happening to the other one, it's not like these are crappy Cortinas or something and I thought this sort of thing was history these days. They do salt the roads here but very sparingly, besides, it wasn't wet inside. I can't see any damage that could have caused it either.

[steve_earwig]

Some more of that "superficial rust":


Inside the bottom of the B-post:


And what blew out the front drain hole when I blew compressed air in the sill:


Not that I'm overly impressed with the drains, they look more like faults in the spot welding to me. I can't even find them on the D9! The only way in to the sills seems to be the screw hole at the front for the arch liner and a bung at the back behind the arch liner (a good place for the Waxoyl pipe I reckon). If you have water sloshing about in your sills have a look at these first. There are two sections to the sill - inner and outer - with a horizontal plate between lengthwise. This plate is a bit furry on mine but I couldn't force a screwdriver through it so I reckon it's ok. The inner sill looks fine, the floor of the car hasn't got any rust on it, and this is despite the carpet being wet

Since I took these pics I've attacked it with the disk cutter and man it looks scarey now So, next up, I need to weld up the bottom of the B-post and then weld a plate behind the holes. It'll not be perfect (the only way to do that would be to remove all that section of the sill and I'm not feeling enthusiastic about that one, especially not the 2,300Kn for a new sill from Pug) but much stronger than it's be for - probably - all the time I've been driving it.

[teamster1975]

Oh b*gger Steve! That's quite a lot of red stuff!

[steve_earwig]

Tell me about it It always amazed me how little visible rust there was on the D8, especially compared to some of the pics of other cars I've seen on here. Shame about the invisible rust

[Welly]

Seems the underseal was damaged by that dent/scuff and let water in there to fester away?

Maybe the car was repaired in this position when it was fairly new?

So you're going to plate it up? at least you have the stuff/kit to be able to do it (unless Mrs Earwigs fridge door now has a 12" x 12" patch missing ).

Look forward to your further repair pics then!

That car is certainly clocking up some hours on you recently

[steve_earwig]

I thought it was a scuff, that's why I squirted it with undersqueal. Obviously it came from within but how?

It all looks straight, apart from the rust of course. I dunno, submerged in salt water for a week?

I'm not looking foreward to posting them, at the moment I'm torn between cutting more of the sill off to get to the post and not leaving enough sill to get the shape right. It pains me to cut off decent metal too. The fridge(s) are safe, I have a sill from a fiat uno which I plan to cut up. The shape's not too close but better than everything else in Goran's shop. The alternative is going round a carpark with a cardboard template... Hey, I only need half a meter of it, it'll do.

Tel me about it, problem after problem after problem. Time to get rid of it.

[steve_earwig]

You know what? There are holes from the inner sill to the outer one, although I can't see inside it and I still can't imagine water getting there from the carpet without rotting a hole in the floor first.

Anyway, some more pics:

It'll be fun welding up there


Middle panel.


First take your sill...


Seriously (I can't think of a better use for it!)


Inner.


Outer.

[teamster1975]

Christ, I'd expect that on an '80's fraud escrote, not a 406!
Nice job though Steve
Silly question, what's the orange arrow for?

[steve_earwig]

I know it could be better but I'm trying not to think about it

It's a welding magnet, Ill be using it to hold the panel in place while I tack it on.

[Welly]

Excellent work chap! A++++++++

You've just got stuck in and got on with the job

You gonna pump that cavity full of waxyoily stuff after?

[steve_earwig]

Thanks, although I know it could be better. I gather the stuff here is more runny bitumen, sprayed inside the box sections through a tube using compressed air. I'll do both outer sills, getting into the inner sills doesn't look easy but I'll give that a go if I can. And when the weather warms up I'll do the D9, so don't want to go through this again

[Welly]

My uncle bought a brand new Vauxhall Chavalier in 1982 (which I later bought in 1990) and he paid to have it "Ziebarted" with waxoily stuff at the dealer and the hole thing was drilled and pumped full of the stuff (it was dripping outta everywhere) the last time I saw the car was in 2001 and it still looked ok considering it's 19 years

I wonder if any of our 406's have tin-worm behind the scenes???

[steve_earwig]

That still depends on why mine rusted but, if I was driving a similar age 406 in the UK and considering the amount of salt they dump on the roads there at the slightest sign of cold weather, I'd be concerned.