Rear wheelarch bodgery
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2020 4:37 pm
Hi,
I have spent most of today removing my passenger rear wing, I intend to replace both anyway, as they are later wings and some time ago I acquired a really nice pair originals for free .
Well I'm paying for that bit of good fortune now...........
I have bought a passenger side inner wing, as I could see that it was going to need surgery long before I got round to taking it off.
Anyway what I didn't anticipate was the level of bodgery I would find.
Now some members may have encountered this before and I have heard about / read about this sort of thing but this is the first time I have experienced it on a Minor first hand.
Someone from 'planet clever' decided to 'repair' previous issues in the area by using some sort of compound to 'bond' some offcuts of metal in place over rust holes, without even treating the rust first as far as I can see, then covered the whole lot over in a thick layer of filler, roughly to shape, so at first glance you wouldn't realise how deep the rabbit hole went......
Then to complete the camouflage, a layer of underbody black gunk was applied, inside the boot area, as well as outside, so until the area started to obviously come apart at the seams you would think it was pretty solid.
This creates a whole world of pain for the people who then end up trying to put it right, as the whole mess has to be unpicked first, revealing a worse case of rot than would probably have been the case if they had left it alone.....
All they did was seal it in, cover it over and leave it to fester!
They even thought it would be a good idea to weld one of the wing bolts in place!
If anyone is on here, who is new to classic car ownership, has just bought a rusty Minor and who might be tempted by a 'quick fix', PLEASE DON'T.
It really isn't worth it and just causes a major headache further down the line...... What can be seen in last 'sin bin' picture is only part of it, I have left the other metal & filler patches in place for now, as it will be simpler to cut out one large area with the grinder. As I said above, I have an inner wheelarch panel that can be cut to suit and better one large piece than a series of small patches. I will consult Dave, who is doing the welding and take it from there.
Unfortunately, from what I have seen so far, it looks like the drivers side could turn out to be the same, I will find out when I remove that wing tomorrow.....
I am intending to get a welder and accessories at the end of the month, as this and painting (a whole car) are the two skills I haven't acquired yet, although I think I will leave the painting (other than small areas) to the experts.
I am glad I have a friend who can weld for this though, as it will take me a while to build up to the skill level required to fix the mess I am unpicking here.....
Best wishes,
Mike.
I have spent most of today removing my passenger rear wing, I intend to replace both anyway, as they are later wings and some time ago I acquired a really nice pair originals for free .
Well I'm paying for that bit of good fortune now...........
I have bought a passenger side inner wing, as I could see that it was going to need surgery long before I got round to taking it off.
Anyway what I didn't anticipate was the level of bodgery I would find.
Now some members may have encountered this before and I have heard about / read about this sort of thing but this is the first time I have experienced it on a Minor first hand.
Someone from 'planet clever' decided to 'repair' previous issues in the area by using some sort of compound to 'bond' some offcuts of metal in place over rust holes, without even treating the rust first as far as I can see, then covered the whole lot over in a thick layer of filler, roughly to shape, so at first glance you wouldn't realise how deep the rabbit hole went......
Then to complete the camouflage, a layer of underbody black gunk was applied, inside the boot area, as well as outside, so until the area started to obviously come apart at the seams you would think it was pretty solid.
This creates a whole world of pain for the people who then end up trying to put it right, as the whole mess has to be unpicked first, revealing a worse case of rot than would probably have been the case if they had left it alone.....
All they did was seal it in, cover it over and leave it to fester!
They even thought it would be a good idea to weld one of the wing bolts in place!
If anyone is on here, who is new to classic car ownership, has just bought a rusty Minor and who might be tempted by a 'quick fix', PLEASE DON'T.
It really isn't worth it and just causes a major headache further down the line...... What can be seen in last 'sin bin' picture is only part of it, I have left the other metal & filler patches in place for now, as it will be simpler to cut out one large area with the grinder. As I said above, I have an inner wheelarch panel that can be cut to suit and better one large piece than a series of small patches. I will consult Dave, who is doing the welding and take it from there.
Unfortunately, from what I have seen so far, it looks like the drivers side could turn out to be the same, I will find out when I remove that wing tomorrow.....
I am intending to get a welder and accessories at the end of the month, as this and painting (a whole car) are the two skills I haven't acquired yet, although I think I will leave the painting (other than small areas) to the experts.
I am glad I have a friend who can weld for this though, as it will take me a while to build up to the skill level required to fix the mess I am unpicking here.....
Best wishes,
Mike.