Repairing or scrapping my car

[DennisCA]

Thats not the place you want to be visiting again then ...

id have repaired it too and take another couple of years out of it for the bother.

Odd logic to me, if they are thorough and discover flaws with the car that's good to me, right? I'd rather get it fixed sooner than drive around and let it get worse.

 

[tom2207]

Odd logic to me, if they are thorough and discover flaws with the car that's good to me, right? I'd rather get it fixed sooner than drive around and let it get worse.

you must drive better cars than most of the cars I get to weld ,,,, most are happy to get a test on them and fix it when suits , which tends to be next year .
Most wont go back to somewhere thats tough as it costs more money.

 

[Bobupndown]

What could possibly go wrong?

View attachment 290106

This is the way to do it!

 

[DennisCA]

you must drive better cars than most of the cars I get to weld ,,,, most are happy to get a test on them and fix it when suits , which tends to be next year .
Most wont go back to somewhere thats tough as it costs more money.

I want to keep the car going as long as possible so I have an interest in keeping it in shape, I hope I can get 600k out of it

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I want to keep the car going as long as possible

Not to mention safe. I'd never forgive myself if I were in an accident where someone was killed or seriously injured, which was caused by a known fault on my car - one which I'd ignored for the sake of a few £££s.

 

[DennisCA]

These repairs have rusted out again. I'm attempting to do the repairs myself this time as I got more space to work inside my shop, I still lack a lift though.

I've cut out a lot more metal this time. Not sure it's worth it, but I got other cars to drive now so I am not stuck. I think the last repair didn't remove enough and likely didn't coat in the inside either with anything + water and debris can get inside the cavity.

It's not looking that good, the original metal even when cut back to mostly good metal is thin. I believe there's not much a chance of butt welding this. So I've decided to cut strips of sheet from 1.2mm sheet and lap weld then over the edge of the coming fix. That way I can weld on higher power and get a starting point to weld the repair in, I am fabbing it from 2mm sheet metal. It will be a lot easier to weld the patch into the thicker metal afterwards.

I know a lap weld will have most people shaking their heads but I'm not seeing much of an alternative here. I'll just have to put my faith in the 'magic' of raw linseed oil and spray the inside of the cavity with it on the regular. Otherwise the car is sadly scrap.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Can you joggle the edges of the repair area instead...better than strips I would think.

 

[DennisCA]

I've already started welding strips in, I think it's working better than I thought it would.

 

[GRW]

I had an 02 petrol Yaris a couple of years ago. Dinky thing & awful to drive (as previous owner had put wider alloy wheels on it, managing to make it feel both vague & unstable at the same time).
Good little car though, robust & not too complicated (this was the 1.0L petrol vvti).
Can't you get new subframes for yours?

 

[MetalMonkey]

These repairs have rusted out again. I'm attempting to do the repairs myself this time as I got more space to work inside my shop, I still lack a lift though.

I've cut out a lot more metal this time. Not sure it's worth it, but I got other cars to drive now so I am not stuck. I think the last repair didn't remove enough and likely didn't coat in the inside either with anything + water and debris can get inside the cavity.

It's not looking that good, the original metal even when cut back to mostly good metal is thin. I believe there's not much a chance of butt welding this. So I've decided to cut strips of sheet from 1.2mm sheet and lap weld then over the edge of the coming fix. That way I can weld on higher power and get a starting point to weld the repair in, I am fabbing it from 2mm sheet metal. It will be a lot easier to weld the patch into the thicker metal afterwards.

I know a lap weld will have most people shaking their heads but I'm not seeing much of an alternative here. I'll just have to put my faith in the 'magic' of raw linseed oil and spray the inside of the cavity with it on the regular. Otherwise the car is sadly scrap.

Nothing wrong with lapwelding a patch on the underside of a daily driver.
If it was on a visible panel on a show car, then for sure you would want to be more picky - but currently all you need is a good strong repair.
They key is to cut out the rust and get back to something solid and then build your repair from that. It doesn't need to look the same as long as it functions the same.

Thicker material is fine, and as you said, once welded up take some time to protect it properly.
I would recommend coating everything in epoxy, including the back side of the repair if possible and filling any cavity with some sort of protection.

Take your time, it may seem quite daunting initially but if you go one step at a time you will get there in the end.
Worst case scenario if you mess up you just have to cut it out the mistake and repair it. With a welder and enough time, anything is repairable.

 

[DennisCA]

This has taken a long time. I knew it would too. I knew I would not get this car ready in time so I bought another car, a Volvo 850 which is now my everyday car. And it turned out to need it's share of work too so I've spent most of my time on the replacement car in fact... But it's a lot less rusty.

This weekend I finally welded in some new pieces on the left side of the car. I spent two days making the piece, fitting it and adjusting it, welding in new pieces to get the complex geometry without any real forming tools. And it ended up looking like crap anyway! But it's solid.

I hope to get the right side done faster, it doesn't look like I need to cut away as much there. Knock on wood...


I have removed the rear axle entirely, I had to fight a lot to get the drum brakes off, left side I ended up cutting the drum brake in two in order to get it off. Here is the axle after I have soaked it in Dinitrol, I'll put some thicker stuff on after it has dried. Should be good for the life of the car, what it has got left.

The old brakes I am just gonna throw away, need new drums, new brake shoes and new auto adjusting mechanisms, all rusted solid more or less.

 

[DennisCA]

Right side repair more or less completed. Ran out of primer. Need to go buy more, then the inside and outside will get coated in dinitrol ML and then some thicker oil based stuff. A lot of new material here and it's all 2mm minimum. The perspective is a bit tricky here but almost nothing goes in a straight line anywhere except the bottom plate with the nut in it.

The other side has faired better, cleaned up the worst and I believe this is as much as I will replace here. Edges of the earlier repair the shop did will make a good place to weld to. Gonna go with rust converter on the inside first too.

 

[arther dailey]

This has taken a long time. I knew it would too. I knew I would not get this car ready in time so I bought another car, a Volvo 850 which is now my everyday car. And it turned out to need it's share of work too so I've spent most of my time on the replacement car in fact... But it's a lot less rusty.

This weekend I finally welded in some new pieces on the left side of the car. I spent two days making the piece, fitting it and adjusting it, welding in new pieces to get the complex geometry without any real forming tools. And it ended up looking like crap anyway! But it's solid.

I hope to get the right side done faster, it doesn't look like I need to cut away as much there. Knock on wood...


I have removed the rear axle entirely, I had to fight a lot to get the drum brakes off, left side I ended up cutting the drum brake in two in order to get it off. Here is the axle after I have soaked it in Dinitrol, I'll put some thicker stuff on after it has dried. Should be good for the life of the car, what it has got left.

The old brakes I am just gonna throw away, need new drums, new brake shoes and new auto adjusting mechanisms, all rusted solid more or less.

whats the thick black stuff you are using after dinitrol??

 

[arther dailey]

Right side repair more or less completed. Ran out of primer. Need to go buy more, then the inside and outside will get coated in dinitrol ML and then some thicker oil based stuff. A lot of new material here and it's all 2mm minimum. The perspective is a bit tricky here but almost nothing goes in a straight line anywhere except the bottom plate with the nut in it.

The other side has faired better, cleaned up the worst and I believe this is as much as I will replace here. Edges of the earlier repair the shop did will make a good place to weld to. Gonna go with rust converter on the inside first too.

should you leave a reasonable size drain hole in the patch ? as it seems thats a collecting point with out drainage .

 

[Matchless]

Rust generally starts from inside a box section, or from a double skin seam, it is important to have drain holes and to spray the inside of chassis members, back in the day my father used to put old engine oil inside the sills etc on his old cars, then drive off quickly and park on a dirt road to let it drain,

 

[DennisCA]

whats the thick black stuff you are using after dinitrol??

It's just some no name goop, made from oil and bitumen I believe. Can be sprayed on or brushed.

 

[DennisCA]

should you leave a reasonable size drain hole in the patch ? as it seems thats a collecting point with out drainage .

Yeah I probably will make a small drain hole

 

[Cobbler]

Rust generally starts from inside a box section, or from a double skin seam, it is important to have drain holes and to spray the inside of chassis members, back in the day my father used to put old engine oil inside the sills etc on his old cars, then drive off quickly and park on a dirt road to let it drain,

I knew someone years ago that was a builder, he drilled a hole in the top of the sill, blocked the drain holes & filled the sill with Synthaprufe, the black jack stuff used for a waterproofing membrane & drained it out. It never went rusty after that, car stunk for a while after though.

 

[Matchless]

I once had a car in for service and MOT check, the sills were made from flashbanding, undersealed, they actually looked quite good!

 

[Morris]

I once had a car in for service and MOT check, the sills were made from flashbanding, undersealed, they actually looked quite good!

I saw an Alfa many years ago that had sills that said Firestone on the inside. Made from tractor inner tubes . The noise when tapped was a bit of a giveaway...