A Lot of Rot

[oli8925]

Seems we bought a lemon

Had a second MOT under our ownership on Thursday and other than a front tyre it only failed on corrosion to rear of drivers sill. Fine, not a massive issue. Last I looked I knew there were bubbles but it was solid, a few patches and it would be fine.

Took it to the workshop yesterday and set to it...apparently not fine. Outer sill was held by sealant, peeling that off the inner crumbled away by itself, the (?) rear of the floor that meets the sills disintegrates without much effort, as did the lower edges of the rear arch tub. I certainly wasn't confident to drive it back home with corrosion so close to the suspension mount so had to call a favour on a friend with a trailer.

I'm a little shocked to be honest, I knew they liked to rust in the sills and arches but this makes the Mini and Viva full rebuilds look like mint examples! And now in a bit of a sticky situation with regards to funds having just agreed to buy a house...

I haven't poked the passenger side too much yet but It looks and feels a lot more solid, although still requires a bit of work (was an advisory). I'm pretty sure the drivers has been patched with metal on top of rust in the not too distant past, which would explain why it's gone from a few bubbles to a full-blown gaping chasm in a little over 12 months.

Any opinions on the below are welcome. If we can get it repaired minus paint for £500ish I think it might be worth it to keep the car for another few years at least to get our moneys worth. Mechanically it's brilliant and great fun. If not I think our only option will be to break it to recover costs and scrap what's left of the shell.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

You'll probably find a lot of Puma's are like this when you poke about on the sills to be honest. I remember that mine was patched up around here when I had the sills done and that it was worse on one side than the other. Sticking my neck out, I'd also say that the later Pumas seem to rot a lot quicker than the earlier ones too. There seems to be an increasing number of threads with corrosion-riddled Thunders cropping up on the forum in the last year or so.

It's a shame there's no one making replacement sills as it'd be a great deal easier to get them repaired!

 

[tuonokid]

Hi Oli
There's some difficult welding wanting doing there as most of it seems to be structural. As well as what you can see on the outside there will be damage to internal structures as well plus there's different thicknesses of metal to be worked on. If I was to consider doing work like this I would have to cut out loads of bodywork just to start on the internal structure. Best bet to get the cheapest quote, get it repaired and MOT'd if it's cheap enough and sell it on.
Barry

 

[tuonokid]

Or there's always that FRP shell still on Fleabay and still on £400.
Barry

 

[oli8925]

Don't think the FRP shell is going to solve the headache unfortunately :lol: Looks like we're going to 'borrow' the other-half's brother's Thunder with a view to buying it over time, since it's been sitting doing nothing.

I really don't need another car but OH doesn't know what she wants to do with it yet, and I'm half considering it as a track car if she'll let me, so we'll store it somewhere for a bit then stick it the garage of our new house when we move in. From there it'll either be repaired over time and put back on the road, repaired over time and stripped/modified to be a dedicated track car, or stripped and broken for parts. In the mean time I'll get some quotes for the welding work just to see what it comes to.

 

[tuonokid]

Hi Oli
I think there's two ways of a garage welding it. There's the expensive proper way and then the back street garage weld over the top repair to get it through their MOT. I would say to you to get the garage to explain how they are going to do the repair before giving them the go ahead to do the work. If it's the back street garage way personally I wouldn't keep the car.
Good luck
Barry

 

[oli8925]

I'm not sure they'd even be able to do a plate over the top type repair in the area that all the rot is. That said I'm sure some cowboys would find a way to. If that does happen it will be sold, although I don't think my girlfriend or I would be happy to do that to someone else. It'll be a proper job or no job I think.

Still can't believe the way and extent at which a 12 year old car has rotted away.

 

[tuonokid]

Hi Oli
Yes the plate over the top job would require some cutting out but it could be done. 12 years is a lot of time for a car to be driven with no rustproofing on it which, basically, is the Puma. Does it have a lot of mileage on it?
Barry

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

If you are unsure if the car is salvageable, check this……
http://www.escortevolution.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=149919&st=75" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you take your time and check it all, you'll see that ANY car can be saved…….

 

[stumc]

presumably you cant weld as youre on about getting a garage to do it. id sugest if youre looking at quotes of £500 to do it, either A, find someone on here or another forum who would do it for less. or B spend £250 or so on a welding setup, teach yourself to weld and do it yourself. if youve got the time and patience id say you could do that in a weekend.

ill upload some pics of some work i did on my mates mk1 mr2 a few weeks ago. his was in a similar state. i had to chop off the complete outer sill, remove the inner support structure, straighten the sill as it had colapsed under a trolley jack, remove a small section of the inner wheel arch, then i made a 'jig' of sorts from some wood and bent a new sill up, replaced the inner support structure, welded up the inner wheel arch then made a new section of the outer wheel arch. this took me 9 hours in total. its definitely doable as a DIY job mate, spend a few hours reading up welding and basic repair tutorials, what a few vids, have a practice and get stuck in. its the best way to learn and the cheapest way to repair the car probably.

 

[Glenn_]

I love my Fords but the bastards rust like fook. I blame this country cause you go to warmer countrys and there is loads of old fords driving about.

 

[RICHARD MANSFIELD2]

Hi,
I must admit it is not a pretty sight. But everything can be done.
Now this is rust, just one of the many restorations I have done.
I will try and post a photo of the restored car when I find one.

I have found one the finished Mini above.
Regards
Richard.

 

[tuonokid]

Nice job Richard but aren't there lots of repair panels available for the Mini and you can't do this sort of repair if it's your daily driver.
Barry
PS It's that minis 50th this year isn't it?

 

[Kidders]

Great job on the Mini, but as has been said, repair panels of all price ranges are available for virtually everywhere so it's simply time and some skill involved in replacing rotted panels. In the bcase of the Puma, you would have to be pretty handy with fabricating in order to recreate something close.

It is my fear that eventually most Puma's especially the later ones will die, and that will be a shame. Late Mk5 Fiesta's also suffer the same fate.

 

[RICHARD MANSFIELD2]

Hi,
Yes I do agree with you, to do repairs on a Mini are a lot easier than the Puma for a number of reasons. Firstly the construction is a lot more basic, secondly over the years there has been an ever greater number of remanifactured panels available. I had tried to do a running rebuilds but in the end I did them by taking them of the road I found that it made it easier and more straight forward and produced a better result. I was fortunate that I had the facilities and these cars to me were classic collectables and treated as such. I know that a lot of Puma owners are restricted and can not go down this route.
This was the second Mini Cooper rebuild I did completed in 1988, although there were replacement panels available the bits they had to be attached to had rusted and a lot of plateing had to be done.
Anyway back to the Puma, I seem to be very fortunate that my one seems to be very rust free. I am amazed when I look at photos on the site how some seem to be heavely rusted. Whether a project is large or small it is always possible, but it comes down to many factors as to if it gets undertaken or not. In the past if a panel section was not available I have been known to visit a breakers and cut the section required from a solid car. Perhaps this could be an option for Oli with the bottom of the panel/wheel arch.
Anyway Oli best of luck with what you decide to do.
Regards
Richard.

 

[oli8925]

Thanks Richard and all.

I am a very novice welder currently, but I have the other half's Mini in the workshop currently doing both inner and outer sills and floor corners, boot floor and a little on the front. I also have the Viva that has extremely limited panel availability so making repair sections out of sheet is generally ok. The issue with the Puma is having nowhere to put it (Mini is taking my space in the workshop and is over an hours drive away anyway), and I'm not confident that with my level of ability I could turn it around in decent time. It was one of our dailies so taking it off the road for a few months would be an issue.

That said we may be borrowing/buying the girlfriend's brother's/mum's Thunder that's sitting unused. We'll have to see how things progress and how solid this one is.

It's typical that a month or two back I 'let go' a very rust free V reg because I was after a cheap track car and it went for a little more than I wanted.

 

[warrenpenalver]

Modify a KA sill to suit. Most of the curves arent too far out.

 

[denssity]

My sills are like this :-D and I have a coolant and oil leak :| time to get rid