Rust's Revenge

Curse of a plastic car...............any metal!

Front drivers door pillar...





Drivers side lower seat belt mount at sill....

Ye gods How many of us out there have this hiding beneath

nasty

lucky for spider owners..... we have the plastic but no rusty bits only ally

what about your engine subframe....

it's not exposed to the elements.... just gets a bit dusty....i suppose wishbones and driveshafts are the most exposed but car is 9 years old and the vulnerable bits look ok

the vulnerable bits look ok

don't flatter yourself.................................

David

Any reason why this GTA should have suffered more than any other...Did it spend its life on the sea front or have an accident early in its life?

Like Clee am worried what is learking! Would like to know how this was spotted by the unlucky owner first - was it MOT failure? Then best way to pro long life without tearing car apart?

Thanks for scaring the livin s**t out of us all!

Peter

And whose car is it, just in case it turns up on ebay as another one of "those" bargins?

Its my Red one that I am breaking.....

Since I bought the car the drivers door had never closed properly, and Ive seen lots of GTA's with rotten pillars.

To repair this properly, you need to cut away all the fibreglass around the pillar area, so you can get to the metal upright, and repair/replace as nessecary. Another problem is this pillar connects to the steel windscreen surround, so in worst case you have to remove the screen/pillar..

Before I broke it, the door must have dropped by about an inch when opened, only held on at the top hinge by the fibreglass, which was starting to split.

The corrosion around the seat belt mount has happened within a year or two. Two years ago, I retrimmed all the carpet in the car and had to unbolt and retightned the seat belt mount, so I know it was fine then.

Its only till a few weeks ago when I went to unbolt it, it turned very easily, due to the fact it just ripped its self out of the sill!

The rear subframe and wishbones are good condition, so the corrosion is mainly around the driverside pillar and sill. It is a 1986 car, so one of the first.

Both are big MOT failures, and with the time and effort involved and the car needed a paintjob anyway, I decided to break it...

[stephendell]

A lot of GTA's have rust like that lurking in the chassis and box sections. Often worse around the front bulkhead where you will never see it until your steering rack falls off!

They always look fine until you look a little closer!

Great, thanks for cheering me up!
And I thought they were mostly GRP / Plastic / Fibreglass with the only metal parts being the two subframes and the backbone.

My A610 is getting the full Dinitrol treatment in January so it doesn't get rusty in the first place

[phildini]

Right thats it!!!! all carpets are out!!! and Dinitrol is in!!, better check that dodgy Atmo of mine too, the bloke i bought it from was a bit shady. he did tell me it was all waxoiled but..........

I forgot about the A610.....

You do realise that all of the floor pan the full width of the car, from the gear lever up to the top of the front wheel arches is all metal!!

[phildini]

Also which is the best way to check door pillar ( besides the doors droping) and the steering rack section?