This was my car's rear jacking point yesterday:


Rusty as f***, gave way when I jacked it a few months back

This morning:

"Fred Flintstone" conversion! Old rusty metal hacked out using a jigsaw, and where the saw wouldn't go I used a big sharpened screwdriver and a hammer.

This afternoon:

After 3 hours of making the repair patch, using fresh steel plate plus the original jacking point, then another 2 hours of welding and hammering, the repair patch is in place.

It's since had flexible body filler (similar to seam sealant) applied over all the welds, inside and out, then a coat of Hammerite to rustproof it, and finally a coat of "Schutz" Waxoyl-based underbody sealant so that the road salt can't attack the new metal.

Ok, it doesn't look much, but believe me it was an absolute s***e of a job, half the interior had to come out so I could weld inside the car as well as under it without starting a fire!

Oh yeah, this is how it looked inside before painting:

Looks like a decent job . Maby it´s good to get some kind of rustprotection on to that now......or maby under the hole car!

Italiano Lover said:

Looks like a decent job . Maby it´s good to get some kind of rustprotection on to that now......or maby under the hole car!

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That's what the Hammerite on both side of the patch is for and that Schutz underbody sealant is supposed to be the best there is as it never dries out and goes brittle. Will eventually strip all the old underseal off and Schutz the lot, but that will take another full weekend.

you wanna get some rustprotection on it now then

dave said:

you wanna get some rustprotection on it now then

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Oh crap, you're right, it'll have dissolved by tomorrow morning! :nutter:

Nice one JB, just out of curiosity, is any of your bodywork rusty?

See the uno's body was just fine, only very few tiny bits of rust which you would expect from a mainly galvenised body but the underneath? Blimey! More rust than the titantic!

The Negotiator said:

Nice one JB, just out of curiosity, is any of your bodywork rusty?

See the uno's body was just fine, only very few tiny bits of rust which you would expect from a mainly galvenised body but the underneath? Blimey! More rust than the titantic!

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Nope. The car looks perfect, underneath is a different story. My old Uno wasn't too bad externally - a bit frilly round the arches and door tops - but it was a horror story underneath, and back when I had that car I had neither the ability nor the equipment to weld, so it cost me a fair few bob down the local garage to get the blody thing patched up. Uno's rot like buggery underneath, due to road salt and crappy underseal. Seems to be the same on the Punto.

In fact, I'd recommend that everyone who owns a Mk1 Punto gets underneath it, and looks for bubbles in the underseal. If you stab them with a screwdriver, you'll more than likely release a nice blob of rusty water and reveal some very rotten metal. :yuck:

nice repair job there!

ive been re-doing bits of the underseal on my cinq, no apparent rust yet - but ive scraped it on the floor/speed bumps that often it needed patching up in places. It seemed to have a nice grey primer/undercoat underneath tho and never actually scraped down to bare metal.

That's really interesting then, rust protected body work but not underneath.

I spent a lot of time cleaning the uno after we did all the work on it and then totally waxoiling with the hammerite gunk, good stuff, better than normal waxoil as it goes on a lot thicker. Also did the inside of the sills. However, it sadly put my grandfather off unos/cinqs/puntos because of the amount of rust underneath. No point the body being great but the underneath having holes in!

Hence I back you up on what you say, if anybody has the oppotunity to check underneath do so and if you can be bothered, save yourself in the long run and cover the underbody and best as you can. Prevention is about the only way to beat rust, once you have it, it's nigh impossible to get rid of.

i was quite impressed with mine, its scraped the floor at lot and hadnt rusted. On the cinq it doesnt seem like they've forgotten the underneath. I was just patching it up where it was down to undercoat!

Nice one JB, looks good if a little patchy but I'm no pro welder so disregard that comment.

Shat myself when I seen the hole you cut, you ain't taking chances eh!

Properly sealed up and considering the proper guage metal was used theres no reason why it shouldn't last forever.

Liam

bloomfieldliam said:

Nice one JB, looks good if a little patchy but I'm no pro welder so disregard that comment.

Shat myself when I seen the hole you cut, you ain't taking chances eh!

Properly sealed up and considering the proper guage metal was used theres no reason why it shouldn't last forever.

Liam

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Heh, no you're dead right, in fact patchy is the kindest way to describe it!

I'm still getting the hang of welding (I've only had a MIG since xmas and have only used it twice so far!) so the welds are generally pretty untidy, and I blew a few holes with too much current here and there thank feck for filler!

But it's rock solid, and hopefully my rot-proofing will make it outlast the rest of the floorpan!

Oh and it was a pretty impressive hole, but had to take loads out to remove all the rot. Wish I'd got a photo with my foot through it though... yabba dabba doo!

You think that's bad? Have you been under the Capri yet!?

Steve C said:

You think that's bad? Have you been under the Capri yet!?

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It's rock solid underneath, believe it or not, it's the front and rear valances and one of the front wings that need patching. Which is why I got the welding kit in the first place!

It must have been well undersealed. Splendid. Good job on the Punto by the way.

Youve got some guts doing that Nice one, DIY at its best!!!

Excellent mate, well done!

Anything to avoid a bit of study eh?

James M said:

Anything to avoid a bit of study eh?

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Heh, you hit the nail square on the head mate!

Next job is to strip the old underseal off both cars and re-coat 'em both with that Waxoyl-based underseal, that'll be an unpleasant little job too