Every day I seem to find more rust. I've just had the one of the rear footwells welded, although other side seems rotten as well now with a black layer peeling off. Both rear wheel arches have just completely disintegrated upon being poked - can see right through above. The paint around the wheel arch is also bubbling up on the outside. Patches of rust all over the car, beginning to regret buying it. Should have checked it properly before I bought it.





Is it going to pass the MOT & maybe some cheap fix? Need to keep it running for another year at least.

the 2nd I've had, and the second rust bucket too... Thought maybe I just got unlucky with the first punto but now the second has endless problems, I'm not buying another until I can afford a brand new one

I would say you've been a combination of unlucky and limited by budget to buying crap cars, i've seen some very mint condition Mk2s but they tent to command decent money i've also seen some £500 puntos that look pretty rough, with these puntos if you can see corrosion or bubbling paint on the exterior panels then expect it to be well rotten underneath.

if it passes an MOT this time it probably won't next year without further welding.

Rust is what took my fun mk2 off the road - only fit for the scrap heap

It went on the rear passengers floors - both drive (2 holes)
And Passenger (2 holes in floor and along the sill under the car) which means its way way way to much cost wise to be welded up now

The best mod for cars is to get the underside sealed up after been cleaned with waxyoil to give a stone chip barrier

Ziggy

I share some of your pain.

The rear arches are double skin, I'd bet they're totally shot underneath. You can buy the full inner skin for mk1, not sure about mk2, don't know the exact details.

I'd take the front bumper off too and have a look behind it - there is a fair chance that the part in front of radiator will be fairly bad, and the radiator support itself might be in trouble.

As for underseal - it should be right at the top of the list if you want your car to age into a classic. You can argue the toss on all the products, but pretty much anything would be better than nothing.

I'd have a good hunt round before sinking any more money into welding, it could be good money after bad

AndyRKett said:

I would say you've been a combination of unlucky and limited by budget to buying crap cars, i've seen some very mint condition Mk2s but they tent to command decent money i've also seen some £500 puntos that look pretty rough, with these puntos if you can see corrosion or bubbling paint on the exterior panels then expect it to be well rotten underneath.

if it passes an MOT this time it probably won't next year without further welding.

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I suppose, for £400 I shouldn't be complaining. My brother bought a MK2 last month and it's in proper nice condition, but it was 4 times the price of mine. If I can get it through its MOT in August, keep it on the road for another year and then scrap it as I should be able to afford another car by then. Really want the new punto 2012 although id have to get it on finance

Although I'm just worried that they will fail the rear wheel arches, which I am guessing will cost more than the cars worth in welding!

I see so many MK2s around where I live, all of them look so nice except mine :bang: Had plans to tint the windows, vinyl the roof and tidy up the alloys as well but there's no point now, was hoping to keep it for a few years.

Ziggy122 said:

Rust is what took my fun mk2 off the road - only fit for the scrap heap

It went on the rear passengers floors - both drive (2 holes)
And Passenger (2 holes in floor and along the sill under the car) which means its way way way to much cost wise to be welded up now

The best mod for cars is to get the underside sealed up after been cleaned with waxyoil to give a stone chip barrier

Ziggy

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Oh damn is that what happened to your car after the recent thread you posted?:doh: Mines going the same way by the looks of it. I noticed more of the rust while putting some waxoyl on. How old was yours?

OllyCz said:

I see so many MK2s around where I live, all of them look so nice except mine

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you forget i'm in norwich too..... they are probably my cars

atom0007 said:

I share some of your pain.

The rear arches are double skin, I'd bet they're totally shot underneath. You can buy the full inner skin for mk1, not sure about mk2, don't know the exact details.

I'd take the front bumper off too and have a look behind it - there is a fair chance that the part in front of radiator will be fairly bad, and the radiator support itself might be in trouble.

As for underseal - it should be right at the top of the list if you want your car to age into a classic. You can argue the toss on all the products, but pretty much anything would be better than nothing.

I'd have a good hunt round before sinking any more money into welding, it could be good money after bad

Click to expand...

I've just had another look at the wheel arches, and around the very outer edge where it's bubbling in the bottom pic (if you look up above the wheel, there's a flat bit about 2cm wide) - it's literally coming off in my hands all the way round. So I think you're right that I shouldn't put any more money into it.

& I'm too scared to look at the front lol

OllyCz said:

I suppose, for £400 I shouldn't be complaining. My brother bought a MK2 last month and it's in proper nice condition, but it was 4 times the price of mine. If I can get it through its MOT in August, keep it on the road for another year and then scrap it as I should be able to afford another car by then. Really want the new punto 2012 although id have to get it on finance

Although I'm just worried that they will fail the rear wheel arches, which I am guessing will cost more than the cars worth in welding!

I see so many MK2s around where I live, all of them look so nice except mine :bang: Had plans to tint the windows, vinyl the roof and tidy up the alloys as well but there's no point now, was hoping to keep it for a few years.


Oh damn is that what happened to your car after the recent thread you posted?:doh: Mines going the same way by the looks of it. I noticed more of the rust while putting some waxoyl on. How old was yours?

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yes im affraid so - the rot on the sill would need a decent welding job doing - it just wasn't worth it no more
I thought it was gonna be simple - but turned out it weren't

The car was a 2000 (X reg) so 12 years old, with 113k on the clock

the sills had been protected a few years before, but i didnt do a good enough job removing the rust obvs, the water got under and boom - instant rust bomb hit

I was ready for a new car anyway

Ziggy

AndyRKett said:

you forget i'm in norwich too..... they are probably my cars

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Oh cool you got more than one MK2 then? I come across so many puntos in Norwich, some look proper nice, I do wonder if they're from here. I am mainly around the west of norwich.

Ziggy122 said:

yes im affraid so - the rot on the sill would need a decent welding job doing - it just wasn't worth it no more
I thought it was gonna be simple - but turned out it weren't

The car was a 2000 (X reg) so 12 years old, with 113k on the clock

the sills had been protected a few years before, but i didnt do a good enough job removing the rust obvs, the water got under and boom - instant rust bomb hit

I was ready for a new car anyway

Ziggy

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That a shame, especially if the engine and interior was in good condition ? Did you get another mk2?

My current is 51 (85k), the one I scrapped was Y (120k) but mainly went because of the engine - although it did have some rust, not as severe.

I bet you won't get bitten a 3rd time with a rust ball

Poke the arches next time, then take £100 off the sale price for every time your finger goes through. At the end, the seller might pay you to take it away!

OllyCz said:

Oh cool you got more than one MK2 then? I come across so many puntos in Norwich, some look proper nice, I do wonder if they're from here. I am mainly around the west of norwich.


That a shame, especially if the engine and interior was in good condition ? Did you get another mk2?

My current is 51 (85k), the one I scrapped was Y (120k) but mainly went because of the engine - although it did have some rust, not as severe.

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I upgraded went from a 1.2 8v Punto mk2 to a 2004 1.2 8v Active Sport Mk2b

Lush! no other words for it!

atom0007 said:

I bet you won't get bitten a 3rd time with a rust ball

Poke the arches next time, then take £100 off the sale price for every time your finger goes through. At the end, the seller might pay you to take it away!

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I checked the floor on this one - its clean and tidy - but its needs a possible touch/respray undersealer

But if there ANY holes that shouldnt be there -except for Chassis Rig holes from factory - walk away!

Ziggy

OllyCz said:

Oh cool you got more than one MK2 then? I come across so many puntos in Norwich, some look proper nice, I do wonder if they're from here. I am mainly around the west of norwich.

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I've got 2x mk2bs both diesel a 1.9multijet HGT and a 1.3 Multijet dynamic am also west Norwich

atom0007 said:

I bet you won't get bitten a 3rd time with a rust ball

Poke the arches next time, then take £100 off the sale price for every time your finger goes through. At the end, the seller might pay you to take it away!

Click to expand...

Yep definitely a lesson learnt. Noticed the bubbling up but never realised it can get that bad underneath

Ziggy122 said:

I upgraded went from a 1.2 8v Punto mk2 to a 2004 1.2 8v Active Sport Mk2b

Lush! no other words for it!

Ziggy

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Nice, very jealous you'll need a new signature now!

AndyRKett said:

I've got 2x mk2bs both diesel a 1.9multijet HGT and a 1.3 Multijet dynamic am also west Norwich

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Cool will look out for them, have just seen the pics of your car in your profile link at scva

I'll tell you a story.

Look at the HGT in this thread. Looks immaculate. That's July 2009.

Come August 2009, it looks like this.

I saw this HGT personally. The top/outer panels of the car were as good as they look in the photos - immaculate. However, the floor was barely attached to either sill and you could feel movement in the chassis rails if you tried to wiggle them. The rear arches had holes in them large enough to put your fist through.

Appearances can be very deceptive.

Maybe you should take AndyRKett with you when you go to get a third one. I'm sure he can help you pick a good one

chaos said:

I'll tell you a story.

Look at the HGT in this thread. Looks immaculate. That's July 2009.

Come August 2009, it looks like this.

I saw this HGT personally. The top/outer panels of the car were as good as they look in the photos - immaculate. However, the floor was barely attached to either sill and you could feel movement in the chassis rails if you tried to wiggle them. The rear arches had holes in them large enough to put your fist through.

Appearances can be very deceptive.

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I read through the links. The giveaway was the bubbles on the rear arch paintwork. It's a bitter experience pill to swallow - sorting out this should have been number 1, rather than all the sunk money on the cool stuff. At least, that's what I've learned.

Also, there was a lot of chat about the car leaking for a long time.

My experience with my (slightly) younger car is that the rubbery underseal gets holed and traps water in it. I poked a blister in a wheel arch last night, water came out. Car's been in the drive for a week, so it's not like it's just picked it up from the road.

Any underseal, rubbery, hard, whatever, will trap water if holed and delaminating. The originial Fiat stuff looks like it's sound until you peel it back a bit and discover a horror story...

And the steel is (largely) galvanized, but as that's only good for a certain while.

I'm going to write a thread on rust at one point......after I fail my MOT probably.