Just thinking that out of our three cars, two are starting to rust at an early age.
My A4 has rust starting on the lip of the front wings - its a 2002 and never been in an accident - which is a little worrying. I doubt mine is the only one in the country though.
The other is my MG TF 160 that at 5 years old is showing signs of rust bubbling from the inside out of the drivers sill. This was in an accident when it was less than 6 months old and obviously not repaired correctly by the insurance co. Luckliy I notice these things and its going to need the job doing properly - new sill/qtr panel at considerable cost or a bodge up and spray to sell. I expect if it went to a non enthusiast then it wouldnt last 2 more years without additional drainage holes!!!! Luckily for the MG I am going to have to stump the cost as I intent to keep it for several more years
Ironically, and not surprisingly due to age, our only rust free car is a FIAT!!!
Anyone else have the same luck? Did get me wondering though that someone must scrap cars to rust - either due to poor manufacturing or bad accident repair by tight insurance companies or owners going down the cheap route to protect no claims?
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We as a family have scrapped got rid of a lot of cars due to rust.
My dads Lada we scrapped in 1998 as it was 11 years old, the body was just too far gone and it needed a new engine.
My dads Escort we sold for spares because the chasis had rotted but it was wet stored in a damp garage for 9 months and that is what caused it.
I sold my Fiesta on for several reasons but mainly due to rust, it was repairable but I didn't see the point.
I've never seen a FIAT with even a spec of rust on it in recent years. FIAT don't just gavalinise they galvanise well.
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Only car ive got rid of to rust was a 1988 Citroen CX estate. Lovely car, although mine was a bit ropey. Engine and gearbox were sweet but the chassis just past the rear suspension on one side, a big box sectiion, had only half of it left and it needed welding far more complex than anyone I could find would take on.
Glad to say I owned one though - sold it to a CX specialist for what I paid for it.
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My dad scrapped his Vauxhall Nova saloon with the little ohv Opel engine in last year.
It was a c reg 1985 and he bought it in 87 for 3K so I don't think we can complain.
The all time fastest rusting car he say's he ever had was an Austin A40 and boy did they rust fast.
That put him off ever having light coloured cars again as he always says they show the rust the most.
My two daughters have a Fiat Grand Punto and I have to say so far its the best painted car we have or have ever had and I never thought I would ever say that about a Fiat !
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My Sierra and mk2 Cavalier were were both borderline for MOT purposes at 10 yrs old - sills and front crossmember on the Sierra, and rear suspension turrets and arches on the Cav.
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The previous two cars I owned were scrapped due to rust about four years ago.
I drove them to the scrap yard myself and sorted the paperwork so they stayed there donating parts.
Sierra had the cills done but I was not happy with it so zapped.
Old FIAT UNO. Second time it failed the MoT due to the need for a patch on the front suspension.
My 98 Mondeo is starting to rust on a rear wheel arch and also at the back end of a cill but I will probably get it looked at.
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1989. It was our 1979 Datsun 140y....(got £25 quid for it at the scrappies and was traumatised for weeks afterwards)
Blue with a black vinyl roof in the saloon shape not the hatch, 2 doors, automatic and just before they facelifted them and called them 'Sunny's'.........superb 1400cc engine.
I loved that car and still scan Ebay regularly, looking for any remaining examples.
needless to say.....!
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Scrapped a SWB Suzi V a couple of years ago. Hours and hours with the torch lit wouldn't get it through a ticket. Even a heavy steel spacer tube between the rear chassis rails between the boot floor and the tank had corroded right through. All the brake pipes rotten. Seaside car though !
Ted
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Would scrap it now but didn't then; my first car was a Vauxhall Chevette ES (the seat backs didn't recline) that had rotted and i realised much later blew its head gasket.
Advertised it for £195, 6 months tax and test, stereo and sunroof. Went within two days (in 1994) despite having half the Mendips up the sides and fist sized holes in the front wings.
Cars don't rust like they used to; remember those Sierra's on C / D plates with half the doors missing?
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Lancia Beta when it was only 7 years old - it scrapped itself! Every day you would spot the holes getting bigger and bigger.........
Great engine though!
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Never scrapped a car due to rust, though sold a couple when the rust problem exceeded my ability to fix it. Back in the 80s repairing rust was part of normal car maintenance, one of the many things that's changed for the better with modern cars.
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remember those Sierra's on C / D plates with half the doors missing?
I remember as an 18 year old one sunny Summer afternoon on my parents drive, sanding the door bottoms of my Y plater back to metal, treating the rust, filling, masking, and respraying everything below the door rubbing strip gunmetal grey.
I also took the opportunity to put a red adhesive stripe on the rather dull and pitted chrome part of the rubbing strip, just as Ford themselves did on the contemporary LX models.
After an entire afternoon with a spray can, a roll of red go faster stripe and a craft knife, the outcome was remarkably good (if you didn't examine the paint job with an eye glass anyway). Sadly, it took less than 6 months for the rust to start bubbling through again.
It wouldn't even occur to me to attempt something like that now. I know the "daring" of youth can have tragic outcomes when mixed with cars, but equally it had some positives as well. I'd have a go at anything then.
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I took my Triumph 2000 off the road last year because after 44 years it failed the MOT on pretty extensive rust. I haven't scrapped it yet, and will probably buy another and keep it for spares.
I have scrapped 3 cars in the past having deliberately bought rusty wrecks for spares.
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Never scrapped a car through rust. Waxoiled the bad bits as sooon as I bought them..Kept a Mini estate on original sills for 12 years like that..
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My Mk1 Astra, I didn?t technically scrap it, but I got £100 trade in for it, despite the left hand side wing so bubbly, and the bloke said he would probs just scrap it. to get it through a MOT we had to pop-rivet the bottom of the wing, near the sill because it was so rotten, as it was easier and cheaper than getting a new wing for it, - as I was only at college at the time. ? however the whole wing was so bubbly you could never wash it ? everything else on the body was fine.
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Scrapped a Fiat for rust-not in the chassis-it was galvanized but the doors weren't.
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1987 Transit, about 5 years ago. Failed on major structural rust.
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The last car I scrapped for rust was an A30 around 1968.
Followed very (far too) shortly by a minivan.
Edited by martint123 on 04/03/2009 at 15:51
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After an entire afternoon with a spray can a roll of red go faster stripe and a craft knife the outcome was remarkably good >>
Me too, DP. Me too!
I've never scrapped a car due to rust - just bodged it up enough to flog, er I mean sell it to the next discerning owner. To scrap is to admit defeat!
Edited by boxsterboy on 04/03/2009 at 17:08
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1968 Morris 1100 estate (or did they call it a Traveller ?), my 1st car, scrapped in 1980 as there was nothing left sound enough underneath to weld new metal too !
Somebody bought it to banger race, i cant imagine that it lasted more than 5 seconds !
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Wifey's Kia Pride about 15 months ago; estimate of £350's worth of work for MOT against a car that would struggle to fetch that money new on the forecourt left us with no option. I'd agree with previous posters about Puntos, she replaced the Kia with one and loves it.
Worst rotbox I ever owned was a Renault 16, closely followed by a Rover 216, the Honda-shaped one.
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1988 - Renault 18 TS (built in 1979)
Terminal rot in inner wings.
It was very reliable and the 1647cc engine went well.
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Thinking about it, old Renaults (with the exception of some much-loved old 4's in hippy communes) don't seem to last very long. I worked for a main dealer in Nottingham and we probably sold more body panels than big end sets.
It is quite a few years since I've seen an 18 on the road, and as you say they were not a bad car at all; nor was the 12. The hideous 14 was another matter, incredibly ugly and didn't sell at all well.
I do see the odd Renault 5 about; strangely there seem to be more 9's than anything else surviving, which is odd because they were very tinny when new.
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Took my dads car to my grandmas todayh to get it up on the ramp and give the chasis a good blast with a hose pipe to remove any rust. It is a Fiesta built in March 1996 but registered in Dec 1997 but there is hardly any rust on it. A wheel arch is bubbeling and this will need attention in the next couple of years but the rest of is solid, the chasis is in very good condition and the inner arches now look like new thanks to the jet blast.
One of the sills has a tiny bit of rust on it but its still very solid and no where near bad enough to faill the MOT. It is not galvanised, its has almost 80k on the clock and has been subjected to the Manchester rain all its life, yets it is still a very solid car. It is odd how some cars seem t last a lot longer than others. My Fiesta was the same age yet was completly rotten.
My fiest Fiesta also very solid too and I now regret after wasting so much money on my second car not getting a new engine for it although it would have need new gearbox bearings too so really it needed a new gearbox and engine.
I also saw a completly rust free R reg Ka the other day, yet my friends W reg was a completly rotten shell this time last year. Its odd how some cars rust a lot quicker than others despite being identical. A tip seems to be never by a coastal car!
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The hideous 14 was another matter incredibly ugly and didn't sell at all well.
I quite like the 14. I passed a very battered one on a French motorway just a couple of weeks ago - the first I had seen for ages.
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Only ever scrapped a car once due to rust - my first. A 1973 Mini. Total basket case which had been bodged up with filler etc. Scrapped in 1987.
That car taught me so much about checking future purchases VERY carefully. Never really bought a bad car since.
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Never scrapped a car due to rust, always sold them on as spares or repair. Worst car for rusting was my first, a 73 Audi 80LS. Remarkable for its negative offset steering geometry and not much else. It was quick, though, probably due to the through-flow ventilated bodywork. Best car for resisting the dreaded tin worm was a Volvo 740
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My '95 945 is showing no signs of rust whatsoever. Should get a few years out of it yet.
Certain electrical parts seem to be failing though - I daren't open the sunroof (It will open but is reluctant to close)
I have never scrapped a car for rust - they just seem to get to the point where a repair is uneconomical and it is time to get rid.
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Mk 1 Fiesta, it was an S reg one. Had it for 3 months in 1993. rust, rust and more rust. Both rear arches were filler & newspaper, holes as big as my fist on either side of the boot floor (don't put anything smaller than my fist in the boot....) , no metal on the inner wing for the bonnet catch to have been welded to (should anyone have been inclined) etc etc.
I can't believe it got an MoT 6 months prior to me buying it. I never had to tax it so I don't know whether I'd have got arrested in the Post Office should I have attempted to....
Still it was 15-ish years old. But should have been scrapped before then.
cheers
Stu
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Scrapped a 94 ZX TD last summer, after it failed on rust in inner wings and under the floor. The floor one looked like a tricky repair - and it needed a full brake and front suspension rebuild. Bit sad to see it go though....
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1981 or 1982 not sure exactly, we sold my company Lancia Beta HPE for little more than scrap. It was just over five years old with 120,000 miles on it - 90,000 by me in the last two years. Every panel even the roof had rust. As grumpyscott says "great engine" but everything else rotted, broke or fell off at least once!
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