Member Since: 01 Aug 2015
Location: Lincolnshire
Posts: 147
Inspecting rear arches and sills for rust - '05 TDV6
I've just done a job on my early '05 car, to take rear wheel well covers off and inspect for rust - repairing whatever is found.
Having done both sides of the car, the pictures are for the offside, which was the worst of the two. Here's what I found:
looking in to wheel well, this is toward the front of the well:
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The rear of the well, so looking toward the back of the car:
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Another view of the same:
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I would recommend others take the time to remove their wheel well covers and inspect/repair - i caught mine, and was able to fix without issue. used a wire wheel to remove all surface rust, then kurusted all bare metal, followed by zinc primer, then satin black:
The front of the wheel well, afer this pic, I also went up the arch and scrubbed (this time with a hand brush) to get all the loose rust out before treatment (couldn't get the wheel in safely):
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Towards the rear:
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Used a bungee to keep the filler pipes away from the wheel. Another view of the rear:
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After the coats of primer and satin black:
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In 2017, not too long after I purchased the car, I took the sill covers off to inpsect the sills for corrision. I tihnk prior to my ownership, my car was used to two horses boxes in Scotland, so there was a tonne of mud and horse pooh under the covers. Having scrubbed and coated the sills in por15 (rather than using a wire wheel and kurusting them) I wanted to go back and inspect them again. Was pleased to see the sills are still looking very good:
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Camera flash makes the surface look worse than it actually is - its down to a combination of POR-15 and stone chip + primer, rather than rattle can spray, making the finished surface look uneven (doesn't matter too much as it's under the sill cover):
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I decided to scrub the rear end of each sill back to metal then kurust/zinc prime/ satin black instead:
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Nothing to write home about - metal is all solid - but is showing it's previous years of having been soaked in mud and horse excrament.
The refinished article with a final couple of Java black and laquer coats:
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With the paint dry enough, I went up and down both sills with Bilt Hamber Dynax from a BIG can with a wand - which makes application quite simple with the number of service covers that are on the sill section:
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I'll give it all a good rub down and polish soon. Sad thing is I now very much want an RRS s/c; does anyone want to p/x there's for my Disco plus some cash?!
8th Mar 2019 11:47 pm
Biffysun
Member Since: 09 Jul 2011
Location: Central
Posts: 1787
Good post, nice work
8th Mar 2019 11:54 pm
trailhound
Member Since: 27 Aug 2015
Location: Colchester
Posts: 697
Promised to do this in the summer. Great pics
9th Mar 2019 12:49 pm
Disco_Mikey
Member Since: 29 May 2007
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Posts: 20727
Mine was beginning to go in exactly the same places. Caught it just in time. Another 12 months, and it would have been a different story...
Member Since: 01 Aug 2015
Location: Lincolnshire
Posts: 147
Blimey!
If you ever get a cheap RRS supercharged through the door, let me know - I have an itch to scratch and a 2.7 TDV6 disco 3 to change out.
11th Mar 2019 11:04 am
Hillfoot
Member Since: 02 Mar 2019
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 9
Fantastic post and is something I will be doing in the better weather. My garage is a bit cold at this time of the year!!
11th Mar 2019 11:56 am
Captain Crosscheck
Member Since: 03 Sep 2021
Location: Oslo
Posts: 310
Nice post!
Just bought my Disco two months ago. I knew that it had some corrosion at those spots, but when the paint shop removed the plastic trim things were not looking good...
Had to buy new sills from Brit Parts, and the shop had to make new bits for the wheel wells
Hopefully I'll get the car back by Wednesday after what seems like an age. Not looking forward to receiving the bill
11th Sep 2021 7:32 pm
oldskoolskater
Member Since: 31 Mar 2016
Location: Gateshead
Posts: 234
What did the bill come to in the end?
23rd Dec 2021 9:57 pm
Motolab
Member Since: 18 Oct 2019
Location: Sleen
Posts: 1815
We use always a rust converter after cleaning it to bare metal, but before applying primers/paint…
Cleaning to bare metal is still not deep enough most of the time we experienced (since blasting is mostly not done on body panels still attached to a still runing motor most of the time)
I am not affiliated to this company or what so ever, bit we use this brand…
I know it is available in the UK…Best regards
Harold
Always looking for Pre '55's & Pre war British Motorcycles! knowing or having one for sale? PM please. I visit the UK 6 times a year
Ps. I edit my texts quite often, english is not my native language, so I will edit My “typo’s” etc.
24th Dec 2021 12:06 am
Captain Crosscheck
Member Since: 03 Sep 2021
Location: Oslo
Posts: 310
oldskoolskater wrote:
What did the bill come to in the end?
Bill ended up at £2500/25000 NOK. And then the VAT on top of that, so £3100 thank you very much Plus approx £200 for the sills themselves from Britpart. At my first visit to the body shop they quoted approx £1000-1200. And evidently that was without VAT, which is standard procedure for proffesional customers, but not for regular blokes like me. Suffice to say I was a bit shocked to receive the final bill
24th Dec 2021 2:31 am
Joek0
Member Since: 04 Jul 2021
Location: Tipperary
Posts: 37
Would rust in these places be picked up on the MOT ?
5th Jan 2022 11:08 pm
PROFSR G
Member Since: 06 Mar 2017
Location: Lost
Posts: 4627
For the most part no, as most of the rust in the above posts is hidden behind either the plastic sill covers, the wheel arch inner protectors, or outer trims.
If you want to know how much metal is still attached to your rust you need to remove the trims.
I had a friend in yesterday for a pre NCT check when asked the same question. I said "do you want to take a look, it wont take long to get the plastics off since the wheels are already off anyway?
When I removed all the trims and mud flaps (which fell off) he said. "I feel like I'm Dorian Grey looking at my own portrait after 100 years"
It was a pitiful sight as the rust had eaten through the tops of the rear wheel arches, with literally only the paint skin left in the area below the rear passenger door shuts! The outer sills were worse, as they disintegrated into a pile of "Dorian Grey" dust on my workshop floor.
So the moral of the story is, don't ignore what you can't see!! Get in there and examine it carefully as in the above posts. If ignored and there's a problem you could end up rendering the car to scrap when it could so easily have been saved. Unfortunately this is now the case for my friend, as the repairs and other maintenance needs far outweigh the residual value left in the car.
I would point out though this is an extreme example, and usually these issues are easily resolved without major cost provided it has not been ignored. The key is to check it and arrest any corrosion before it gets hold. yµ (idµ - eAµ) ψ=mψ
6th Jan 2022 3:41 am
Joek0
Member Since: 04 Jul 2021
Location: Tipperary
Posts: 37
Im yet to buy one im still looking for a good one and I'm yet to shift my audi. But I'm doing as much research as I can before I take the plunge.
Is there anywhere else to look out for rust.?
I see you say NCT, are you in Ireland by any chance.?
6th Jan 2022 7:43 pm
PROFSR G
Member Since: 06 Mar 2017
Location: Lost
Posts: 4627
The worst areas are very often those that are hidden as per the above. Beyond that the chassis from the wheel arch back to behind the bumper cover. And, where the drive shafts pass through the chassis can rot if not kept an eye on. Underside of the boot floor from the rear bumper to just forward of the rear wheel arch.
Try and find a city owned car D,C,L, or WD, etc as it's less likely to have been exposed to corrosive rural elements, or to have had much off road use if at all.
Though this never a guarantee of same, and with a decent diagnostic tool the total of off road hours logged can be checked!
Search on here for a thread entitled "rusty boot floor" for an example of a worst case scenario, though not the absolute worst. yµ (idµ - eAµ) ψ=mψ
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Good post, nice work 
or outer trims.
