front wings - rust, more rust and blocked drain holes....

[tim]

Finally got round to removing the wings off the Red One. Having seen the inner wings of the scrappy I was keen to get into mine before the bodywork was beyond repair.....
The rh one had a large hole in the door pillar just under where the door sits thus making it fairly invisible; the wing itself had a lot of rust damage under the VIN plate and round the edges where the plastic splash guard clips. The initial plan was to weld it up, but the metal was pretty darn thin, and after the torch blew through the metal at the rearmost end of the arch, something caught a spark and a lot of yellow thick smoke started curling under the windscreen and into the car.... quick blast from a C02 extinguisher stopped THAT in its tracks. WTF? There is a triangular section with a big bung plug glued into it, and presumably this has some kind of sound deadening stuff inside. I'll look at the scrappy this weekend.
After that we went the fibreglass route, along with loads of kurust and hammerite. The strut mounts were both OK so we're not talking structural repairs.
The lh wing was a lot worse - by the time the rotary brush had done its job it was more daylight than metal.... more fibreglass, lots more. Took the best part of a day layering it properly, filling etc.
While brushing the steelwork just below the door pillar I noticed a little bit of water seeping from a plastic bung. Hmm... I reached for the screwdriver and popped it off. Oops... about two pints of water torrented over the carefully placed extension lead sockets and the rotary brush. WTF part 2....
I remember reading something about plastic bungs wot should have been removed being left in place. Is this one? The scrappy had several still in place. And yet, oddly, the other side didn't have a bung plug in it... but that was the one with the worst rust damage.
Anyway, both inner wings have been thoroughly cleaned, rustkilled, filled and painted so from now on the wings will come off every few months for a check. Moral - don't leave yours!

[Mothman]

Oh dear, my turn next then Tim.
And lots of waxoil.

Andy

[mat_fenwick]

Do you mean the box section that continues in line with the screen pillar? I found that they collect water unless you remove the bung in the bottom.

[citsncycles]

Those bits seem fine on mine, it was the area below the washer bottles immediately behind the strut mounts that had gone. There's a large round hole each side here - should it have a drain pipe in as I can see road spray getting there to rot it out again.

[mat_fenwick]

Never seen anything in the drain holes by the washer bottles. In heavy rain and when washing the car a lot of water drains into this area so I don't think there should be any restriction, and I've never noticed road dirt build up there. Maybe it all gets washed away?

[citsncycles]

Certainly hasn't washed away in mine - it was full of crud!