My Hurricane is rusting

Jaba · Post by **Jaba** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 6:03 pm

I am going to have some bodywork done on my BX.
My body man is not 100% sure how best to tackle the wheel arch rust pictured here.
He talks of easing away the lower rear wing by a small amount so as not to bend it and grind out the rust behind the front edge of the wing that finishes in the door shut. Grind and cut out the rest of the rust, seal everthing With PU (?) + welding a patch on the inside of the wheel arch.
But he is worrried about welding there as the wing metal is very thin and may not resist welding on the inside. He wont give a firm price and talks of at least £100

I know some of you are welding experts. How do you repair this ?
All advice will be appreciated.
TIA

Rob_e (UK) · Post by **Rob_e (UK)** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 11:52 pm

Hi,
I think this must be a fairly common place for BXs to rust. Mine is worse than that on both sides; well was, I have had a go at repairing the worst side so far, still got the other one to go.
It was possible to ease the bottom of the wing out enough to remove the rust without bending the wing, although mine had rusted alot more than your further up, so one of the spot welds holding the wing in, the one most visible in your pictue, was only attached to rust on mine so it was only the bery bottom one than needed to be broken.
Because mine had rusted further up any repair panel would have needed to be curved in two directions so I thought it would be too dificult for me to make; so, I repaired mine with aluminium mesh and filler.
One problem is that your rust looks to be very low down, possibly joining on to the box section so he may not be able to weld something on from the back of that bit; but may still be able to do it with welding by welding on a patch form the front and grinding the weld down after wards.

Rob

Post by **docchevron** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 2:57 am

Sorry Jaba, but basically there is ONLY one way to do this properly, and thats take the 1/4 wing off. Then it's an easy repair.

Trying to arse around drilling the spot welds then peeling the inner wing back is just not an option.
Ok, it's flimsy single layer tin at the top, but it's a whole different ball game towards the lower edge..

At best you'll get a bodge that may last 3 - 5 years without taking the wing off.
Happily removing BX 1/4 wings is fairly easy, unless it's a hurricane / P2 16v.
Removing the side pod without destroying it requires the patience of a saint.

Rob_e (UK) · Post by **Rob_e (UK)** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:55 am

How do you take teh whole 1/4 wing off? Is it spot welded all the way round or only at that front edge?

Thanks,
Rob

Jaba · Post by **Jaba** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:59 pm

Doc - thanks for your council of perfection. I would like a perfect job but this IS a Hurricane and I don't want the pod wrecked.
I will be paying for the guys time so I think I will have to settle for a bend it out a bit bodge.
I am looking at the bott£m line here. He will be doing a lot of work on the LHS of the car at the same time.
I see that repair panels are available from Beevers. Would this be a solution ?

Rob, are you the Rob with a GTi that I met a few years back in the Herts/Beds area ??

Post by **docchevron** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:44 pm

Fair comment mate.
In that case, I'd suggest drilling the first three spots out (starting from the bottom), then you can slightley bend the bottom of the wing away from the closing panel.

You should then be able to hack the rot out from inside the arch and tack a new bit in.
Be warned though, towards the bottom end it's a layered section so it's a bit more of a complicated structure than it looks from above.

The reapair panel is quite large if memory serves, and it's easy enough to fabricate from sheet steel TBH, but you could get a repair panel and cut it down to suit...

Rob, the wing is spot welded al the round, except at the front top edge, where it is brazed.
That aint the end of the story though, as it's glued to the whelarch / innerwing with Citroën's rather "special" foam like bonding stuff, which acts as a superb sponge to hold water and wot not against the metal surfaces.
If you look carefully at the piccies you can see most of the spots.
To the far right of this picture is where the wing is brazed to the front edge of the C pillar.

and all the red glupe that does a rather effective job of holding the wing on, and rotting the car out!

Rob_e (UK) · Post by **Rob_e (UK)** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:19 pm

Rob, are you the Rob with a GTi that I met a few years back in the Herts/Beds area ??

Well I have got a GTi and I am in the Herts/Beds area; It depends if you have changed the user name you use. I have only met up with someone off one of these forums once and that probably was a few years back now, it was to pick up a replacement Sun roof.

I think that was arranged through the Citroenz forum.

Rob

Jaba · Post by **Jaba** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 8:57 am

Rob

In that case we have both changed our user names. And hello again !

Jaba · Post by **Jaba** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:20 am

I have spoken to my body man. He is not a fan of repair panels. They almost never fit he says and are consequently a lot of trouble.
So he is going to stick with the bend it out a bit idea.
So I am having the rear wheel rust done, all four doors repaired and sprayed. And a front wing and the bumper too.

Not cheap, but BXs cost so little to run and have zero depreciation that in the overall cost of motoring these days it is an affordable expenditure.

I just said cost so little to run and than checked back to my stats for last year.....
I covered 17020 miles and spent £828 keeping the fleet of 3 BXs maintained. That's 4.87 pence per mile, a higher figure than the previous two years (2.59 and 1.75). There were two expensive repairs which bumped the costs up - a hydraulic leak repair while in Montpellier and some aircon resuscitation too. These are pure maintenance costs and don't include tax and insurance.

If I was running two 'normal' middle aged cars then the depreciation alone would have been more than this so I think I am still quids in.

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 5:14 pm

Intresting reading on bodypanel repairs. Anyone with experience on the later type panel sheet glue ?

Last time I had my BX front inner wings repaired, it was done with some kind of glue, and only a few spots welded to hold the panels together while the glue hardened up. Very neat work, as there were no black/heated/crumbled areas from the job.
Mot mechanic did mention something like "its a fair bit easier these days repairing rusty panel sheets with glue", so appearantly its not a Mot issue as long as its not a crossmember repaired this way.

Jaba · Post by **Jaba** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:01 am

AndersDK wrote:Intresting reading on bodypanel repairs. Anyone with experience on the later type panel sheet glue ?

Glue Anders is wonderful stuff. You can get one for almost everything these days.
My body man uses what he calls I think P U to glue bits together. Keeps the water out as well.