Balls! Thought mine had dodged this one!

[Kitch]

Read alot of about the misfortunes others are having with rusty inner wings. My A-pillars have always been pretty good (started to look shabby now though) as has the rest of the car in general, though it\\\\\\\'s not perfect.
Looking to put it back on the road in the next month or so, so went outside today to go over it, make a list and prioritise the repairs on the doseur, the leaking coolant hose, the ABS light and N/F sidelights, which I managed to cheat through the last MOT!

Had a poke under the arch on high and noticed this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/ ... air003.jpg

Didn\\\\\\\'t like the look of that, so it was up on ramps!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/ ... air001.jpg

Got a screwdriver and started to get a bit tap happy with it. Ended up with this....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/ ... air009.jpg

after this....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/ ... air010.jpg

....had fallen out. A lump of lead! Some bastid has lead-filled my car! It\\\\\\\'s not a Jag mk2, why has someone pasted molten lead into it instead of welding the hole up? And this is assuming it\\\\\\\'s due to rot of course, rather than accident damage which I can find none of.
Thing is I\\\\\\\'ve owned it over 6 years, so that means it must have had this done in it\\\\\\\'s first 14 years, which for a BX seems a bit odd IMO.

The other odd mystery concerns you, Doc. Remember you said you\\\\\\\'d never seen a BX without the hole in the end of the sill box section? Well, there may be a reason:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/ ... air013.jpg

Yup, it\\\\\\\'s lead!

It\\\\\\\'s just about started to go through to the inner flitch panel near the chassis plate, although I admit I had to get a bit heavy handed to produce this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/ ... air017.jpg

I\\\\\\\'ll scrape out the seam sealer all the way along that section as I have a feeling that rot is in it\\\\\\\'s infancy along the join.

So already feeling deflated about my findings, I wasn\\\\\\\'t exactly leaping about to get to the nearside and inspect that, as the nearside is usually worse. Happily, I found this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/ ... air021.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/ ... air027.jpg

Yup, nothing! Aside from a rough patch that\\\\\\\'s been worn through by the washer bottle, and a bit on the base of the chassis leg where the tow eye is spot welding on theres nothing there to worry about. A quick rub down and re-paint will sort this, so that\\\\\\\'s a result!

I managed to dig most of the lead out of the offside, but need a fibrewheel for the drill to make a proper job of cleaning it up. Then it\\\\\\\'s Kurust time, then I\\\\\\\'ve got to make some plates and then it\\\\\\\'s time to have a crack at this welding lark. I\\\\\\\'ve just done some in my new job, but it\\\\\\\'s a much bigger, more powerful welder and apparently much easier to use than a DIY 150A one!

Oh, and the entire underside needs rubbing down and re-painting. And that\\\\\\\'s assuming I find no more lead under it :s Then I\\\\\\\'ve got all the original MOT gubbins to sort, so it doesn\\\\\\\'t look like I\\\\\\\'ll be relaxing anytime soon

[Kitch]

Looks like the pictures might not work because I have to use this poxy proxy server! I\'m not retarded, I can work the net, honest! But you get the idea...

[docchevron]

Seen worse TBH.
The inner sing near the chassis plate is actually pretty good for a '90 car.

Bit of weldy weldy there then mate!

Lead though? That is VERY odd indeed.

[JayW]

Definitely lead and not ChemiMetal???

[Kitch]

Hmm, could well be chemical metal actually. It does seem a bit hard to be lead. That\'s even more of a bodge!! Bastids!

Welder out next weekend I think! I\'ll blow some more holes in it before asking for advice on welding too!

[JayW]

/\

[Vanny]

keep cutting back Kitch, mine looked much much healthier than that, and ended up with a much bigger hole too!

Is the 'lead' actually metal? How soft does it go when you heat it? I can't help but think it might just be stone chip?

[Kitch]

Well I plugged my own welder in at work today. Good news is I can use it (and it\'s powerful enough to blow holes in 4mm steel - result!)

Bad news is that CO2 gas sucks major ass. I need Argon/CO2 mix!

I\'ll attack it with a grinder soon before going to town. Dashboard out next, then bend some tin into shape and have a pop!

[mat_fenwick]

CO2 gas sucks major ass

Strange that loads of people say this - I've always used pure CO2 and the welds look OK.
This is the last bit of welding I did on the Disco, with just CO2 so it is possible!


I'm no expert though and I may be doing it in a different way that works with a cheaper gas? I am the ONLY person I've ever come across that prefers CO2 over the CO2/argon mix. Maybe I'm just weird?

Stick to what suits you best but I would be interested to see if anyone else uses pure CO2.

[docchevron]

Never had a problem with pure Co2 either really, although I prefer Cougar 5.

[citronut]

i have always used Co2 also with no prob's, i know someone who pluged an air line into the workshop mig once, when he had a job to get finnished and had run out of argon shield,

regards malcolm

[Kitch]

Admittedly my welding knowledge is limited, but the spatter/slag etc from mine using the CO2 stuff is much worse than the argon mix one. I can get nice posh looking seams with that. Problem is the bottle\'s huge and the welder\'s one a trolley which I can\'t take home!

They\'ve got a TIG too, but I don\'t think that\'s a good idea. The plasma cutter is epic though, shame I don\'t need it!

[Kitch]

Mine definately hasn\'t dodged it....the lower A-pillar is pretty much shot through!

Not good! Dashboard\'s out, and that\'s clearly why it was bodged before....someone didn\'t want to have to remove that!

Got a steel TV stand to cut up and use as plate, so I\'ll see if I can repair it!