Mat's BX Blog

[Vanny]

That is so easy to imagine you doing, while Lana wonders where the hell you've gone!

[mat_fenwick]

I did that in the back of the Discovery once, also (funnily enough) to check for a leak. There's an internal handle for the sideways kid's seats in the boot, so there was no problem with closing the rear door to stop the rain coming in that way. However, I had not realised that a previous owner had put the child lock on, and the bolted in mesh dog guard prevented me from climbing over the back seats to get out that way. To make matters worse, it was past midnight, and Lana had long since gone to bed. I didn't think a phone call to her asking her to come out in the rain would be well received!

In the end I managed to remove the dog guard with just the pliers on my Swiss Army knife, but it felt like forever to get the bolts undone.

[Vanny]

And that's pretty much how i saw the story ending!

[mat_fenwick]

Am I that predictable?

This weekend saw me making some progress with the nearside rear wheel arch - I'd been putting Deox gel on it through the week and removed any traces of rust that I could see.




(The fan heater is to dry out any water from when I washed the gel off).

This included hacking out the sealant from the seam at the rear of the C pillar to outer skin, near where the patch is welded in. I've painted all the external surfaces with cold galvanising paint, and then hammered the spot welded seam closed again. Once that was dry I sealed with Sikaflex, and also used it to bond the inner to outer wheel arch seam.

First coat on...




I've actually put some top coats on, but I'm not very happy with the finish, plus I've run out of paint. It'll do for now though, and I can re-coat when the weather warms up. Before I put the wheel back on I'll strip and lubricate the brakes, and crack off the disc adjusting screw.

[mat_fenwick]

This weekend saw me fixing the storm damage to the caravan/log store of a few weeks ago, where the front window was shattered by the force of the wind. It was a large window, but even so I'd have expected it to be designed to cope with 60 mph wind forces whilst towing. Perhaps it got brittle with age? Anyway, a piece of corrugated plastic should keep the water off the logs, although not looking very pleasing.

Still being plagued with leaks - the Focus has a leak into the front footwell after I fixed the one in the rear. The Discovery has developed another, which turned out to be down to someone only using one nut to hold a rear light cluster on. I'd previously sealed it with silicone, thinking the leak was a design flaw rather than something wrong. But the extra vibration from only one fixing had broken the seal.

Back to the BX, I'm cleaning all the crud out of the wheel arch to give it a coat of wax. I also stripped and copper greased the rear brakes on that side. Tried to crack off the disc retaining stub, but can't find the 5.5 mm socket I need

[RxBX]

..................................
Still being plagued with leaks - the Focus has a leak into the front footwell after I fixed the one in the rear. The Discovery has developed another, which turned out to be down to someone only using one nut to hold a rear light cluster on. I'd previously sealed it with silicone, thinking the leak was a design flaw rather than something wrong. But the extra vibration from only one fixing had broken the seal.

Back to the BX, I'm cleaning all the crud out of the wheel arch to give it a coat of wax. I also stripped and copper greased the rear brakes on that side. Tried to crack off the disc retaining stub, but can't find the 5.5 mm socket I need

Mat, if its on the passenger side foot-well ?

It will be from the poorly fitted scuttle/trim and the shallow guttering around the 'Pollen filter' which then allows the water to cascade in like a water fall (Common problem on the MK1 Focus) !

The Pollen filter location is just below the black plastic scuttle/trim (between the the bonnet/windscreen on the passengers side), I modified the guttering with some push on 'U' shaped door-seal which had the single type of lip seal feature to affectively extend the guttering depth around the pollen filter aperture (I did this mod approx, 5 years ago to my Zetec/Focus when it belonged to my daughter) has never been a problem since

PM me if you need more info ?



Edit:- Just checked on E-bay, you can buy new SEAL-KITS if yours is fubered ?
.

[mat_fenwick]

Thanks Richard, but it's the driver's footwell. When I changed the pollen filter just after purchase, the cover wasn't in the best of *conditions. But as luck would have it, shortly after that the windscreen cracked and the guy from Autoglass said they always fit a new cover (a later revised design) to prevent any comeback about leaks.

*Neither was the filter, despite just being serviced



The leak I've got is coming down the inside surface of the A pillar, and trickling down by the throttle pedal. Nothing obvious that could be causing it

[RxBX]

..........................

The leak I've got is coming down the inside surface of the A pillar, and trickling down by the throttle pedal. Nothing obvious that could be causing it

Ah !
Thanks Mat for clarifying which side it is, I'll go and have a quick look on mine whilst its still light and if I find anything obvious , I'll get back to you

.

[mat_fenwick]

Quick BX update now - whilst cleaning the inside of the wheel arch (or more correctly transferring all the dirt from the wheel arch to me) I noticed a couple of holes where it appeared something had been screwed to before I bought the car. The water had penetrated under the coating and significantly thinned the steel, as once I took the rotary wire brush to it the holes soon enlarged. So I cut them out with a hole saw...





...so at least I have good metal to weld to. I can do that from the inside, far easier than trying to do it upside down! You can see the staining where water has been getting in, so that may explain a slightly damp boot.

The outer wing support has also seen better days, so I've bent a piece of galvanised bar to replace it. I may Sikaflex that into place rather than weld it, as it's quite a bit thicker than what I'd have to weld it to. But first, bed!

[Wooscary]

Is that a little torch wired in there?

[mat_fenwick]

What would make you think that? It's actually one of these, which I got as a present a few years back. It's plugged into the lighter socket I fitted there so permanently charged up. I also replaced the standard boot lamp with the one which goes above the parcel shelf, so I can turn it off if working out of the back of the car, then wired an LED into the lighter socket illumination to come on when the boot is open. Hence the mess of wires!

[Vanny]

Are you going to use the same hole saw to make the filling pieces?

I bet with a little thought thats the sort of repair you could make complete seam less?


PS what are you like at welding aluminium? Of the gearbox variety?

[mat_fenwick]

Never welded aluminium, but I'll give anything a go!

I've got a fairly close set of hole saws, so I used the next set up to cut the fill in pieces (without the centre drill). Happily the ID of the next size up is almost an exact match for the OD of the one I used on the bodywork, so there's very little gap to fill with the welder.

No car stuff today though - been for a nice (dry) walk in the hills, and now sat in front of the fire with a bottle or two of red...

[Vanny]

I assume thats one each since you rarely make it past the first bottle

[mat_fenwick]

Me? I never drink more than a bottle!

Now she's gone to bed I couldn't resist nipping out to the garage to take a quick photo.



I'm pleased with how well they fit - it's surprising how much metal is removed with just the thickness of the hole saw - so using the same size would have left me with a big gap to weld. The one on the left isn't quite sitting right due to a burr, which I'll remove once I clean up around the holes.