Can this be repaired?

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Anonymous

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Hello everyone. I've had a leak in the drivers footwell which hasn't been too bad until lately. I thought it was only a problem with the door not sealing against the seal properly. Unfortunately as I've just discovered that wasn't the case :(

I recently accquired a leather interior for my car and set about stripping out all the old stuff including the old carpets which were getting quite rotten. It was at this point I discovered a pool of water in one of the sections under the rear seats. It soon became evident that water was getting into the car through one of the chassis 'box sections'. I then found a hole in the drivers footwell on the inner sill which is weldable, but still couldn't understand how the rain was getting in there? After driving to work in heavy rain this morning I also discovered water leaking in through the lapped joints on the inner sill. I left work early as I was pulling my hair out trying to find where the water was getting into the chassis (luckily the boss is away this week :D ). Anyway, when I got home and had a thorough poke around I discovered this!:

rot.jpg


Could someone please advise and tell me if this is repairable?? I dread the thought of the car being scrapped after it's been with our family for 33 years :(
Thanks, Will.
 
yea that can be 1 of my last p6 had that just cleaned all the metal out and weld on a new patch job done i have seen worst then that
 
It's repairable, it's not particularly good access, and there may be a lot of stripping out on the inside for fire prevention, but with the bonnet off, and maybe even the wing so the dog can see the rabbit then why not?
 
I was just worried it was too near to the suspension mounting to be repaired. It's right next to the 'cupped' bit that holds the spring. The rot doesn't seem to extend into the cup though.
 
Also. At this moment in time this seems like the obvious culprit for the water getting in, but does this section/area 'join up' with the rest of the chassis box sections and sills etc? Or might I need to be looking elsewhere for the other leakage at the rear?

Thanks, Will.
 
yea that what i did took the bonnet off took the wing off and got some 1 inside to check for flames i would have thought you should be ok as long there is a plate on there which is solid you will be fine
 
mine leaks water round the rubber gromet round the foot pedal drop down the heater box down on the rod then into the car
 
Thanks. I'm starting to feel a bit better about it now. My heart sank when I discovered the rot this afternoon.
 
yea i would have thought the same as you know these car are well built and are so strong so that little hole wont do much to it
 
Hi will good luck with that i hope its going to be ok, i will watch with interest and hope you get round it, i was lucky rosie decided that was the only place she did nt want to rust lol, but i did find the starts of her rusting there and got it early.
have you looked under the windscreen panel yet .
good luck
marcus
 
marcus said:
Hi will good luck with that i hope its going to be ok, i will watch with interest and hope you get round it, i was lucky rosie decided that was the only place she did nt want to rust lol, but i did find the starts of her rusting there and got it early.
have you looked under the windscreen panel yet .
good luck
marcus
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Marcus, we had the windscreen off when we replaced the roof and it seemed very solid under there. I've a feeling this is going to be a bigger job than I first thought, but *fingers crossed* hopefully I've caught it early enough. If I hadn't found an interior for it and started stripping everything out, this could have gone unnoticed for quite some time! :shock:
 
Well, I bought some mild steel sheet yesterday. Unfortunately, it has barely stopped raining for more than half an hour during the past two days! :roll:
I think I'm gonna need a bilge pump to get the water out that's seeped into the car!! :LOL:
 
willmills71 said:
Also. At this moment in time this seems like the obvious culprit for the water getting in, but does this section/area 'join up' with the rest of the chassis box sections and sills etc? Or might I need to be looking elsewhere for the other leakage at the rear?

Thanks, Will.
Click to expand...

Yes, it does join up with the sills - From that area, water can go down the A pillars and into the sills from there. Also, check the box section of bulkhead above the footwell, mine showed signs of water causing problems there too.

I had a similar problem - water getting in at the base of the windscreen on the A pillar drain channel. Had to fabricate replacement sections from sheet steel to repair the area. I think mine looked in better condition than yours at first look, but when bare metalled a large amount had to be cut away.
 
Tofufi said:
I had a similar problem - water getting in at the base of the windscreen on the A pillar drain channel. Had to fabricate replacement sections from sheet steel to repair the area. I think mine looked in better condition than yours at first look, but when bare metalled a large amount had to be cut away.
Click to expand...

Well, things are getting progressively worse! I went and stripped the glove boxes out to have a look at the box section you mentioned and found this:
rot2.jpg

Followed by this:
rot3.jpg

Then some more in the area I first found the dreaded rot:
rot4.jpg

:( :( :(
 
I want to tackle this quickly but taking my car off the road is not an option. I live in a block of flats so don't have a garage. The only garage I have access to with electricity is my Dads and the car won't fit in it. So I need to keep the car usable i.e not stripping everything out, so I can drive it to work and repair it there. Can anyone else advise?, Is it worth it or should I just say goodbye to the car?

Thanks, Will.
 
it is worth it will as the car has been in the family for many years i have seen a lot worse then that and are back on the road i dont know what to say bout getting it garage to get fix have you got any friends with a garage that can put the old girl in to have her sorted
 
No Gareth, none of my mates have a garage I could use. I've got a weeks holiday from work so could get stuck in, but like I said I need to keep it roadworthy/driveable. I've got all the tools I need to do the work but would need to be driving to and from our workshop to do it. If I could move things around just enough so I can weld without burning anything I could probably do it? All of the interior/door cards etc have already been stripped out of the car. At the moment I'm driving around with only the drivers seat and centre console in place..and it's very noisy in there! :LOL:
 
yea i know what you mean if the weather is nice can you get the front end of the p6 in yr dads garage or do it on his drive all you can do is a bit by bit just to keep her on the road i cant really think of any other way
 
willmills71 said:
Well, things are getting progressively worse! I went and stripped the glove boxes out to have a look at the box section you mentioned and found this:

:( :( :(
Click to expand...

:( Sorry to see that.

You'll almost certainly need to remove the bonnet and wing to do the repair to the outer section. I was able to remove the bonnet, door & wing, do the welding required to stop the water getting in, and refit the outer panels within a day.

Just get the source of the water ingress sorted - weld up the bit at the top and leave the glovebox/inner area for now unless those holes allow water in from outside. Stopping the water getting in will slow the deterioration of the rest until you can do something about it. And leaving the holes on the inner bulkhead area will allow you to keep an eye and ensure no further water gets in - provide better access to rustproof the cavity and repairs, too.
 
Thanks. I might try that first. All the interior for except drivers seat has been stripped from the car. I'll leave it out until I have made it as water tight as I can. I had been planning to order a new carpet set but it looks like that will be on hold for a while :LOL: . Another thing, is it possible for water to leak through the bonnet hinge mounting plates and bolt holes? Should these be sealed?
 
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