Club 80-90 Forums

Hi,
ive just discovered the first bits of rust to be worried about on my van! a bit dis-heartening but obviously inevitable

directly above each front wheel, if i look upwards inside the wheel arch, on a flat panel of metal that is parallel to the ground, what looks like a seam (running from van front to van rear) is coming away with some crunchy looking rust about 15cm long. its well away from any suspension or (to me) anything structural, but looks like it needs attention!

its not the footwell/step that seems to get some common rust/water collector. it cant be seen from the top side if i pull up the cab rubber floor mat at the sides, but it does look pretty grungy under there.

heres a picture (not my van) but im talking about the underside beneath the can of WD40 on this image:


i dont know anything about welding so i wont be doing it! it looks like a square welded patch of about 20cm by 10cm would cover it once it was cleaned up (on both sides). can anyone take a stab at what that kind of welding might cost to get done??? (its a flat section, and the new piece would just be a sqaure id think).

thanks!

john.

It's an MOT fail because the seat belt fixing point is on that panel........It does need a thicker guage metal to fix.
I'm sure someone will give better advise...Good luck

Don't worry tooo much... its not one of the worst areas...

First, you don't have to be a welder to make some initial inroads to slowing things down in that whole area and preparing for a local fix

Spend time reading up in the Wiki on tackling rusty areas and some approaches & treatments... before you start on it!!

Here's just one link that springs to mind, though there are a good half dozen others I could put up as well

https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Ar ... _underseal

In short, clean up the area first, thoroughly, to find the extent of the problem

Twist knot brush on 4.5" grinder, full-face mask or .... https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Ge ... eal_chisel

Even if you didnt try sorting it yourself and took it to be welded it wont be that expensive, I would just get it sortedsooner rather than later for peace of mind.

thanks for all the replies guys, much appreciated

it passed its MOT last month, so maybe they missed it or wasnt close enough to the seatbelt mount..
ill get it worked out i think

ta,
john.

slowcoach wrote:thanks for all the replies guys, much appreciated

it passed its MOT last month, so maybe they missed it or wasnt close enough to the seatbelt mount..
ill get it worked out i think

ta,
john.

if its a hole or bad rust then the MoT man missed it its defo a fail area within 30cm of a seatbelt mount!

When the wheel is next off look right up into the tight corner at the back and top of the wheel well, this is where you maybe will also spot some deep trouble 'behind' the factory underseal...

removing this a la Wiki article and getting the area treated and covered up (to shield from muck) is not a bad idea. While it's summer, getting these 'behind the underseal areas' dried out and anti-rusted and temporarily covered up, not a bad idea...

PS. MOT pass/fail is immaterial if pax seat belt pulls out in an accident

Well its part of my ongoing job , this is the passenger side

and I went to have a poke at the drivers one, seemed solid gave it a rive/ryve oh well bloody good tug and it then moved a bit so I yanked it about with a pair of vice grips and

the metal is shiny but here it is out, full story on my other thread, so give it a good tugging cos if it comes out it will if you have a bump.
mike

Mick8y, frightening really, but not unexpected. We''ll find a place for that in the Wiki...

BTW - do you know where you can buy those 7/16" UNF belt anchor nuts already welded up to a small backing plate... Someone, must do them at a reasoanble price. I need about half a dozen.

Not really, I gas axed a pair out of a nissan pick up that me mate was scrapping in the yard, just happened to be nearest the cutting gear! rest of motor on its way to mid east.
Er I can knock a batch up for pence? are they 7/16 unf? just give a size, the steel is free
mike

Thanks, about 2" x 3" plates, yes, pretty sure they're 7/16" UNF, an industry standard.

The seat belt threads have always been 7/16 UNF (20tpi) - and still are on new cars!

Phew, my memory is not as bad as I thought, just don't always trust it...

I just found pairs of anchor plates for about £5-00 each but the photo makes me really wince (see the weld on the bottom one, let alone not knowing the plate gauge)

http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-621 ... edium=feed

Just Wiki'd your photos of front seat belts, lovely sharp images once again...

but sooner or later we'll archive the whole thread in one go to here for permanence http://archive.club8090.co.uk/index.php

Ok will do you some to those sizes, what thickness plate do you want using.
and would you want a couple of holes drilling in for spotwelding.
Mike

Well, thats very good of you.. 2mm/2.5mm ish - whatver feels about right to you?

If you have a bench drill and its not a big prob... then yes.

Will PM, thanks

Harryman

Try Brickwerks for 71p

http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/index.php?p ... t&Itemid=6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Aha! Cheers cruz !! That's a good price...