primrose's mot failure

[cadetchris]

well i took primrose for her annual mot check and she failed with flying colours, i kind of expected her to fail on the brakes, but i was hoping the tester would be kind, but alas not.
the list of failures as was follows:
offside rear (chassis rail) suspension mounting corroded (i didnt notice that)
offside rear (rear valance) suspension spring mounting area corroded
nearside rear (front spring mounting) corroded
nearside rear (chassis rail) suspension mounting corroded (you can now see through it)
front brakes imbalanced (that i did know, but was hoping it wouldnt be noticed to much)

advisory notice;
front offside bearing has some slight play (easily fixed, i have a spare)
nearside front inner wheel arch holed (ill fix that tomorrow)

and finally my favourite
"underside of vehicle is covered in a thick coating of underseal stopping me from being able to inspect" (well it has 40 years of it, so it will be abit thick in places)

so all in all, a reasonable failure. much more than i anticipated and the bloke even said he thought the car was over heating and the front fan was pants.
so, things to fix,
-thermostat out
-swop bearing
-replace leaky break cylinder
-balance brake
-rubbish HIF38 carb off and reinstate lovely 1 1/4 su
-get underside welded up (already booked in for next wednesday afternoon)
and finally weld up the little hole i have in the front inner wheel arch (where ever that is)

so, can their be a thing called "to much" underseal?

[deano69]

Are you expected to remove underseal ready for next MOT then?

[MarkyB]

it has 40 years of it

Has it had a coat of underseal every year then?

[cadetchris]

well the bloke didnt say anything, but its not happening, he has a hammer to tap and found out if its rusty, why should i remove a protective coating because the man (who was younger than me, which takes so doing) dosent know what a morris minor is.

on a flip side of it, i think its good once in a while to take the car for a battering by the mot bloke, if i took it to someone who "knew" the car from before, then i dont think he would of been a thorough. still personal opinions and all that

[MarkyB]

The "protective" effects of underseal are much less than the disguising effects.
Once rust has started underneath it extra coats don't protect, the just disguise.

MOT testers are well aware of this.

[cadetchris]

humm, well it might beg the question, how does one remove such copious amounts of underseal?
heat? steam? petrol? scrape?

[chickenjohn]

humm, well it might beg the question, how does one remove such copious amounts of underseal?
heat? steam? petrol? scrape?

Heat gun (hot air) to soften, then a scraper. Can do a wheelarch in 20 mins if you work hard. Then remove the remainder with parafin and finally thinners/ panel wipe and the area will be clean enough to paint with a decent paint!!!

I don't see why the MOT tester should complain about underseal as Minors were painted in the horrible stuff from new!

[cadetchris]

i know, its abit trivial in my book.
anyway, i have some photos of the affected areas

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m259 ... 0_0400.jpg
chassis leg, from the outside

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m259 ... 0_0401.jpg

chassis leg looking from the inside

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m259 ... 0_0404.jpg
hole in rear valance on the drivers side

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m259 ... 0_0407.jpg
passenger side, forward of front spring hanger

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m259 ... 0_0406.jpg
passenger side wheel arch

so, the question is, can i get away with patching the wheel arch, hole near passenger side forward spring hanger and possibly possibly the rear valance?

could the hole at the rear of the drivers side spring hanger be tided up and rebuilt or should i go down the path of a new leg for it? the mount its self is ok, the bit in front of it is a bit naff to say the least.

[chickenjohn]

That underseal looks suspiciously fresh. If I was inspecting that car on behalf of friend looking to buy I would advise looking at another car as the underseal looks like it was applied to hide something!! And we can now see what the previous owner was trying to hide! and why the MOT inspector made the comment he did as the underseal is black and fresh.

From the pics of the spring hanger, with that amount of rust, the whole rear hanger needs replacing and the corresponding part of the inner wing. It is an important structural area so patching is not suitable here with that amount of rust damage. The front hanger too, and any other rust found when these areas are exposed.

[cadetchris]

oh dear, well thankfully the repair panels are reasonably cheap, so ill have order them once i have had a chat with my welder friend, who is thankfully a welding god, if/when agrees with the current prognosis ill order the bits, present them to him and sit back and wait for the inevitable huge bill

[chickenjohn]

At least the car will be much more solid in those areas afterwards! I can actually feel the difference in how a car drives before and after repairs to those areas. Afterwards the car "feels more solid" to drive, perhaps unsurprisingly!

I think the best thing you can do is remove all that black underseal from the whole of the underside of the car. Only then will you have an idea of where the rust areas are.

ALso, a classic one- have you removed the sill covers and had a look inside??

[bmcecosse]

Unfortunately you have a LOT of major welding to do there - it can't be patched up. Is the underseal comment in the 'advisory' section - or is it in the 'fail' section?? If I had to remove the underseal from my Trav's crossmember - it will collapse........

[cadetchris]

well thankfully its going to be welded tomorrow by the local garage. the underseal comment was thankfully in the advisory section.

[bmcecosse]

Best hope it doesn't all catch fire during the welding! Is it the same garage as failed it on MOT - that are now doing the welding ??

[cadetchris]

thankfully not, i have taken it to my local garage who does lots of work for my family. so, fingers crossed

[mmjosh]

they cant tell you to remove underseal as itprotects the car all they can do is if they find a hole/rust then they can tell you to get it patched or replce the panel

[MarkyB]

Hiding problems doesn't make them go away, and doesn't do you any favours.
No matter how thick the underseal is, it doesn't make the car stronger.

[bmcecosse]

Seems to work well on my Trav's crossmember!

[jaguar68]

And I thought the bottom of the Splitscreen was bad!!!