Here is the background story of my second and current Puma. I got my Puma a year ago, registered in 1999 and now has 170000 km or 100000 miles on it, it had some rust in the sills and rear wheel arches, no big deal as it was expected and easy to fix. Now after a year with desperately needed TLC and costly repairs all around, I was finally going to get rid of that rust.
From the outside it generally looks very nice, no dents or anything, just the rust in the rear wheel arches that is visible. The inside or below is a different story. By the plates it has been living in Bergen, Norway for quite a while, the wettest most rainy city in the world or something. The left side is worse than the right, I guess that there is more splashing of water and salt in the winter as we drive on the right side (as in not left ) of the road.
Anyway, it passed the MOT a while ago, with the exception of structural rust damage at the rear end of the left sill, it was an easy fix. But after my recent findings I am getting a bit concerned about the structural integrity. I will now try to add some pictures (my second post in this forum, not sure how it works)...
First I fixed the rust in right rear wheel arch:
I might as well get rid of some surface rust with the rear bumper removed, poking with a screwdriver:
Okay, so what is on the inside? Poking around some more, I removed all of the weld points around something more structural (seen from inside the rear wheel arch and towards the rear, now with the bumper on):
With a pile of rust on the floor, there isn't much keeping the panels togheter:
Same location, from below:
This is a fix I did some months ago to pass the MOT. Rear end of the left sill, everything that is cut away is to get to fresh steel (a lot):
Based on the difference between the sills, I believe the inside of the left rear wheel arch is twice as bad as on the right side, I don't even want to look.
Is this too much rust? Dangerously much?
From the outside it generally looks very nice, no dents or anything, just the rust in the rear wheel arches that is visible. The inside or below is a different story. By the plates it has been living in Bergen, Norway for quite a while, the wettest most rainy city in the world or something. The left side is worse than the right, I guess that there is more splashing of water and salt in the winter as we drive on the right side (as in not left ) of the road.
Anyway, it passed the MOT a while ago, with the exception of structural rust damage at the rear end of the left sill, it was an easy fix. But after my recent findings I am getting a bit concerned about the structural integrity. I will now try to add some pictures (my second post in this forum, not sure how it works)...
First I fixed the rust in right rear wheel arch:
I might as well get rid of some surface rust with the rear bumper removed, poking with a screwdriver:
Okay, so what is on the inside? Poking around some more, I removed all of the weld points around something more structural (seen from inside the rear wheel arch and towards the rear, now with the bumper on):
With a pile of rust on the floor, there isn't much keeping the panels togheter:
Same location, from below:
This is a fix I did some months ago to pass the MOT. Rear end of the left sill, everything that is cut away is to get to fresh steel (a lot):
Based on the difference between the sills, I believe the inside of the left rear wheel arch is twice as bad as on the right side, I don't even want to look.
Is this too much rust? Dangerously much?