OT (very) Woooooooohooooooo!!

In

as an ex owner of a few Lancia Delta Integrales, I can confirm that some of
them are *still* water soluble. Crying shame.

Bought my last one four years ago when it was 9 years old, and every time I
opened the garage door, there was slightly less Lancia, slightly more
ferrous oxide.

Weird really, none of the other ones I've known have rusted anywhere near as
badly, but this thing was turning literally seamless. Gutters, sunroof, boot
floor, chassis legs, floorpan... all in less than 9 months. Thing that
freaked my chicken was there were no signs of filler when I wrote it off, so
it hadn't been botched and painted just to flog it to me.

Fastest trip across the periodic table I've ever seen a car do.


--
Pete M

Alfa 164 TS,
Mercedes 500 SEL,
Jaguar XJ-S 3.6

Scouse Git extraordinaire.
Liverpool, Great Britain

 

Loads and loads of Mk-I Golfs have survived. I drive one and since buying it
I've noticed a huge number of them on the roads; they seem to just keep
going forever. As for rust, what rust?

 

Ask Pip.

 

I had both why who knows, they were both crap. The Avenger luched it's
gearbox 3 times, the cortina got through 2 camshafts and 2 engines.

 

My old Mark One Escort rusted. Curiously, the Allegro was very corrosion
resistant by the standards of the day. Seriously.

The old Austin 1100/1300 granny car had such a bad reputation that for
it's successor, the Allegro, they did something about it.

Even more bizarrely, if you want a 1970s/1980s car that really doesn't
seem to rust, look at a Skoda.

 

Grimly Curmudgeon was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Buggeroff.

 

Catman was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Fortunately it doesn't talk back...

 

Hmmm, I can never tell with you :>

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

The biggest problem they had was not with failing to rust proof though.
As you say, rust traps were common place, Rover, BL, Ford, indeed almost
everybody had them.

The worst was to come though. The cars that really rotted quickly were
actually the ones that were undersealed. The problem was not in the
material, but in the application. In order to maintain production
levels, the manufacturers were applying the under seal while the welded
joints were still hot. This meant that condensing moisture was being
trapped under the sealant.

Worse still, there was Ziebart (sp?) [1], who were applying underseal to
cars long after production - usually to newly purchased cars. In a lot
of cases the stuff was being applied to a car that had just been driven
there. I actually watched them do one, and they were steam cleaning the
underside before applying the treatment.

Eventually they went bust from the number of claim they were getting.

[1] got took over by Dinol.

 

Well, yes, they were both crap, but the Avenger less so, IMHO.

But look at the alternatives of the time:

Avenger, Cortina, Marina..... nuff said!

 

When it comes to mentioning Alfas, I can understand that ;-)

 

In message

I bought one for Jane as a shopping trolley when I broke her Datsun
shopping trolley. The thing never rusted, never broke down and went like
a rocket for it's engine size.

And towed a Diahatsu 4x4 out of a muddy field when it got stuck much to
the 4x4 owners shame.

 

Oh *yuss* Our first Alfa was done by them. 6 months........

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

That'd be about right

 

Oi Steve, I'm surprised that *you* of all the people is regurgitating
the approved bar room opinion on these cars, presumably without ever
having driven one.

RX7s don't really have a reputation for rusting badly, just about all
the ones I've seen do have a bit of rust in the rear wheelarch but
apart from that they tend to hold up rather well, for whatever reason.
Yes, mine wants welding on the wheelarch but it certainly doesn't look
that bad for a 20 year old car.

Oh, and as with Alfas, the main source of engine problems can usually
be traced to the muppet behind the steering wheel - these engines use
oil (and are supposed to) and are just as allergic as the Alfa twin
cam to revving hard when cold. And as we all know, there are a lot of
people out there who don't care about either. Yes, there can be issues
with the rotor tips, but by the time the RX7 was built they were
mostly due to people not changing the oil on time or using cheap oil -
the tip seals can stick in the rotor much like coked up piston rings
either because the car was pottering about town all the time or
because someone didn't change the oil every 3000 miles.

Strangely enough the 12A engine (which is the one in the first
generation RX7) is supposed to be more durable than the later ones;
something to do with the fact that most of the later engines are
sandwiched alloy/cast iron whereas the 12A is all-alloy AFAIR. Plus,
twin turbos to squeeze stupid power from a fairly small engine doesn't
help much, either.

 

In

6 weeks. Bizarre fuel related failure.


--
Pete M

Alfa 164 TS,
Mercedes 500 SEL,
Jaguar XJ-S 3.6

Scouse Git extraordinaire.
Liverpool, Great Britain

 

I'll give you fifty quid.
It'll be worth buggerall after it breaks.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19

 

"Victor Meldrew - the Scarlet Avenger."

I sorta liked the Avenger - it was a basic, unpretentious, fairly well
designed fleet car. There was the odd lemon, to be sure, but they were
generally quite reliable and handled reasonably well for their day.
Servicing was a doddle, and all major parts could be changed bloody
quick. 20 mins to do a clutch, for example.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19

 

Zobo Kolonie was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

That's only half correct, though. *Early* (small rear light) MkI
Golfs, especially the mid- to late 70s ones basically don't exist any
more. In Germany, VW bought up most of the pre-77 or pre-78 ones and
crushed them because they rusted in a very Italian way.

Later ones are pretty good rust-wise, though

 

Pete M was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Someone pissing in the tank?