Topic

Hi all,
Bought a nice MG TF in March, £800 and in good nick.
Had a few patches of 'surface' rust in the arches and sills, so thought I would combat it myself today (not in visible areas so quality of job not massively important)

I started to angle grind the surface rust on the sill and then all my fears came true. I hate cars.

Then it didnt end there, the steel behind the patch was just powder. (see attached)


Now I don't know what to do. I'm a student so I don't have masses of money or resources. Do they do patches for just the rear of the sill or only the whole thing? Is there special stonechip paint required there?
I just feel sick.

Don't panic.

A competent garage will be able to patch that.

Normal paint is required only but I'd suggest some wax sprayed into the sill to stop it recurring.

Welcom by the way.

Ouch

Can you weld? Do you have any friends who can?

I am afraid this is the only answer to the problem.

You do not need a repair panel for this, just some steel sheet (I use an old door skin for my repairs).

Correct way is to cut out the rust, and weld in a new section, however the quick way is to "patch" over the damage, but this last resort stuff.

Ask at your local independent garage if they can do welding, or know anyone who can help.

If it is out of sight, then this will keep costs down, as it is the re-finishing/painting that will be most expensive.

Peter

Hello all, sorry for the lack on introduction.

thanks for the quick replies, my dad has a friend who has done welding for me in the past, problem is I live 180 miles away now!
I was planning on going home this weekend anyway so looks like ill be duct taping over the hole and taking the MG instead of the comfy accord!

Im just about to prime over my arch repair so I'll see how the finish looks but I should be able to do the paintwork myself.

The good news is apart from a knackered engine mount somewhere, the mechanicals on this car are spot on!

Hi and welcome to the forum

Clear as much of the rust, apply some weld through primmer, get your dads mate to weld a patch over and coat in stone chip.

James

You are not alone, my solution was to cut a piece of a scrapper & I'll TIG it on when all is cut to size.

I'm sorry, that sounded a bit glib; I had to hunt for a car that was too far gone, for the scrap yard to allow me to cut a piece out, yet good enough for me to reuse. & I'll be borrowing the welder & in all probability creating a lot of scrap before I'll be happy enough to weld the job up.

On my old F it was similar - I cut it ALL out - as far back as good metal (this is important) - I also found a car in a scapyard that had REALLY good sill ends and got the yard to cut them off for me....

I then cleaned them up, rust proffed the insides of the new part and the old sill area, cut it to shape etc as close as I could, then got someone to weld them in. Almost indestinguishable it was too...

Just make sure that it is rust proffed inside with something, and that all teh sill drains are open - If you have a jetwasher get it inside while you have a big hole and let it flush all the crap oyt, then this warm wetaher can dry it out if you leave the hole uncovered while the sun is out.

DONT PANIC though - its about the only bad common rust area and is caused by a combination of blocked drain plugs, mud and water, and constant battering from road grit.

Okay I'm feeling better now. Thanks guys, I will try and source a panel.

Other sill looks like this thankfully.

Get a flap disc on it - take it back to where you see clean metal then then use Jenolite or other rust converter - then paint and stone chip it - then cover with silver.. wont notice down there.

Make sure you waxoil inside though as i bet its horrid in there - you can check by popping the side air vent out and you can see inside and feel too!

Got a friend who is going to do the welding for around £100, cut out all the cancer and patch it up all smooth.

Then i need to cavity wax the inner sills and filler over the primer I've done today in the inner arches.
I put jenolite on the black stuff in that picture, think ill take it back to metal when the other side has been welded.

How good is the colour match on these cars year on year? thinking of just changing the front wing but I did that on my old toyota and it was a slightly different shade
and its distressed me.