Well despite taking a lot of car removing bits of surface rust etc under the car last year and paying carful attention to the rear arches I was washing the car yesterday when I found a tiny crack in the chip resistant paint at the bottom of the near side cill just in front of the rear wheel arch . It looked a tad orange in the crack.

So today thinking it must be a touch of rust starting under the chip resistant paint , I attacked it with a flap wheel , and woooooooo, there was lots of Nasty rust under the paint , and a hole through the bottom of rear wing panel.

So out with a grinder and cut the rust away , now looks like I will be welding in some new steel
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Oh lovely! I bet you're impressed with that considering how recently you've had your car painted!

 

Not amused at all , but hey ho some more fun and games will have to brush up on my sheet metal works skills and do some practice tig welding .

I suppose being solid colour it will be easier to match in and there is a nice tight crease just above the problem and along to the cill seam , so some reasonable breaks in panels to spray up to and blend in .

I do wonder how many such problems will be caused and appear after the applications of underseal that are applied without any rust removal and Treatment.

The cavity was wet inside , so water is finding it's way in some where , will also remove all the bungs again from the offside of the car and check, out with the big can of waxoyl again , and don't forget the respirator when using this nasty stuff!

 

Sod it Chip, that's my fault for thinking how lovely & tidy your car looked when I parked next to it the other night.

That'll be the drainage tube from the roof area, I'd suspect.

 

Not sure Nick , it wasn't awash just damp. It could be road water getting up the drainage ducts from the cill sections and landing up trapped at the rear end of the cill. Was a wet drive home on Thursday!

Peering up inside the rust seems to have only been at the rear section , any way lots off stuff will be squirted up there . The cill panel is very thin gauge steel not dissimilar to the front wings , but there several tube like sections inside that .

 

Chippo, your pics have just reminded me of an oddity that I came across today. At the front end of my 2009 rear wheel arch there is a 30mm diameter hole leading into the sill. This is fitted with a grommet. I can see one of these holes in your pictures. Like a nutter I lightly pressed on the centre of the grommet only to discover that it seems to manufactured with a 10mm vertical slit in it probably to facilitate the entry of a spray lance during body manufacture. So you can guess what happened - yes now the slit wont close because the underseal is too stiff. The grommet is obviously fitted into the body BEFORE factory undersealing and its the underseal that makes the slit invisible and hopefully watertight. In older cars the slit may only remain intact only for as long as it takes for the underseal to harden or be disturbed by a rock or two. Then it will surely let water in to the sills.

Might this have been part of your problem ? Now I'll have to remove mine and refit the hole with a solid plug.... serves me right for fiddling again.

 

These bungs on mine are not original , they came out when I was dealing with minor surface rust in that area ,

The ones fitted are ordinary 25mm blind groom it's available from any electrical wholesaler for afew pennies , they were under sealed over so sealed .

 

Looks like your been busy,
you gonna lead them up

 

Crickey Chippo! Fatty has been taking chunks out of your car!!! In to see updates. Nice work.

 

These sort of posts worry me, as I have tin worm in very similar specs...