Opinions please on whether to scrap or weld

I’ve been recommissioning a Mk2 1.6 Driver that had been parked up for 3 years and was last MOT’d in 2014. It’s service book is fully stamped (less the last 11k) and everything works as it should.

There was an observation about rust on rear offside in the suspension mounting zone but not a failure. I had assumed this was the turret and checked it out and it seemed fine. But......some more determined digging this evening has revealed some serious rot around the sill end where it meets the subframe mount. It’s a proper MOT fail and given where it is it’ll involve dropping the rear beam and offside mounting plate which I understand then is a pig to put back together. The weld will also be fairly complex I imagine.

I’ll try and puta photo up but I’m after opinions. For a standard Driver, is this a cost effective garage repair or should I cut my losses?

 

Really it depends on your own ability with a welder , how tidy a job you want, and how invested in the car you are.

 

Almost everything is repairable
It always depends on your time , money or skill levels on wether you view something as repairable.

 

Had a really useful chat with my garage this morning.Offered me space and kit to have a go myself under supervision. I’m happy with dropping the beam but never welded before but always wanted to try so what a great opportunity to stretch my amateur status

 

The great thing about it being in their garage under their supervision is that they are more likely to 'pitch in' when you get stuck along the way so I'd bite their hand off with that offer

 

It was pretty unexpected if I’m honest as I was expecting to see the pound signs racking up. They’re a good outfit that I can’t speak highly enough of. I’ll keep you all posted on progress

 

Sounds like a great opportunity to learn. I'd bite there hand off at that offer.

It might be worth trying to source a rusr free section from another shell being scrapped and cut it out to use rather than starting from scratch. If your going down that route grab a handful of other un needed metal to have a few practice goes before hand.

 

Latest update - I put it in for mot on Thursday having highlighted the obvious rust beforehand. Apart from a failed indicator bulb the only issue raised was the obvious rust patch which is pretty good for a car that had been parked up for nearly 4 years in a barn. The drive to and from the test was surprisingly good so definitely worth sorting over the next ten days. The garage quoted £210 for the required welding which is tempting but the opportunity to learn seems too good to pas up now. More to follow next week

 

Learn to weld, it's sooo useful.

 

So the work has progressed this week. I’ve done the prep and patch fabrication (as well as helping out) leaving the expert to do the welding. Having seen this process close up I’m now keen to learn more. Progress so far is good, more on Friday

 

This is one of the other cars I’ve been helping with

 

I have a lot of years working at the car repair station and proudly can say that even hardest repair can be done. But in your situation it depends on your style of driving. If you pursue driving on a long distance, your car will be broken after driving 80m/h in an hour or something. Otherwise, if you prefer driving only in the town, you will be fine. I can recommend you to sell your car to the local "cash for car" service, which you can spend for a new car afterwards. For example, I sold my new mk1.6 exclusive edition for $5000 at the noblecashforcars.com.au. You can try it, and maybe you can get a fortune after your selling

 

How many hours, start to finish, if you could stay it it, Sam?

 

I think welding is the easy part, its hard to make one piece repair panel and have as few welds as possible.
See the video and watch what a wreck we saved.

 

MIG welding car bodies is pretty straightforward and there’s little more satisfying than cutting out a horrible rusty hole and after all the welds are ground down having a lovely shiny new piece of steel in there. But don’t think you spend £350 on a “reasonable” welder and off you go, as I thought. After you’ve then bought a big bottle of gas (little, disposable ones waste of time and money) gas regulator, lots and lots of clamps and magnets, decent helmet and safety gear and all the gear like snips, hammers, even metal folding tools for the fabrication that you’ll need you’re getting into a few quid. It is a great skill to have, but, I think you look at how much welding you’re actually needing to do to make it a worthwhile investment of your time and money?

 

That's good going.

 

If you’re not thinking to use again then tooling up with welding gear is not worth it really, best to get a decent garage to do it for ya !!however, if you want anything done properly you have to do it yourself then it pays up to save for decent welder, mask and consumables! Thing is your mates will want work doing too so you can practice on their cars as well…practice makes perfect ! Soon you’ll get returns on your investment! My advice would be to buy a high quality welder, it will make learning quicker and -if you decide it’s not for you-it will retain much of its initial costs if you decide to sell up later on !