When I bought it (about 1971) the bell crank from the handle was almost seized. I applied the brake for the first time on the way home, on a steep hill. Trying to do a hill start while half standing on the handbrake lever while pushing in the button and pressing the accelerator was...interesting.
I knew all about how it worked...changed the clutch on that thing, which involved removing the main gearbox and the transfer box.
And for imported cars, encasing them in wax *before* sailing them over salt water ...
Most damage seems to come from salted roads in the winter.
Yes, done that too. From inside the vehicle. That gearbox is HEAVY.
Mazda 323F rear sills are rotten at 16 years old. But that's 4 years after the average car is scrapped and most people wouldn't have it repaired.
Citroen BX had plastic bonnet, rear upper quarter filler panel and tail gate. Hasn't really helped BX's survive, howmanyleft says not a lot but lots of variations making it even more difficult to restore and keep them going.
Renault bought Matra and were going to kill the plastic car and possibly going to shut the factory. So the Matra factory offered the Espace, a Simca/Talbot project that got passed to them when PSA took over, lots of plastic that only Matra knew how. 1st gen sold 200,000 84-91.
The last car that I had which showed any visible sign of rust was a 1980 Renault 5 which started to rust through over the rear wheel arches but AFAIK there wasn't any other rust. I replaced the car with a 1985 R5 and that was probably about two years old when I got it, so the first car was probably about 7 when the rust appeared.
Since then, a variety of Renaults, VWs and Peugeots have been immune to obvious rust. And I examined the floor of the first VW pretty carefully after rainwater leaked in when the drain holes for the sill at the base of windscreen got blocked with leaves, so it overflowed down the back of the dashboard. The first I knew was when I got into the car one morning and my feet sloshed in about 3" of water :-( After that, I had the carpets out to wash and dry them, which involved removing the seats and the gear lever housing. While I had everything out, I examined the floor pan pretty carefully for rust as I was mopping up the remaining water with towels. Not a weekend that I look back on with any joy ;-)
So something has improved since the days of cars that went rusty after a few years and needed either cosmetic body panel repairs or structural welding.
Looking at the "age at death" for each of my previous cars (on
It did - and they still do.
Ford Kha was initially notoriously rust prone.
Yes, from inside. I had a summer job at a garage at the time. They lent me a corner of the sevrice area for a couple of days, and a manual hoist. I worked shifts 1500-2300, then worked on the vehicle overnight, then slept! Had a proper rest the next night, and completed the job on the third night.
(there was a lot of hacksawing of rusty bolts and cage nuts for the floor plates)
My first car, Renault 5, new in 1978, there was rust coming up from the rear wheel arches after 4 years; no arch liners and a lot of damp mud trapped behind the rear panel and fuel filler pipe.
Present car is a Duster, difficult to check scuttle drains as the screen wash bottle and wiper moter sits over them (and restricts a free flow). When it fills the water pours into the heater air intake, which deposits it into the rear footwell via the heating ducts.
I reserve judgement whether the Duster will be like the R5 or my much loved 1994 Twingo that I reluctantly scrapped in 2012.
I've just got rid of a 17 year old Ford Focus. The only bodywork rust was an area of around 2cm x 2cm at an inside corner of one of the doors where the seam sealant had cracked and allowed water to become trapped. It was easily fixed with some abrasives, a rust converter, new sealant and an overcoat of paint.
The only other area was the exhaust. A hanger rusted away and was repaired in a DIY manner. The final death knell for me was that the 17 old original exhaust finally had a loud (internal) rattle and the idle was slightly hunting. With an MOT due the money to be spent on the car was equal to, or more than, its worth. I'm now driving a low millage 1 year old car.
I'm sure on the MK3 Cortina I once owned the stills were actually manufactured from painted rust.
Indeed - had a mate with one. I assume it was down to body design as other Fords of the period much the same as any. Perhaps also why it had a fairly short production run. Trying to remember when I last saw one on the roads
- unlike similar age Escorts, etc.
Back in the sixties, many cars were rusty when you bought them new.
This was down to galvanic effects. The panels were all slightly different alloys because they were recycled steel and included traces of aluminium, copper etc.
WOT, No angle grinder? :-)
and the only practical way to test that is on the road with a tapley brake meter.
It's just a case of leverage... and puckered arse
Later models from the end of the 1920?s had steam operated brakes that were probably better than those fitted to IC powered vehicles of the same era, it was important at the start of a journey to warm them through or they wouldn?t work too well but once that was done they could lock the wheels. Picture here of the warning sign carried to warn users of vehicles with less effective brakes.
I can just about remember lorries carrying similar warnings about having Air Brakes circa late 50?s when there were still many older cars on the road with brakes that were not of a standard we are used to now. Even if they worked well enough most of the time brake fade from overheating going down a long hill was a problem that is hardly considered now for most drivers.
GH
Why didn?t that work ? Maybe this does.
GH
I remember seeing an "escape lane" full of sand to stop lorries whose brakes had failed.
They still exist. There is one on the A379 descent into Dartmouth. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.3542945,-3.5820649,127m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en
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