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Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 3:43 pm
by NaisiaN
Hi all,

Just had mot on Capri and surprise surprise it's failed and needs a lot of welding done. Just wondering if any of you fine people know how much it may cost and If it's a big job? (I'm guessing it will be)

Here's some pics

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:crying:

Cheers!

Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 4:50 pm
by Peter-S
I wouldn't mind betting that the last four pictures are surface rust - get a god wire brush, perhaps on a drill, and clean the areas up. Then give it a coat of underseal or something similar.
The front floor is fairly straight forward as its fairly flat metal to weld in.
The rear is tricky to tell from the pictures. Quite often you can't tell how bad these things are until you start to cut out the rust.
I'd take it to a small local garage and get them to give you an estimate assuming you can't weld yourself.

Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 5:37 pm
by NaisiaN
Peter-S wrote:I wouldn't mind betting that the last four pictures are surface rust - get a god wire brush, perhaps on a drill, and clean the areas up. Then give it a coat of underseal or something similar.
The front floor is fairly straight forward as its fairly flat metal to weld in.
The rear is tricky to tell from the pictures. Quite often you can't tell how bad these things are until you start to cut out the rust.
I'd take it to a small local garage and get them to give you an estimate assuming you can't weld yourself.

Thanks for the reply mate. There are some
Holes underneath (around the area of the first few pics) so I think it may be a bit worse than surface rust but I'm hoping it is just that now haha. It hasn't failed on anything on the rear , all of it seems to be up front. Taking it to a place tomorrow to get a quote. i was expecting a 'it's gunna cost you a fortune' reply so you've at least given me some hope :cheers:

Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 5:48 pm
by Joshy
Some places will do welding at a fairly cheap price (£30-£50 per plate) just to get a car through an MOT, this is likely to be a plate of sheet metal plonked on top of the damaged area - unsightly, generally a pain to cut out and re do again and more often that not prone to failure after a few years. If you want the area repaired properly I'd either do it yourself or take it to a local body shop or restoration workshop. It's going to cost more but the end product will be much better.

As with most things bodywork related, if you can get all the interior, carpets, underlay etc cleared out before hand and are willing to refit it yourself, you can save yourself a few quid in labour - why pay someone else to undo a few screws?

Having repaired the floor of my own car in a similar place to where yours has failed I can tell you its probably absorbed moisture across the whole lap joint between the bulkhead and floor skins and will probably be paper thin about 2 inches either side of the join. However, it is hard to fully understand the scale of the job at hand until the carpets are up, and the underseal has been removed from the outside.

Best of luck in getting it on the road again!

Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 1:01 pm
by nigecapri
Sound advice from those posts. I must agree that you need to see what's what before going further because a repair shop will not be able to give a fair quote without knowing how much work is to be done.
As usual, there's often more than meets the eye at first glance. You'll need a pair of rigger gloves - few quid from Asda or Wilko - an old half-inch wood chisel and a hammer. All carpets & trim removed as needed. Beware those fuel pipes - the little plaggy clips often snap, they're a keyhole that slides over a small metal peg.
Scrape off all the loose rust then chase out any corroded bits. The next step is to square off any holes using snips / pliers / grinder and clean up about 2cm down to bare metal around each hole.
Then you and the repairer will be able to see the job in full and will have saved yourself maybe a hundred quid.
Now you've saved that hundred quid - perfect incentive to buy a welder from MachineMart and do it yourself :)

Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2016 10:25 am
by NaisiaN
Cheers for the replies, glad you lot are so knowledgeable!

Ill give it a go removing all the carpets etc and cleaning the areas up. I knew the car would be a bit of a project when i bought it so trying not to stress myself too much about it all just gunna do it bit by bit.

Im thinking of taking a short welding course tbh , get some background on it. Like ive said in my other posts im learning everything from scratch! its been fun so far tho! :D

Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2016 9:46 pm
by Joshy
Good on you for getting stuck in, I'll be the first to admit that it is a bit daunting to start hacking into the floor of your beloved car, but its the only way the problem is going to get fixed, and its going to look horrendously worse before it gets better.

If you do end up repairing it yourself, I opted to replace both skins of the bulkhead and floor rather than plonk a thicker patch of metal in. These two skins are spot welded together, and also to the chassis leg and out rigger which makes it tricky to remove. Bare in mind that there is also a slight curvature to the bulkhead skin before it overlaps with the actual floor.

I found it easier to form both my patches, spot weld them together and THEN weld them into the car in one go if that makes sense? It basically meant that I was certain both patches were going to fit in the hole i had to cut in the floor, before stuff started getting distorted from welding.

Best of luck!

Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 7:41 pm
by NaisiaN
Joshy wrote:Good on you for getting stuck in, I'll be the first to admit that it is a bit daunting to start hacking into the floor of your beloved car, but its the only way the problem is going to get fixed, and its going to look horrendously worse before it gets better.

If you do end up repairing it yourself, I opted to replace both skins of the bulkhead and floor rather than plonk a thicker patch of metal in. These two skins are spot welded together, and also to the chassis leg and out rigger which makes it tricky to remove. Bare in mind that there is also a slight curvature to the bulkhead skin before it overlaps with the actual floor.

I found it easier to form both my patches, spot weld them together and THEN weld them into the car in one go if that makes sense? It basically meant that I was certain both patches were going to fit in the hole i had to cut in the floor, before stuff started getting distorted from welding.

Best of luck!
cheers mate,

it'll probably be a while before i start but Ive decided to find a garage to rent and strip the entire car down replacing bits as i go (been watching a lot of discovery channel recently, welder up, gas monkey etc :P got me in the mood to do it).
I don't need the car as a daily driver and never plan on selling it, so just gonna take my time and have fun with it. Will probably post on here when i start the project. Will take your advice on board though when i get round to it!

Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2016 6:33 pm
by NaisiaN
Just stripping out the interior to clean it up ready for welding .. Can anyone tell me if these welds are supposed to be there or has it been repaired in past?

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Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2016 11:55 am
by Paul G
That looks like seam sealer rather than weld.

Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 8:15 am
by Paul G
I'm sorry to see your car on ebay up for sale. Hope you'll not be put off and will buy another Capri sometime. Unfortunately rust is a battle we all have to fight sometimes.

If you buy another capri, or any classic car, perhaps it would pay to take a second pair of eyes with you when you look at it.

Good luck.

Paul.

Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 9:07 am
by Caprigear
Another prime example of a "nice easy project, not much work required". I currently have a workshop full of them!
What you need to realise is that there are no "easy projects" anymore. Owners when selling a car or evaluating the degree of work required lie through their teeth in order to close a sale, you only have to view the number of cars that keep being relisted to know that.
Only once the new owner starts to investigate matters does the truth emerge and it is usually nasty and expensive.
As has been previously mentioned, view very carefully, do proper research into how much work will cost, parts availability and lastly take any descriptions with a very large pinch of salt

Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 8:19 pm
by Mr B
Caprigear is totally right, there are no easy projects anymore, recently took my Capri to a specialist for a quote, I need what's apparently called the rear in package i.e sill replacement from door's to wheel arch, new wheel arches, rear valence and the lower rear corners and the quote I got was 2500.00 but does include paint and blending, I nearly had heart attack and now I'm in two minds about what to do, lovely car and a lot of sentimental value and being sentimental is fine.....until it starts costing a lot of money

Re: Capri failed mot - welding query?

Posted: Sat May 13, 2017 10:02 pm
by Not_Anumber
Disappointed to see Naisian has given up on the plan to fix it :cry: .