RHS

RHS, after some sanding

LHS after some sanding

The car was sitting for about 10 yrs before I bought it in June, I believe there has been some water ingress and water has sat on the other side of the plate and rotted it away, so much so that the bottom of the plate isn't even connected to the floor anymore, you can push it and it moves freely.

There is a hole is the front right wing about 6 inches back from the top of the tyre which I believe is where the water got in to rust the RHS but the body and chassis work on the LHS has no holes or cracks so idk why it's so bad. Obviously I want to fix the rust but I REALLY don't want it coming back.

Any ideas??

Thank you

 

The carpets and the sound deadening felt get damp/wet. The floors rot from the inside outwards. The way I cured and stopped it is as follows:

1. sand down inside to reasonably solid metal
2. look underneath and repeat 1
3. get to bare or reasonably bare metal by a margin all round the holes and badly rusted areas
4. weld in patches over the holes
5. treat the metal inside and out with this stuff: https://aquasteel.co.uk/
6. then paint over the aquasteel with Rust Bullet https://rustbulletuk.com/automotive/ or POR 15 inside and underneath. NB paint the Rusta Bullet up the sides of the insides of the footwell by a couple of inches. This makes the floor impervious to damp.
7. On the underneath spray over the Rust Bullet rust proofing gunk such as this: https://bilthamber.com/product/dynax-ub/

Job done,and rust will not return if ALL stages are completed.

It is also worthwhile drilling holes in each end of the sills and spraying aquasteel inside them from each end using a probe on a sprayer. Then spraying wax on top when it has gone off.

 

Carpets were dry when the I bought the car but I suspect they must've gotten pretty damp at somepoint and just been sat. Thinking back it seems likely as I could tell by the colour, weight, lack of flexibility and stiffness when I removed them. Really appreciated the answer mate cheers.

It was wierd pulling all the interior out to find so much rust. When I went to buy the car I checked all the obvious places you can without dismattling the car, in fact the sills are in fantastic condition and apart from the hole on the front wing there is little indication that this was a rusted car but upon pulling out the interior OMG it was everywhere; but just on the inside. Water had gone under the back ''seats'' and basically rusted that panel to dust, now I'm looking at the exhaust haha.

 

They all eventually rust in the front footwells and also in the seatbelt mount point behind the front seats by the sills. Look very carefully there. And also where the rear trailing arms are mounted to the floor.

Your footwells are still a lot better than many UK cars! Also the drivers side has been repaired before as you can see from the welded patch at the front of the footwell. If you look under the floor at that point, I bet you'll have noticed that the factory build support bracket is now missing on the drivers side, because of the repair.

Cheers

Paul

 

Thanks for the response mate you've definitley calmed my nerves . Yeah I did see the welded patch from the outside when buying and yeah there is no jacking point. There is a lot of rust but the frame is still rock solid, spent about an hour stabbing the whole Chassis of the car with a screwdriver and only made one hole in the boot below the fuel filter so I suspect that has leaked and fuel has sat on the carpet erroding the floor of the boot.

Thanks again

 

Water can meander around in strange ways, yes

However....

Don't discount the possibility of the windshield leaking. Not unusual on these cars

Cheers
DD

 

Mate I hadn't even thought of the windscreen, thank you so much. Reading through these forum pages just make you think about all the stuff you DIDN'T think about before buy the car.

 

Just to clarify: the plate under the front end of the floorpan is NOT a jacking point. It's merely a leftover from when the bodyshell was being constructed. The jacking point is a threaded bolt in the corner.

As regards the windscreen, it's a huge corrosion problem on XJSs which can go into the scuttle, the plenum chamber, the A-post and even down to the front of the sill and lower wing. But it is much more of an issue on facelift cars that have a bonded windscreen.

You haven't put in your signature whether you've got a Coupe or Convertible? If you've got a Coupe, you must check that water will flow easily down the drain channel from the roof down behind the windscreen chromes and flow out into the inner wing channel. If that drain is blocked, you'll definitely get windscreen leaks and windscreen flange corrosion.

Paul

 

This is what I found at the bottom of the windscreen under the chrome of my 1992 facelift. You read how people scrap their cars because of the dreaded "scuttle rot'
But... its not that bad to sort out. The screen does have to come out though.

 

On a pre facelift car, the screen can be easily waterproofed by getting a gun of bitumastic sealer (NOT silicone) or better still 3M's proprietory windcreen sealer. Then insert the nozzle between the screen rubber and the metal and force in the gunk as you slide th nozzle round the screen. Repeat for the glass side of the rubber.
Then repeat for the rear screen. Use a rag and white spirit to clean up the mess, very easy and the screens are sealed.

 

Look at the AC drin tubes up above the transmission. They block up, the condensation has nowhere to go but the floor of the car.

Not so much an issue in colder climates where that air is rarely used, but down here, oh boy.

NOT just Jags by the way.