I have recently noticed lots of water in my footwell. I suspect it might have been there a long time and was not obvious to me because the thick sound deadening foam beneath the carpet absorbed so much. I have removed the carpets and hung up to dry. Having inspected the area I feel water maybe coming in through splits in the edges.

I have attached images and would really appreciate your thoughts.

Thank you,

Jon

 

The only way to be sure is to sit in the car with the carpet out and all the doors and windows firmly closed and get someone to direct a garden hose over the side of the car from different angles. As soon as the water starts to come in you should see it.

Richard

 

Thank you Richard - I will follow this procedure.

​​​​​​A Previous owner of the car had the foot panel replaced. The area doesn't look great and I just wondered if it seems okay to you? I'm hoping the black colour is a protective sealant and not to start of serious rust. Please see image below



There are some other areas of rust which I think is as a result of water been held in the foam. I'm hope a good sand and a coat of rust convertor will do the job. What's your opinion?





Thank you

 

Jon, the first place to check is the compartment under the bonnet that holds the ECU or fuse box, well, over here. Yours would be the brake master and steering. There are drains for each side and when they get stopped up the whole thing will fill with water. Clean the tubes with a long wire and hang in the proper place.
That last picture looks to be a crack, needing to be cut out, or if wire brushed it might be abled to be welded across. The rest cleaned up and treated before paint.

 

I agree with all this.

I suspect that the crack will need a plate to be welded in as once the rusty area is ground out the crack will open up a lot more. Check the rest of the car as once you take the car in for welding it will be more cost effective to get it all done at the same time.


The rust on the inner sill leaves me wondering what the outer structure is like?

Richard

 

Thanks for your kind feedback. I think the drain pipes under the shuttle panels are clear and not significant water in the wells.

Regarding the last image I sent, I have tried to rip off some of the rusty metal and expose what I can to assess. The rust stems from the inside of the cabin and not from the outside. This leads me to think that it's as a result of the water being held within the sound proofing foam.

Below is an image after my initial investigation - looks ugly! With the use of Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 rust killer, would this be enough to stabilise the area followed up with primer/paint?

I don't know how to weld and I'm concerned about the cost of doing so. I know the vehicle needs to be safe, but as it's in a hidden area I am not too worried about the aesthetic.

Thank you in advance for your feedback

 

Jpn, that is a double panel in that area and has been well documented, have a search.
You can treat that area but you have to get the product running down between the panels to end the progression. After that a patch panel welded in place. It's not going to be easy but you did catch it in time and have things cleared out of the way for the cost to be cut down a lot.
Might be cheaper to take a class on mig welding and buy one of the hobby ones. Just sticking something together is not welding two sheets together making it one. You want the strength of a one piece sheet mostly in this area as it looks to be part of the unibody.

 

The bottom line is that if the MOT tester saw that, the car would probably fail the test as the sill is considered to be part of the a monocoque structure. However, as the treated rust will be under the carpet, it will pass because the tester is not permitted to lift the carpet.

Is it safe to leave it? As long as it is well rust-treated then I would say that it is safe. In the event of being T-boned on that side, it's obvious that the integrity of the structure will be somewhat compromised but that is not worth worrying about unless you are a lifelong pessimist.

Richard

 

Thanks for your response. I'm tempted to attend a mig welding course. I was a it confused about what you meant ' Just sticking something together is not welding two sheets together making it one. You want the strength of a one piece sheet mostly in this area as it looks to be part of the unibody.' can you please explain again so I fully understand?

Thank you

 

Jon, you cut the area out with a cut off tool and wheel. Lots of cheap tools to do this. Always cut in a straight line, easier to do and make a patch panel. Sometimes you have to get rid of good metal to have a thick enough piece left to attach the new one. If you have it overlap along the edges (takes a special tool then the strength is further added to the patch. If butt welding, a bit more difficult and will require some effort to get it pretty (grinding) but in this area under the carpet, not a concern, just get it strong.
The classes are a good idea for future projects also.

 

Thank you so much for your advise. I really love my car and I know I need to up my game to keep it on the road. I will do some research into MIG welding courses.

Recently I upgraded my stereo system with some interesting results. Everything I did is reversible and the improvements is vast. Do you think fellow Jaguar enthusiasts would be interested if I did a little write up?

 

Its an edge case but Ill throw it out there -one other potential source of water ingress might be the AC drains up in the footwell - I literally just used one to change an O2 sensor. If it is torn, or wasn't put back when someone did an O2 sensor you might just be getting AC condensation dripping down and soaking the insulation there. You can kinda see the location here - just follow the many socket extensions. You can also see the other end of the drain underneath the car next to the catalyst on the inside (transmission) side of the cat. there is one on each side of the dash. Pic isn't of the drain specifically because I took them to write up the O2 sensor change.

 

Thanks for your thoughts on the water ingress - I will add this to my investigation list. HNY

 

jonny,
if you haven't already found it, member XKR-DAY has done some amazing work. This part of his thread may guide you:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...4/#post2454411

 

Thank you for the link - very useful. Fingers crossed mine isn't so bad when I get around to fully excavating the rusty section. I'm already eyeing up a MIG welder and watching tutorials online. Can anyone recommend a reasonable MIG welder which won't break the bank?

 

I have an R-Tech 180 which is a very forgiving inverter machine. It has a detachable Euro-standard torch, takes larger wire spools and runs on single phase mains voltage. It is powerful enough to weld 5mm and above chassis plates and similar which I need for classics. I've had excellent service from R-Tech over several years and I can recommend them to do business with. They're also very near me in Tewkesbury but most of my business has been over the phone and internet.

It will also take a spool gun for aluminium welding but I've never ventured down that route.

Richard

 

I would be interested. Most on the info I have seen on the forums is pretty dated with the components obsolete. I just did an update to add Bluetooth with an adapter that patches into the cd line.

 

Sorry, just noticed you already posted the update.

 

I think I read your previous post about getting a kit from USA. I also tried it, but I didn't get satisfactory results - I'm not saying you won't, but it didn't work for me so I posted it back without any issues.

I'm happy to send you the full spec of the products I use in my setup if that's the route you decide to go.