metal worms?

[lambert]

all things being equal on a fairly well looked after example how old do disco's get befor needing serious rust repairs?

I know each vehicle will be affected by many variables  but in general terms what  age do they get to 10, 15, 20?

[bilge rat]

red is a 96 i think thats had floor and front sill repair and im just going to do the front inner wings, thats after ive just done clutch , rebuilt box, re seal sump, rear main and an oil cooler pipe. back to corrosion blue 95 had rear crossmember repair and boot floor . so thats about 12 years but no chassis probs , have heard of younger discos with corrosion probs. the jap imports are ment to sound but you pay well for them ..alan....

[Disco Matt]

It really does seem to change from car to car. Mine's a 1996 and doesn't seem to have any major rust problems, just a few patches of surface rust. The main problem I have is that the back bumper keeps rusting as the plastic flap between it and the body scrapes the paint off!

[stevepage3]

Hi

My 1991 Disco has had the usaual problems, i.e boot floor, but that was down to leaking sunroof and thick absorbant soundproofing. I have recently replaced the sills with 150 x 60mm 3mm wall box section but could have got away with just plating the dodgy areas. Other than that there doesn't appear to be to much rot elsewhere.

Steve

[clover]

Anybodies guess!

We had two in for MOT work a couple of weeks ago.

One was an early 200TDI on a G plate. No welding required. Had a couple of small plates on the outer sills but other than that looked original!

The other was an R reg and that was as rotten as a pear! Needed the best part of 2 days worth of welding!

My K reg looked great until I started removing plastic bits! I've since had to weld new inner and out sills on one side. I had to weld up the rear passenger side floor. I have had to weld a large repair section onto the rear cross member. I had to weld up the bottom of the back door goal posts (still need to do some more remedial work on this if I can work out how to do it!). I am in the process of welding up the rear of the body shell so there is some metal to attach a new boot floor to (the old one was shot). I still need to weld 2 plates on the rear inner wheel arches. Then I need to weld new inner sill on the other side and a couple of patches on the outer sill on the other side! I could not do the weld box section option on mine as the inner sills are so bad there was not enough left to weld it to! Then when I have done this I need to weld a patch on the inner wing at the front by the washer bottle. I must be stark raving mad! It started as just a couple of minor bits of welding and became a full repair project! I must be stark raving mad!

If I'd have known at the start what was ahead I'd have scrapped the darn thing!

[mentalmoshio sophs V8i]

mines a 93 not a thing floor maybe in 5 yrs and im right in the countryside  :-k think the body shell yr has alot to do with it

[ben_haynes]

mines a 93 not a thing floor maybe in 5 yrs and im right in the countryside  :-k think the body shell yr has alot to do with it

i wouldnt say that as my mums old disco, 93 K was a complete pear

[ben_haynes]

my first disco 200 TDi (1989) only had its first repairs of welding a few months before i bought it (around 15 years), My dads old V8 (1990) had loads done with in the first 8 years according to its service history, My mums old MPi (1993) rotten as a pair and welded up with in 10 years, my mums disco 300 TDi (1996) needs its 1st few patches in the usual areas (12 years),

[mentalmoshio sophs V8i]

was it between 91 and 93 they changed the thickness of the metal i read somewhere  :-k

[Disco Matt]

Certainly most posts I've read about welding seem to be on 200 series Discos rather than 300s. Now, whether this is down to an improvement in painting techniques or simply the fact that the 200s are older I don't know.

There definitely seem to have been good and bad Discos rather than design flaws. Most of the bad ones have probably been stripped for parts now!

[ben_haynes]

Certainly most posts I've read about welding seem to be on 200 series Discos rather than 300s. Now, whether this is down to an improvement in painting techniques or simply the fact that the 200s are older I don't know.

There definitely seem to have been good and bad Discos rather than design flaws. Most of the bad ones have probably been stripped for parts now!

no the 300 are geting there problems, the boot floor is better, (on some - BigA has a Very big problem with his boot floor) but mainly in the Rear door shut/ Wheel arch they rot out, have seen many, my mums and a few customers of mine have Rusty arches

i think it is the fact they are older and you do get some good ones and some bad ones but thats the same for any Make and Model

[clover]

I'm fairly certain mine was a farm vehicle most of its life. It certain has evidence that it was left unused sat under trees for a long period of time.

I have a J reg that I am breaking at the moment and the boot floor on that is excellent its a pity the rest isn't! The rear cross member is nasty and the inner wings are in very bad shape.

I borke a 300TDI a while back and that had bad rust in the seam between the inner arches and the front door pillar. Battery tray was non-existent and the rear floor was going the same way.

I think it depends on the age and the treatment of the vehicle. I see a lot of Disco's parked up on grass for days at a time. Seems the owners feed a need to make the point that its a 4x4! That is the worst thing I can think of apart from parking one at the seafront!

I once bought a Rover 827 Vitesse that had been parked on grass at the side of a house for many years. I swear there was not a single nut or bolt on the thing that was not rusted beyond removal by normal means. Everything was rusty beyond belief underneath. I never had a car that I had to angle grind and drill out so many bolts on! Even changing the pads was a mission first time around. I had to chisel about 6mm of rust off the calipers before I could get the pads to come out! It was most odd as the bodywork from the sills upwards was absolutely mint.

[mentalmoshio sophs V8i]

think it all do with us at the end of the day.

mud on mud and other rotten muck is not good.

repair as soon as seen not leave and leave.

after all nuffin these days get cheaper to buy or repair