Cars that don't rust

[Snoop Bagg]

piquet said:

wooooody said:

Gad-Westy said:

PaulHogan said:

No sign of rust on my 12 year old elise

Wait till your headlamp falls off because the bracket has rusted through!

The Elise construction is quite useful though as nearly anything that actually can rust is generally very easy to replace.

Elises do corrode...

elises get galvanic corrosion at the fronst suspension mounting points, there is no way to repair it, once they've corroded, it needs a new tub which is around 11k with fitting! so dead car

turns out lotus decided that aluminium and steel were good metals to use in combination with non repairable tub

As much as I respect Lotus for they're intent to produce sports cars, they really are piss artists with this non-repairable tub nonesense. We had one in that had hit a large curb, and bent the wishbone, which in turn snapped the alumium mount. We chiseled this off carefully and to apart the wishbone assembly.

We called Lotus after we'd repaired the bodywork, and they said to contact the manufacturer of the part. We did and asked how much for a piece of the piece aluminium which was no bigger than an inch thick and was clearly a standard part "£2.95 plus VAT, but you'll have to get in touch with Lotus and ask for permission to buy it.

So we called Lotus back and were told the the piece was bonded to the tub and therefore the was no way to remove it, to which we replied what the kidney shapped bit of aluminium I'm holding right now?

Lotus refused to give us they're permission to buy a three quid part and said we'd have to shell out £11,995 at the time to get the new tub. Took the part down to my mate Graham at Holmac Engineering who cut a piece to match without all the slots cut to reduce the little weight that was in it. Took it back re-bonded it to the tub and re-built the car. £11-12k is a fking ridiculous amount to charge for a £3 part!

[phil_cardiff]

Intersting replies here. My missus' 1998 Corolla hasn't got any rust on it, good quality Japanese steel I think. It hardly ever gets washed either. My Dad's 1994 Citroen Estate is similar.

[shalmaneser]

Snoop Bagg said:

piquet said:

wooooody said:

Gad-Westy said:

PaulHogan said:

No sign of rust on my 12 year old elise

Wait till your headlamp falls off because the bracket has rusted through!

The Elise construction is quite useful though as nearly anything that actually can rust is generally very easy to replace.

Elises do corrode...

elises get galvanic corrosion at the fronst suspension mounting points, there is no way to repair it, once they've corroded, it needs a new tub which is around 11k with fitting! so dead car

turns out lotus decided that aluminium and steel were good metals to use in combination with non repairable tub

As much as I respect Lotus for they're intent to produce sports cars, they really are piss artists with this non-repairable tub nonesense. We had one in that had hit a large curb, and bent the wishbone, which in turn snapped the alumium mount. We chiseled this off carefully and to apart the wishbone assembly.

We called Lotus after we'd repaired the bodywork, and they said to contact the manufacturer of the part. We did and asked how much for a piece of the piece aluminium which was no bigger than an inch thick and was clearly a standard part "£2.95 plus VAT, but you'll have to get in touch with Lotus and ask for permission to buy it.

So we called Lotus back and were told the the piece was bonded to the tub and therefore the was no way to remove it, to which we replied what the kidney shapped bit of aluminium I'm holding right now?

Lotus refused to give us they're permission to buy a three quid part and said we'd have to shell out £11,995 at the time to get the new tub. Took the part down to my mate Graham at Holmac Engineering who cut a piece to match without all the slots cut to reduce the little weight that was in it. Took it back re-bonded it to the tub and re-built the car. £11-12k is a fking ridiculous amount to charge for a £3 part!

It's a good point, although I can kind of understand Lotus are not keen to let any backstreet garage loose on a tub with a gun of epoxy.

If someone knows what they're doing then there's no reason why bits can't be replaced, it's just most bodyshops won't be very knowledgable about the procedures.