More questions on outriggers... and dollops.
Discussion
Hello
Sorry to bring up the topic again... I'm currently having a lot of fun cleaning, degreasing, scraping, etc. my car's outriggers and suspension prior to rust treating.
I have noticed that about 10 inches forward of the back end on the outer riggers (i.e. near the back of the two long tubes that run along the sides of the bodyshell) someone has applied a large dollop of some sort of silcone or other rubbery sealant on the inner (under car) side of the tube, between it and the body shell. It's at the same place on both sides. I'm not sure, visibility is poor, but there also seems to be some sort of 'feature' in the metal that point on the opposite side of the tube (hopefully not just rust). Does anyone know what this is about? My current thinking is rip it all out and have a good poke around, but just thought I'd check here first and ask if anyone else has seen this, and whether it needs to be reapplied if I remove it. I also thought it might just be for body suspension/cushioning.
While I'm here if anyone has any top tips on removing surface rust from the tops of the body-covered tubing and the horizontal/vertical body mounting plates, they would be much appreciated. Sandpaper pulled back/forth over the tubing seems quite effective where the rusting is nonexistant/minimal. Horizontal plates seem ok with a lot of scraping, but the vertical plate mountings look a bit worse and not so accessible.
As perfectionism/fussiness/worry sets in I'm thinking about taking the body off. But I don't have time at the moment and I've only had the car 6 months, so would have liked to get some more use out of it before ripping it apart
. maybe a project for next year.
Thanks in advance.
Nige.
Sorry to bring up the topic again... I'm currently having a lot of fun cleaning, degreasing, scraping, etc. my car's outriggers and suspension prior to rust treating.
I have noticed that about 10 inches forward of the back end on the outer riggers (i.e. near the back of the two long tubes that run along the sides of the bodyshell) someone has applied a large dollop of some sort of silcone or other rubbery sealant on the inner (under car) side of the tube, between it and the body shell. It's at the same place on both sides. I'm not sure, visibility is poor, but there also seems to be some sort of 'feature' in the metal that point on the opposite side of the tube (hopefully not just rust). Does anyone know what this is about? My current thinking is rip it all out and have a good poke around, but just thought I'd check here first and ask if anyone else has seen this, and whether it needs to be reapplied if I remove it. I also thought it might just be for body suspension/cushioning.
While I'm here if anyone has any top tips on removing surface rust from the tops of the body-covered tubing and the horizontal/vertical body mounting plates, they would be much appreciated. Sandpaper pulled back/forth over the tubing seems quite effective where the rusting is nonexistant/minimal. Horizontal plates seem ok with a lot of scraping, but the vertical plate mountings look a bit worse and not so accessible.
As perfectionism/fussiness/worry sets in I'm thinking about taking the body off. But I don't have time at the moment and I've only had the car 6 months, so would have liked to get some more use out of it before ripping it apart
. maybe a project for next year.Thanks in advance.
Nige.
Sorry not sure how to insert pic into forum page. Picture link here: http://www.tenpt.co.uk/ebayscans/chassiswhatisthis...
Red arrows point to the sealanty blob on one side. Yellow to the metal feature on the other side of the tube.
Feature looks a bit like a rust hole in this pic, but it's not - it all seems sound metal with a definite weld line around it (you can see where I have had a good go at it with a rasp/chisel). Can't see in to the recess though.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Aha! Good thinking Chimjunkie. It looks like the bolt for the seatbelt mounting goes through there. Looking in the bible it appears there may be some provision on the outrigger for it, though I cannot find it mentioned in the text and I don't see it on all chassis pics either. Hmm - interesting. Anyone else got this, perhaps not covered in sealent? Or is everyone elses just a tube?
Back to scraping.
Cheers!
Back to scraping.
Cheers!
I had the sealant on my car as well, its on the points where the seat belt bolts attach, there is a piece of threaded tube welded in the center of the out rigger, assume sealant is to stop water getting into the thread and rusting.
As for cleaning the tops of the rails I got a couple spools of emmory paper, basically sand paper on a semi cloth backing about an inch wide. This can be threaded over the pipe easily to sand the top.
As for cleaning the tops of the rails I got a couple spools of emmory paper, basically sand paper on a semi cloth backing about an inch wide. This can be threaded over the pipe easily to sand the top.
Hi Nige doing the full body off job over this winter, and you would be very surprised just how much "silicone sealant"there is in numerous places as fitted by the factory. Dont let this worry you in any way i would personally recomend sealing any hole/bolt or cable entrance point into the inside of your car just to help keep all that wet stuff out, and have we had some of that this summer. 
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