Whats the rustiest car you ever had on the road?

carchaeologist

What was the rustiest car that you had on the road, in the days before the NCT and all that? My old man had an 81 english import jetta that the rear axle mounts collapsed in,they were duly welded up, only for the same thing to happen again soon after,and the uncle had a 79 RWD starlet with only a steel bar bolted to the strut tops and side of the engine bay holding the suspension on :eek:.i could also put my hand out the side of the car from the back seat and touch the road!Mad when you think of it these days!

Im sure theres some great stories out there to be told of this kind of thing!:)

Anan1

We used to have a Renault 16TS in the late 70s. Once, on holidays in Ennis, all four of us got into the car at the same time. With a resolute crunch, the left rear suspension collapsed. A welder was duly involved, but he said there was nothing left in there to weld.

chevyv8

The good old days before the nct, i had a green mk2 escort reg no uli 669, it was a heap of crap, put me off fords for life.both sills were gone and half the back wings, more isopan in it then steel.both of the wings where the suspension connected were on the way out. got rid of it, a mate of mine seen it on the road about 4 years after i sold it, that was a miracle in itself.

peasant

I used to have a Renault 4 with a sticker on it saying:

Best before:

See bottom panel

We did have NCT (tuev) though, so it never got to be as rusty as an irish car ... it was simply taken out of circulation.

It did fry a front wing every year, as the exhaust muffler sat in the wheel well, combining its heat with splashed water to go through the metal pretty quickly. A replacement wing only was something like 20 euro or so and you could bolt it on in 20 minutes.

Blue850

bought a Fiat 127 years ago in Newbridge and got it as far as the roundabout leading to the Curragh, had to abandon it at a house there cos the inner front wings were no longer attached to the front valance, front wheels were pointing in 2 different directions:D

Max_Damage

Well, this isn't about my car, but my cousin had a '93 Vauxhall Astra estate only a few months ago that rotted itself to bits. The car actually started to sag at the rear, just over the rear axle. If you looked at the car from the side, you could see the back of the car bent downwards slightly! The axle was about to give way too. It just barely passed the NCT two years prior to that. It all went downhill from then.

The car he had before that ('90 Micra) had more holes in it than a sieve!

He sold it to a friend of his and now the car is used for field work.

MercMad

Is this rusty enough for you ?

Hifive

MercMad wrote: »

Is this rusty enough for you ?

Looks like its been under the sea for a long time. Surely nothing is salvageable.

A mate had a Triumph Herald that was so rusty the rear axle/suspension was tied on with rope:eek:

Max_Damage

MercMad wrote: »

Is this rusty enough for you ?

<Snip>

That car was at the Essen car show last year. I wasn't there myself, but a friend of mine was and he had a picture of this car. What's the story behind it?

blackbox

I used to have a 1980 Fiat X1/9 that the previous owner must have driven on the beach.

When it was only 5 years old I had to build supports for the pop-up lights from those metal straps with holes that you use to retain car radios. The interior of the door was so rotten that the window winder mechanism collapsed - I had to wedge the window closed (awkward for paying tolls or car park tickets.

Surprisingly, apart from a few bubbles on one front wing the outer skin was reasonably OK.

carchaeologist

Max_Damage wrote: »

That car was at the Essen car show last year. I wasn't there myself, but a friend of mine was and he had a picture of this car. What's the story behind it?

I think i read somewhere that that merc was used in a time capsule somwhere, it was brand new when it was put into the capsule, but the condensation over the years rotted the hell out of her, they got some surprise when they opened the capsule id say,must be the lowest milege rustiest car ever:D

carchaeologist

chevyv8 wrote: »

The good old days before the nct, i had a green mk2 escort reg no uli 669, it was a heap of crap, put me off fords for life.

Nearly everyone iv spoken to that had escorts when they were common cars all say they were crap, when you look at the prices some of them are getting now makes me wish i bought a few and stored them away 15 years ago!:)

Max_Damage

carchaeologist wrote: »

I think i read somewhere that that merc was used in a time capsule somwhere, it was brand new when it was put into the capsule, but the condensation over the years rotted the hell out of her, they got some surprise when they opened the capsule id say,must be the lowest milege rustiest car ever:D

There was another case of that in America. They put a Plymouth Belvedere into a time capsule in the 1950's, and they unearthed it last year I think. It was a rusted mess.

carchaeologist

Maybe im mixing it up with that story, im sure i read that it was a mercedes though.:)

Max_Damage

carchaeologist wrote: »

Maybe im mixing it up with that story, im sure i read that it was a mercedes though.:)

This is the Plymouth story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6759273.stm

The Mercedes one could have been another time capsule.

MercMad

The Mercedes SL was an almost new car and was being shipped on a boat up the Neckar river in Germany. Apparantly there was an accident whilst loading other cargo and the Merc was tipped over the edge !

It sat on the bottom for 30 + years before being removed during dredging works !

The thing is that the Neckar is supposedly a freshwater river, no salt, but not that deep so plenty of oxygen. I saw it at Essen where it was displayed by the German Pagoda Club.

It was incredible to behold !

The aluminium doors had seperated, skins parted fromt he frame and were oxidised but not bad. All chrome and basically everything was destroyed. Curiosly the fuel filler cap was almost perfect

Kevin_Herron

I seen it at Essen, it had a bigger crowd around it than anything else!

G Luxel

I think a few years ago there was a cargo boat collision in the English Channel and the boat sank, laden with about 1000 Mercedes, Volvos etc and its still at the bottom of the sea....:(

MercMad

G Luxel wrote: »

I think a few years ago there was a cargo boat collision in the English Channel and the boat sank, laden with about 1000 Mercedes, Volvos etc and its still at the bottom of the sea....:(

............they were new BMW's and various motorbikes. No other makes AFAIK, it was well documented at the time !