The answer to the rusty Xantia Jamb...

[xf1ref]

I had about same problem. I cleaned the rust with sand paper and steel brush and I treated the sheet with some solution for rust and with primer. A collegue cut from other Xantia same sheet metal in good condition. After I fixed the new sheet with rivets I used some lute, spray paint, etc... but you'll see better in photos maybe is helpful for someone. It came out pretty good considering is behind the door.

[citroenxm]

That IS MIGHTY impressive!!

[ihatecars]

Thanks for showing what this problem is and what it's caused by. My '95 M reg Dimension (with sunroof) has this rust on the driver's side and I've wondered for some time what the problem was. It looks exactly like xf1ref's first pik but on the driver's side, including vehicle colour.

All I need to do now is figure out why all the clear lacquer on the paintwork has lifted off on the rear 1/4 and from the top of rear boot lid. I'm assuming the hot sun loosens the lacquer.

[citroenxm]

Boot lid lacquer issues was not solved by citroen untill 1997 P reg models so the last two years of s1 cars.

Out of interest in which s2 boot lids with the upper brake light fitted in them will fit mk.1 cars. So the ultimate way is to fit one to an s1 car and gain a high level safety stop lamp too...

[tim leech]

Just seen this, bit late for my 95 M!

I can't weld so will tidy up, rust treat, seal and fill

[stupidxantia]

I have this issue on my break ... Bonus though, I know a guy that can make fibreglass panels. He has had a good look at the panel on my car (both sides) and said that if I can remove the panels from my car then he can make a mould and produce a fibreglass replacement part (his work is very high quality).

The gentleman concerned has produced several fibreglass lightweight special vehicles based around normal cars, one such example is an Alfa Gtv in a friend's ownership and you would think it was a steel car! I hope to have mine done by christmas time this year and will be able to post pictures of the finished job!
To me this will be a longer term repair and I will never have to worry about rust in this location ever again and as a plus point the guy will have a mould so other owners would be able to order panels from him if they so wished

[CitroJim]

Be careful here using fibreglass as this area may well be considered load-bearing.

Best to ensure the underlying structure is properly repaired and use a fibreglass bit as cosmetic only.

[Deanxm]

That area is considered highly structural, prob within 30cm of subframe and seatbelt mounts I would think.
Fibreglass would be OK for bolt on panels but blending it into the steel chassis has got to be a no no.

Unless there is some wonder process I don't know about.

D

[stupidxantia]

note taken .. I will get him to check the structure first to see if it's still plausible. Thanks for the heads up guys

If it's unsafe it obviously won't get done, however he seemed very confident that it would be good. I will check with Mr m.o.t tester too just to be on the safe and report back with the results!

[c.morewood]

I was polishing up the "new" yet rusty rear discs on my new blue one today when I spied this.


I'd never seen this before as my silver one's paint has remained intact over the top of the bungs.
I cut away the covering round the NS bung, treated the area and up the inside of the wing, with rust curer and oversprayed with zinc paint.
On the other side the paint covering had completely dissapeared and the edge of the hole looked quite rusty. I'll have to remove the tank filler neck to get to that one. Any idea what I should use to cover the holes with after treatment? how empty does the tank have to be to safely remove the filler pipes... is red light on enough?
This blue one is a mystery... at 35K most things are pristine.. the underside is hardly rusted .. yet the new discs barely 200 miles old are rusty as anything.. I snapped a brake pipe today.. pristine apart from one 2mm section which had rusted through and gave way when I moved the caliper. The rear brake protectors, those big almost circular things have rusted through at one point yet at the opposite side are as solid as new.. still not quite sure what to make of her yet... she needs a really thorough inspection just to make sure there aren't any real baddies waiting to fail around the next corner.

[c.morewood]

This weekend work... to fix the rust and prevent further rusting.
After removing the plastic refuelling pipe and the clipped breather pipe(tucked away behind the stub of the fuel tank)

As you can see in my previous post, both sides were starting to push the square inspection bungs away from the metal and were allowing water ingress. I cleaned the rust away as best I could with a wire brush and then gave the rusted parts 2 liberal coats of Aqua steel .. something like curust but a slightly thicker consistency.


You can see the extent of the rust inside the sills.. strangely , the bung was worse on the OS but the NS was much worse for rust inside the sill and as you can see on the bottom picture, the paint was starting to bulge the paintwork on the outside.


So after coating with Aqua Steel and letting each coat dry. I cut a piece of plastic to cover the inspection hole and then stuck it into place using a silicone sealant. after letting it dry, I then gave it all a coat of Zinc primer, including all the way up the iner wing.


After that had dried, I gave it two coats of Tetroseal underbody spray.. And determined to protect the area from further dirt and wet I made up a plastic mudguard/inner wing to go all the way over and hopefully protect the inspection area as well as the weld running up the wing. ( I didn't have enough for the NS as that requires a larger area of plastic) You have to be careful here to alow enough room for the wheel when the car is on low.


And lastly I noticed that the paint had started bubbling from the outer sill. Determined to avoid the sill welding fiasco of the silver one I decided to cout away a couple of flaps of paint to reveal the rust, which wasn't really there, but there was some rusty water. I coated the revealed metal with 2 coats of Aqua Steel and then a coat of Tetroseal and folded the flaps back and held them down with tape in the hope that the paint might hold the flaps in place.. that might not work and I'll have to think of something else.. we'll see. With having put the plastic pannels in with sealant, it gives me the option of opening them up again for another treatment or even waxoyling.

I hope this helps someone.

[ihatecars]

I'm sad to say, my Xantia didn't seem badly rusted in these areas at all, I took it for an MOT only to get the car back with big holes in the cills where the tester had tested the steel body work with a prod. There were no obvious external weakiness marks, I had no idea but once I saw the holes, it was a gloomy moment. The tester didn't want to explain wher the damage was, but he had marked with chalk all the weak spots in the bodywork. I think the main MOT failure reason was, that part of the bodywork is near the rear fixing points on the seat belts so is a failure.
It was a sad moment, but was like many things in life, I had to make that decision so scrap the car. Other repairs were catching up with it too, tyre, spheres plus the other MOT repairs.. oh well. £50 at the scrap man.

[Stickyfinger]

Those "bungs" are available from the dealers...