Hi
Just had some boot welding done on the Escort for the MoT - £25 which seemed cheap enough for the two small patches involved.
My question - is it common to underseal the work inside the boot? I did take all my rubbish and carpet out before, but should this be an invitation to go wild with the spray tin?
Took a good half hour with blue towel and white spirit to get it all off so I could put carpet back - horrible stuff.
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Mike Farrow
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Quite normal in my experience. I'd also check that your rear lights and fuel guage still work - I've twice had the insulation melted on the wiring.
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Yes, it is perfectly normal to underseal any exposed metal. If left exposed it would rust, at which point you would only complain to the poor 'indy' that they hadn't protected the exposed metal.
Now that you have removed all the underseal in the boot, is there any exposed metal?
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If a weld is on 'view' you'd expect it to be neatly ground down, filled, undercoated and paint matched - this would cost considerably more than the £25 you paid. If it's in the boot or elsewhere out of sight then underseal is the norm - quick and cheap.
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I would expect a bead of the proper sealant over welded joints. Underseal for this application is just a bodge.
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L\'escargot.
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What would you want for £25?
Anybody that will weld anything for £25 is not doing a high quality repair, he is doing in l'escargots words " a bodge".
If you want a better finish pay a better price?
Not sure what work you do but what would you do for £ 25 ?
You want proper sealant and proper finish you should be talking £ 100 +.
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i needed some welding done in my boat, along a bilge seam, i was quoted £10 per inch, ok, he had to come to me at the marina, but a 6" split cost me £130 quid with labour an vat.
Moral: make sure your anchors stowed before berthing!!.
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Seam sealant on the weld is a very good idea. Underseal on the top of this after it has dried would be the ultimate protection. Considering it would be a quick job time wise - it would be well worth the effort.
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If the petrol tank was just underneath the floor of the boot I would want a lot more than £25.00.
wemyss
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I think Mike knows £25 welding is a cheap answer, but I know what he means about underseal. I had some floor pan welding done a few years back and carefully removed carpets & trim & covered seats etc. I instructed the welder to leave the inside floor bare so I could undercoat it, top coat it & put in some new insulation pads. As you can guess, when the car returned everywhere around the weld was liberally smothered in underseal meaning about an hour with a gallon of white spirit before I could paint the floor properly.
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i always find the thicker the underseal the poorer the welds are
or half the welds are silicone welds
or
once told the story where the welds were candle wax
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i always find the thicker the underseal the poorer the welds are or half the welds are silicone welds
I have found that - tack welds, welds in the corners only of plating, or - even - fibreglass!
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Sounds like a good repair to me for £25. After all, its not as though the underseal under the carpet would be visible in normal use and it would have provided good rust protection.
Of course i`m assuming its quite an old escort we are talking about?
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Hi
Thank you to all who replied.
Firstly, I'm not expecting anything special for £25. I never said I did. If they'd had left it as it, worts and all, I couldn't have cared less as I can't see it.
The fact is though that this stuff goes everywhere - up the inner wheel arch (which the carpet doesn't cover), and onto the back of the rear seats. And it stays tacky for days.
As for it actually doing anything - there is no water ingress to speak of. When I took it to them the boot was as dry as a bone, even after two weeks of heavy rainfall, and the mode of rust progression was from under the boot, not inside.
I guess I'll just have to request it not being used next time.
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Mike Farrow
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I guess I'll just have to request it not being used next time.
Whatever you do do, don't try and remove it with a wire cup brush in an angle grinder. Just dont. Got it? Ok. No. Don't.
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even worse warming the underseal up in front of a fire and forgetting about it till it explodes
now that does make a mess :-(
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