Trust rust to spoil things

[papa_lazaroo]

Just a quick line, I got under my MKII a couple of weekends ago, I was amazed at the surface rust on the Fuel tank, tank straps, and Exhaust. Towers should be strung up for the anti-corrosion cost reduction stunts his boys pulled out of late models. Consequently, I spent 10 hours de scaling and fully undersealing it. Looks mint now. Check yours, before uncle rust gets a firm hold.

[arwilson80]

Yeah. I noticed that on mine.... and got the underbody seal on it ASAP.

[john180]

whats involved in sorting this??? im hoping to buy a mk2 in next week or so and i dont want it rusting up...

[arwilson80]

Basically what i did was clean down the tank and spray it with a can (or 2) of underbody sealant. Simple job. Just takes a little time. It best if you can get it onto a car lift or a 'pit'.

[john180]

Basically what i did was clean down the tank and spray it with a can (or 2) of underbody sealant. Simple job. Just takes a little time. It best if you can get it onto a car lift or a 'pit'.

i can do that no problem. where do you get the underseal stuff from???

[papa_lazaroo]

The problem is that Garages are no longer allowed to do this for you, do to His Toniness and health and safety knobheads, so we have to do it our selves.

Tips
1, Do it with nearly no fule in, slacken off tank straps, and you get access to the top of the tank, a real salt trap.
2, Make sure you spray the full length of the Brake and Fuel line cluster as the MKII has the Nickle Zinc removed to save cost. so a good coating here is really a good idea.
3, Despite the fact that it.ll get on the exhaust and smaell for the first 50 miles as it burns off, give the Chassis rails, and rear inner arches a good going over.
4, If you get time, get the door cards off inside and smear handfulls and I mean handfulls of Vaseline, or similar on the inside of the door skins, Rover deleted the inner door final coatings to save cost (it's a wonder they went bust the amount of £'s they pulled back out from cars no longer made to BMW specs).
5, Look out for a MKI Exhaust for Your MKII, as the MKI was made of 441 grade stainless, and Tower made the Chassis boys go back to Galvanised MS so they rust through by 4 years old, usually from inside out.

Hope this helps.
Rob

[papa_lazaroo]

Most motor factors have 2 or 3 different makes, try to get one that will still spray regardless of can orientation.

And don't get any in your eyes or lungs, it's a killer.

[john180]

great stuff, ill prob invest in some of that and get it done when i get the car.

[interceptor]

Altough i have almost no rust on my 5.5 years old mk1 ZS 180, i almost can't believe the mk1 standard exhaust was made of a grade of stainless steel because the end of the intermediate pipe was completely rusted after 5 years and needed replacement.
Replaced it with a real stainless intermediate pipe from janspeed.

[Southern Storm]

Funny you should say that. My wifes ZR also failed at the same point after 3 years. My Mk1 ZS also failed at this point within 4 years.

[papa_lazaroo]

Well as the designer who Issued the design notes to release them into the system I can tell you they were stainless, However, Many people seem to think of a Stainless exhaust as something that will be still standing after we are all dead and gone, but not so.
The Basic Construction (rover 200,400 spec)was 2 lavers of Galvanised Steel 1.6mm thick with end plates roll crimped on the ends and various dots of weld added for extra strength. (weld then ate the galvanising and began the corrosion process) I Then was recruited to switch to Stainless steel. But the finance department at Rover wouldn't fund 2 layers of Stainless, so we went with 1 layer, and thickened it up to 1.9mm. This meant there was a gap, where previous material thickness had been, so the fitment in the Jigs was nasty.
Any way, the corrosive deposits that sit in your exhaust (exhausts rust because of the acids plus condensation concentrated daily attacking them. If you do 30,000 a year your exhaust will last 3 times longer than if you do 3000) and eat away at the (Now thinner walled Exhausts) sides and so you still get corrosion, but not rust corrosion.
Rover Paid the manufacturer - Unipart Eberspacher, in Coventry, less than £20 for each complete car system, this is why although stainless it is not a thick gauge, and not a high grade. A system from Janspeed or similar will cost 3 times as much to make, but will also be something like 304 grade (harder stainless but easier to polish). Hence aftermarket ones all look shiny.Rover only ever used 304 on tailpipe trims.

Hope this makes sense.

Rob

[Southern Storm]

Explains alot thanks Rob

[interceptor]

Ok, thanks for the explanation. The janspeed exhaust which i have now is indeed stainless 304 grade with a thickness of 1.5 mm (measered myself) so it will get coroded at the end but hoppefully will last longer than the lesser grade stainless which was used on the oe. exhaust. I always thought a magnet will stick on normal steel and not on stainless, so when i did that the magnet kept sticking on the oe. exhaust but it doesn't stick on the janspeed one, hence why i thought the oe. one wasn't a grade of stainless.

[papa_lazaroo]

:alcoholic:Alesser reason for the lower grade as well as the material costs (and you are quite right by the way, the lower the grade of Stainless the higher compliance to magnetic polar attraction) there is the cost and associated wear factor on the manufacturing tooling. Even if 304 were the same cost per tonne as 441 and vice versa, the car companies would opt for 441, as the bending and forming mandrels on a production nolume part, would wear out quickly agains 304.

Immagine you are Mr BMW, A) you like women with hairy airmpits, and B) you make 100,000 3 series exhausts per year, so tou tell the supplier that for your hard earned 10 million Euro. you expect 5 years tooling life. he designs the tool for 500,000 units, and then you say I want 304 instead of 441, he's gonna hit you for more tooling monez after 18 months.

Janspeed etc, make a far higher mark up, but onlz probably make 5,000 parts per year, so their tooling is far less sophisticated.

I tell you, the car trade is a huge con. It's like, If you say, you don't want, erm, aftermarket brakes or stereo or wipers, you'd prefer OE stuff, you aren't neccesarily getting the best Quality, you are just getting a more massed produced part.

I'll shut up now. Any one for beer