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Scuttle corrosion and RIF's retained nut solution


Richyd

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Some of you may have seen my post last week about the small amount of corrosion I have found along the horzontal edge of my scuttle under the master switch...

 

Well over the weekend I took off the knee panels under the dash to have a closer inspection. What I found was both bad and not-so-bad.

 

I removed the steel reinforcing plates that sit in the little ali gutters at each end of the scuttle. The disappointing bit was finding that they were both badly rusted, with the powder coat just flaking off. The good news was that once I took these out, I cleaned up the ali gutters, and the corrosion was very, very minimal indeed.

 

So, having cleaned up the steel plates and hammerited them, they now look a lot better. I was planning to put them back and drown the area in waxoil, which I am hoping will arrest the corrosion permanently or at least for a good few years. However, I did wonder about fitting RIF's retained nut fittings instead....??? I do not currently run with an aero, but I plan to next year. However, this aside, do the carbon bits simply drop in to replace the cr@p original steel plates?? and are they a full permanent replacement for these plates (which I guess re-inforce the side of the car *confused*) Also, will they react with the ali and cause more corrosion or not?? *confused* *confused*

 

Final point of note - I was really sad about the state of these steel plates. My car is a very clean and tidy 2004 car, with no signs of corrosion anywhere else on the car. The chassis looks very clean, I have always considered it a good-un. How pants is it to build such a clean chassis, only to bolt two cheap bits of steel to it that have not been powdercoated to the same standard as the rest of the car????? *mad* *mad* *confused*

 

C7 DVA - It's a 1.6 187bhp screamer!!!here

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its no doubt as a result of washing the car that corrosion has started. The plates would undoubtedly go through the same powder coating process at Arch, but it they are bathed in your washing water then they have a hard time *biggrin*

 

why not replace them with some ally plates ?, suitable sections are available in B&Q

 

here is C7 TOP

Taffia joint AO with Al

 

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Dave - I have had a good look around the engine bay and all appears A-OK. However, I cannot see inside the grot-traps, so I was planning to give a good liberal spraying of waxoil into the grot traps and hope that does the job.

 

Any other areas I should be spraying waxoil???

 

C7 DVA - It's a 1.6 187bhp screamer!!!here

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The RIF panels are a nice piece of kit - preferable to the powder coated steel version. The problem in this area of the car is that you have a meeting point for dissimilar metals in an area that gets wet and can stay wet for a while. You effectively have a steel ali sandwich with the ali as the filling. You also have 2 steel "annodes" protruding through the sandwich in the form of the studs that the scuttle sits on - then you tighten the whole lot together with nuts that scrub off the powder coating on the steel.

 

Rif and a thin coat of waxoyl between the chassis bar and scuttle return *thumbup*

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Ah I see! I was hoping I could just get a replacement for the steel strip without the rivnut/ aeri attachments. Would be a shame to cut it off - but I guess a long thin piece of carbon about 0.3-0.5cm drilled in the right place would do the job.
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Rich, I may take you up on that. Having stripped all the bulkheads & scuttle off last winter to, amongst others, sort corrosion out, I was a bit uncomfortable putting the big steel strips back in, even after painting. Im sure a steel-ali-steel sandwich cant be good for corrosion.
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