200 TDi Rust Repairs

Captain Dave said:

Hi,

I’ve recently bought myself a 1992 200TDi as a mini project. On my todo list was to replace the battery housing as thats gone through, and I have just removed the seat box. Unfortunately I found a bit more corrosion than I was expecting. The area where the seat belts anchor through the bulkhead behind the front seats have corroded through and aldo where the seat box bolts to the brackets at the rear bottom of the sills is also rotten.

My plan is to replace the seat belt anchor brackets and the brackets on the sills, as those are clearly critial. However I was only going to patch the areas where the panels have corroded with 2mm riveted alluminium sections. To completely replace those sections would be major, and I dont have access to welding equipment. My assumption is that they are not structural and will be out of sight when I put the seat box back in and replace the carpet, so my repairs will be strong enough and not an eyesore.

I would really appreciate some advice and hopefully confirmation that its ok to do the repairs in the way I have suggested.

I will try to upload some photos.

Thanks,

Click to expand...

Captain Dave said:

Hi,

I’ve recently bought myself a 1992 200TDi as a mini project. On my todo list was to replace the battery housing as thats gone through, and I have just removed the seat box. Unfortunately I found a bit more corrosion than I was expecting. The area where the seat belts anchor through the bulkhead behind the front seats have corroded through and aldo where the seat box bolts to the brackets at the rear bottom of the sills is also rotten.

My plan is to replace the seat belt anchor brackets and the brackets on the sills, as those are clearly critial. However I was only going to patch the areas where the panels have corroded with 2mm riveted alluminium sections. To completely replace those sections would be major, and I dont have access to welding equipment. My assumption is that they are not structural and will be out of sight when I put the seat box back in and replace the carpet, so my repairs will be strong enough and not an eyesore.

I would really appreciate some advice and hopefully confirmation that its ok to do the repairs in the way I have suggested.

I will try to upload some photos.

Thanks,

Click to expand...

Marmaduke said:

Welcome to the forum Dave, I've used these in the past for repair panels but I've also bought a seatbox off ebay for 99p that had a solid battery tray in it.

https://yrmit.co.uk/product-category/land-rover-defender-90/seat-box/

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Captain Dave said:

Cool, I have actually got the new battery box from YRMIT, so my seat box itself is now solid. What I am unsure about is the other areas of corrosion I’ve found and I just want to patch rather than replace complete new sections. Which I need to adivce before I get stuck in. Any thoughts ?

Thanks,

Click to expand...

Captain Dave said:

Thats great, will definitely get some of those. Do you know if you can also get a patch panel for the horizontal area behind the seats where the seat belt anchor brackets come through.

Also, any idea why it rusts so badly there, I assume somehow water collects, but itseems an odd place for it to build up.

Many thanks.

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