After giving Jade a good wash I turned my attention to looking for rust.
I already knew the boot floor was very rusty as the accident damage to the rear end meant that the boot lid was no longer able to close correctly, allowing water to leak in.
Accident damage allows water into boot and the boot floor begins to rust
I next lifted out the interior carpets. The floors in the back were solid and in good condition put as I started to look towards the front things took a nasty turn. In the passenger floor there was a large hole and as I pulled back the frayed carpet on the sill more daylight could be seen. I had a look under the car and saw huge patches of rust spreading towards the rear.
Rear driver-side floor section is solid and rust free, but does have cobwebs
Passenger floor and footwell is full of rust allowing daylight to be seen
As I moved to the drivers side the story got a whole lot worse. I find it amusing that I was able to get into the car and drive it and not notice that there was no accelerator pedal! The lack of pedal is an excellent clue to the dreadful repair that had been done previously to the drivers footwell. The repair is crude to say the least, and the fact they did nothing to address the rust issues as that repair was being executed, just made things worse.
Special edition light weight accelerator! You can see the floor is wet following me washing the car, so water must be leaking through the firewall somewhere. Not good.
Drivers side floor. I don't know if you could call this is repair, but what ever you call it, it is a disaster!!
It is enough to make you sick!
At this stage things are looking very bleak, but I had to keep looking. The harder I looked the worse things got.
These next photos are not for the weak hearted, and will potentially upset fellow lovers of not only the stroke 8, but all classic cars out there.
The boot is very rusty and is thinner than paper at the back edge and around the fuel filler
Holes through the body work where the boot closes
Rust bubbles around back window
More bubbles starting to come through in the rear quarter panel, a common stroke 8 rust spot
Rear wheelarch, passenger side....
which after a bit of poking with my finger became this, then....
THIS!!!!! I stopped at this point.
Driver side footwell. Again I am not sure why water would be seeping in here, but it cannot be a good thing.
Game over!
No doubt by this time, like me you will all be feeling sick to the stomach. The rust is horrendous, and I sure, like an iceberg, there is a lot more that I cannot see at this stage.
It breaks my heart to do it, but I have decided that there is no hope for Jade. There is no way I could commit to the investment it would take to fix her. It would take a full bare metal restoration to cut out all this rust. I hope to salvage as many parts as I can to help save some other series 1 C114's; UGU included, before sending Jade for a permanent vacation.
