jack point problem
 

Hi all. An increasingly familiar problem I believe after doing some searches on here.
I was looking near the rear offside sill and took some photos of where the rubber jack point is. There is evidence of rust but also some crack openings. What’s the current advice for making the best repair possible barring eventual replacement and welding?
I have an anti rust treatment called Ferox which has proved pretty good but it’s surface stuff only.

There are only 3 jack points fitted, the front offside is missing. I know some say take them off. Well I tried, but after 17years, it’s well and truly stuck. How are they supposed to come off?
Sorry photos are not good but hopefully show the problem.
Thanks, Ray.

In theory they are just clipped in with lugs that go into the hole in the sill although I have heard of them being secured with mastic and God knows all what.

Hi Ray.
I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I think you will find that the sills have gone to far now, and if you care to scrape off the rust it may well hole as mine did.

https://i.imgur.com/fLQrpSSl.jpg1

https://i.imgur.com/VaGcFzCl.jpg2

Thanks Steve (not! lol) I have given things a good prod and it seems pretty firm, though no doubt there will be worse to find if I could get the pad off.

If possible I'd like to get it repaired as the car is running extremely well and generally in good condition. MOT passed in October.

So if a decent repairer is known, if possible around Hereford, I'd like to know. Got to drive it back from Italy before then though!
Ray

Well, if you did get a puncture on your trip there are other places to jack the wheel up.
Probably best to carry one of those small cylindrical jacks with you. Not expensive.--:}

Steve, Arctic, is dead right, looks superficial but once you start prodding you will find total rot! had this on both of my cars offside rear sills go first. Needs a good welder to put it right.

And if I recall Ray yours was a sea side car so that won't have helped with the rust problems

Hello Ray,

I was in this situation recently. Behind that pad is a turret which sits inside the hollow sill to take the weight of the four post lift. The turret was a listed MGR part but is now obsolete. You'll need to find a classic car bodyshop who can fabricate something for you. A good job won't be cheap but it will solve the problem once and for all.

Simon

We have seen the pictures........... Sadly it won't be the end of the story in the case of the "repair" carried out on the rear inner and outer sill / jacking point section of your car Simon :(

It was an example of what would be described by Charles Ware, as a "short term MOT patch"

With that I mean a chicken poop "weld" with a lot of porosity and undercutting to a section of steel that had not had the tinworm cut back far enough, so much so as the ginger was showing through the paint.

You have to choose carefully when employing someone who is experienced, competent, and takes care and pride in what they do.

A lot of people claim to be classic car restoration specialists, or indeed welders, but I've seen some real horror stories, and yours is not the worst.

This is why when someone who clearly takes great pride in their work such as Tom Hobbs is discovered, then it is worth the effort in employing his services, even if a long journey is involved, if your car is going to be a keeper ;)

It is exactly this type of inattention to detail that lead me to carry out repairs of this nature myself.........properly

Brian :D

Tom Hobbs is your man, I had my 51 plate 75 done by him, I don't think you will find better to be honest, and to echo what Brian has said, unless you are very lucky, once you can see rust like yours it's too late, they rot from the inside out,

https://www.tjhobbs.com/photos.html#

If you click on the photos section the photo on the top row fourth from the left is my 75, if you want more before, during and after pics message me.

I too totally recommend Tom Hobbs and have photos of the nearside will I can email if you wish, just message me if you require any.

Martyn

Ps. He will do a side in a day, I went in to Ilkeston for the day. £100 a side but I had mine painted black.

I could have written that Brian, but in respect of mechanical or electrical repairs and maintenance. Can I therefore rely on your support rather than opposition when that subject next arises?

Simon

Many thanks for all the responses. I shall have to wait and see. Can't do anything about it at the moment. It depends on the seriousness of the situation and if other repairs are needed elsewhere then it may become a non-viable repair.

I hope not as I mentioned previously everything else about the car is going well. 'Rodrigo' (yes, it has name, sad isn't it?) originally started life being a company car registered in Manchester where it did the bulk of its miles before being bought by a guest house owner in Lytham St Annes. (So yes, Scott, it was near the coast but not right on it) It did not occur to me to be a problem, indeed coastal roads may not need salting as much as inland ones do, but accept there is salty air.
Back tracking, after going to the 2014 Club meeting at Gaydon and talking to possibly some of you, we decided a 75 was what we had always wanted but could not afford. The search was on to find a good one in Copperleaf or Moonstone. Autotrader came up trumps and in October 2014 I asked via the club and Ken Lions agreed to check it out for me, which he did and reckoned it was worth a punt. It's a long drive from Hereford but after a drive around and a bit of haggling bought it. Far from concourse condition but pretty good, it had done 101,500. It has now completed 136,500 having had it serviced and some replacement bits by Jules it is now in Italy awaiting it's return drive back in March.
It certainly turns heads here even today, after all the Italians did vote it 'The most beautiful car in the world' when it launched.
I was going to try a car breaker here to see if there were a few desirable bits to be had, still might.
Sorry, got carried away. Amazing what an emotional hold a car like the Rover 75 can have!
Ray

They are amazing cars and well worth spending money on to keep them in good order. I also like your taste in colours as I have a Copperleaf & Moonstone both really nice colours.
Look at the cost to fix it and what else could you buy for your money that won't need work doing.

Yes Simon, but coming from Brian it is more authoritative. As it always will be! ;):D

I took my car here,,,,,can recommend them and they are in Hereford :-

Mumford Low Bake: home
www.mumfordlowbake.co.uk/
A Local Family Run Business Specialising in Car, Commercial Accident and Body Repairs. Unit 4, Sweetmans Yard, Plough Lane, Hereford HR4 0EE tel .

How much did it cost per side? I presume he has the advantage of spraying it the right colour for you as well? I believe Tom Hobbs just does black.

Did you get a photo history of the work, because as Brian says, for a keeper, you really want to know its done to the sort of standard the Hobbs threads show.

I need mine doing and your recommendation is a bit closer for me, so would be good to see the same kind of picture report, if the op decides to go there.

Worth enquiring about cost. Discount for two cars perhaps!? Can't do anything about it at present unfortunately. Ray

I went there on a recommendation from another member on here.They had the car for 4 days and painted the sill in the same colour (Copperleaf).Although I did not have a series of pictures as to what and how they did it The finished article did look good but time will tell,It has been 18 months now and all looks perfect so far...They also loaned me a courtesy car for the 4 days,,.:}

Any more news on your sills Ray?

I know of cars Tom has also painted the correct cour but the owner supplied the paint. He does a great job.

Jack Pads
 

I had the same issue with my ZT, only ever had the one jack pad fitted and it was the only one that rotted. All the others are fine.
That's my experience I now don't have any fitted.

Can the car be jacked up without using the pad? (I've never tried it)

Yes - but I would always put something soft such as a square of wood or an ice hockey puck to prevent the jack causing any localised indentations or damage to the coatings.

Is there centre rear jacking point?

I was planning on using a 200mm length of wood sleeper - either on the same axis as the sill, or at 90 degrees to it.

I was just wondering whether it would be better with or without the jacking pad in between the sleeper and the car. Without the pad, the sleeper would be touching/lifting either side of the jacking point (as well as the jacking point itself) - is this ok? That's the vital question.

(Perhaps I should start a separate thread on this :getmecoat:).

I also use wood sleepers - a 3mx250mmx125mm sleeper cut into 400mm lengths for support. I make sure that the pad is in place and even when I have used the sleeper pieces without the pad, I used a similar sized square of wood to bear the load.

The reason being that there is only support for jacking in the area of the pad - beyond this the sill will deform relatively easily.

See this photo of the support structure from Simon aka sd1too.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...75&postcount=5

Thanks, that's what I thought - i.e. to avoid bending the sill, the car should only be supported by the jacking point area and nothing (wood or otherwise) should be in contact with the sill either side of it.

My OSR jacking point has some rust but nothing like the 1st pic here or 2nd pic in post 3 here. I've prodded the sill all around the pad hole with a sharp point and it's solid, only the edges of the hole itself are a bit flaky/rusty.

A thought occurs (might be a silly idea) but what about filling the jacking points with expanded foam? Imagine Simon's repaired sill (2nd pic here) completely full of rock hard expanded foam. Would it prevent rust by stopping condensation forming or water entering?

I've used this stuff for central heating pipes and it would easily fill a jacking point - Soudal - it sets extremely hard.

https://www.toolstation.com/soudal-g...ng-foam/p52365

Well, I am from the school of thought which says that preventing any form of rot (of which rust is one) requires free flow of dry air and that any form of injected material will accelerate the rot by trapping existing rust and moisture.

My approach would be to to have the support areas strengthened and treated before rust takes hold. Most people would consider this to be mad but in my view, once rust takes hold it is all downhill.

I had the few areas of superficial rust cut out and removed from the sills of my Omega at 18 years of age. The sills were also inspected internally. With that circa £600 of welding, I am expecting the car's structure to outlast the upper body panels.

:wot:

The SD1, a much maligned car, has ventilated sills. It's wheelarches, door skins, bonnet, tailgate and rear panel rot but the sills don't.

Simon

Most 75's and ZT's now have ventilated sills :drool4:

Problem with filling sills with expanding foam is that if some unsuspecting soul tries welding or cutting the sill a very destructive fire could result.
Some of the foams are made of similar compounds to the foam that backed the tiles on Grenfell tower

Spotted the O/S/R of my ZTT is a little crispy around the jacking point area, further inspection pending.
After the whole new rear end this year, it won't be the end though!

Another offside rear
 

Mat - you might find what I've just found (see below).


On further inspection, my OSR is not as good as it seemed on first sight. I've now bent the flaky bits back with a flat screwdriver and it looks like this (1st pic below). I'm not sure what to do now because I was planning a complete rear end overhaul, including a new subframe.


BELOW: OFFSIDE REAR

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...8a932bce2f.jpg


BELOW: OFFSIDE FRONT

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...8a98a25a44.jpg


BELOW: NEARSIDE FRONT

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...8a9da13639.jpg


BELOW: NEARSIDE REAR

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...8adc9dd2e3.jpg


I'm convinced the jacking pads are to blame for most of the corrosion - they trap water. It's not hard to tell which of these pads was in the offside rear position. :mad:

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...8aabeb229a.jpg

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...8aabec5d00.jpg

What to do next?

:shrug:

PS. The first 4 pics above were taken using a mirror lying on the ground - hence they're a bit soft, and might be back to front! :}