Hi Everyone

 

I have a mk3 1996 Polo which i have had now for 24 years.  Its had a fortune spent on it in that time but I love that car.  Based on the failed MOT and the garage's verdict this morning its looking like we might have reached the end of the road and this is my last attempt to get some advice on whether it can be saved from scrap.

 

The MOT threw up a major defect - subframe mounting, excessive corrosion nearside front.  This morning the garage took a look to see if this could be welded and it can be but it also revealed a bigger issue.  I thought I had a blocked drain as the fans packed in a week ago and water is leaking into the car from behind the glove box.  Anyway this seems to be due to the massive hole where the back of the engine compartment has corroded away and this is why water is flowing into the passenger foot well when we set off.   In the mechanics words, he cannot touch this as its not possible to weld next to the engine, electrics, fuel etc and would be too dangerous and seriously expensive.

 

Hopefully that makes sense to someone and you can give me a second opinion, is all lost, can he only be scrapped and stripped for parts or is there anyone who knows how to fix this?

 

Any advice would be great!

photos would help

 

ask at some more garages...anything is possible with enough £££ or do what i did and buy a welder and learn how to weld

Depends a bit on the extent it's gone to. My caddy had to have one of the subframe outrigger mount points remade for mot this year and it wasn't a bad job for a good welder. You hit a point though where it goes from a couple of patches to get another year out of it and needing a restoration. 

What can you do yourself is the question.

 

With jobs like this most of the cost is labour, the cost of materials of a welding job can usually be counted on one hand. The main cost is in preparing the area to be repaired.

In your case it sounds like the engine, loom, fuel lines and carpet would need to be removed in order to access the area properly.

Depending on the garage and how many issues they run in to they would probably charge anywhere between 4 to 8 hours labour (removal and refitting) for that part of the job alone.

Then you've got another X amount of labour costs for cutting out the rot, making up repair panels and welding them in. This can spiral a bit as a 5p sized hole often turns into a fist sized hole and once the infected section is removed it can often reveal a hidden section that also needs repaired. But lets say for argument sake it's another 8 hours all in.

This means in total you could be faced with a 16 hour bill plus materials plus VAT which would probably be more than the current value of the car hence your mechanics advice not to do it. 

 

But if you can undertake the removal and refitting of the engine etc. yourself, you'd save yourself half the cost of the job right there. If you're handy with an angle grinder then you could probably cut out all the rot yourself too, saving another few hours labour. Alternatively do you have any friends/relatives who tinker with cars who would be willing to help? Buying a crate of beer for a mate for helping you remove the necessary parts would be considerably cheaper than paying the garage to do it.