I have almost completed the stripping of the paint from my S1 DDS and have been very pleasantly surprised at how good the panels are. However I have located pinholes at the very top of the A posts where the scuttle/windscreen surround panel wraps over the top of the A post. This is effectively in the gap where the scuttle panel is alongside the rearmost top edge of the LH or RH fender/wing.
I’ve tried to further investigate what this may look like from the inside but I can’t figure out how to access it (because I would like to treat rust and then wax the area after repainting)
I hope that someone can point me in the right direction here as I hate to think of rust festering away inside closed and unprotected cavities.
Thanks and best regards,
Mike.
1973 S1 DDS in Sable ( but currently naked!)
I’m picking that it is going to be a closed section, if you have a rust hole already then without completely opening up the area the only way I see is to drill an access hole and try to get some rust inhibitor in there.
I think you will find the A-pillar is MIG welded at top and bottom, then the joins are smothered with lead
the joins crack
rust gets in and runs down the inside lower pillar,
you can inspect the naked pillar from inside the car to see how bad things are,
a borescope will help
to repair such a problem in the past, I had to melt all the lead away, repair & reweld,
instead of lead, I used 2 part epoxy, with SS fibres…it even looks like lead
Thanks to Robin & Tony for confirming that access is virtually nil unless I start drilling… Now I have the screen and dash out I think it may have limited access from behind the dash close to scuttle air intake vent and wiper wheelbox locations but this cross car section is only about 3" wide by 1" deep. I have “invested” in a USB camera/endoscope (£8.00 on ebay!) which I am hoping might reveal more.