164 rust issues

there's a 164 cloverleaf on ebay at the moment with serious rust issues. here's the link to the 164

And the guy says the following on the problem

"The welding is at the rear, mainly around the trailing arm mounts and the subframe mounts on both sides. The rear silencer as broken off were the pipe goes in".

How hard is this to repair? Or is it a case of moving on to look at another?

that's a common place for them to rot - the rear beam will probably need replacing as well. To be honest, if it's that badly gone there will probably be rot around the front jacking points and other areas...the rot was pretty bad on my '95 QV which was why i got rid.

I'd move on to be honest - you'll be able to get a good one for the same price as you'll end up spending on that one unless you're keen to get busy with the welding torch yourself

Suppose if everything else is good it might be worth the hassle but i'm personally scared of rusty cars....

nope, I agree, this will be passed over.
Cheers for the reply.

AG

I had the trailing arms and subframe replaced on my TSpark last year and thought it was well worth doing (although parts cost was quite high). However, if it's gone at the chassis side of things, it might not be so easy or worth doing.

Oh yes.... I know all about this one!

The back end is a truly horrible job to weld up. For a start, it's quite hard to find something to lift the car on while you're doing the rear jacking points!

Also, the car is double-skinned in this area (under the rear seat) and it's very difficult to try and put any kind of rust prevention compound on the inside surface after welding. It's also a nasty set of compound curves where the sill meets the rear wheelarch, meets the trailing arm attachment point, meets the jacking point!

Petrol tank ought to come out too if you want to do it properly and on my car, there was a fair bit more rust down the "A" pillars at the top where they meet the screen under the external door seal.

I've done mine and it has lasted about 4-5 years but unless you desperately want THAT car, I'd move on. Put it this way, I've been thinking about trying to get a left-hand drive car from somewhere warm and dry and converting to RHD as an easier alternative to trying to weld up a rusty RHD car!

Originally Posted by Avocet

I've been thinking about trying to get a left-hand drive car from somewhere warm and dry and converting to RHD as an easier alternative to trying to weld up a rusty RHD car!

Crikey. Would make an interesting project though.

Is it me or do the mid 1990's onwards Alfas rot more than the late 80's early 90's versions? I have had 2 164's, one on a G plate, the other on a H, and although there was a bit of surface rust on the rear beam they were rot free. I have also seen holes in the floor of a 1996 145 QV.

Dunno, Mine's a 1990 (H) and is pretty rotten underneath!

I mean the 1995 car is only 11 years old. Yours is now nearly 17 years old. When I owned my G and H reg cars they were about 12 years old and were not rusty.

They seem to get rusty younger now.

We've got two 95s and a 97 here and there's no sign of any rust on any of them. Driven down dirty country lanes as well.