MOT welding boot floor

[BrokenBiker]

my brother passed his driving test a few weeks ago and my mother gave him her suzuki ignis...only problem is its gutless, the clutch is going, the brakes are shot, engine light is on but no-one can figure out why (its been to 4 garages and no one can get a code out of it or reset the light), it needs pretty much all the bushes on it changed, the steering is as vague as a hovercraft's and its stupidly expensive for him to insure too.

he doesnt desperately need a car as he works for his father and gets lifts in to work and home, so a car would just be for meeting mates etc, so he wants something cheap and cheerful.

i happen to know of a fiesta that is going for 150 quid but needs welding on boot floor...no problem i can get steel quite cheap and can have it done in a few hours for him, apart from that it looks decent, good history, lowish miles etc...for 150 quid its a bargain. its the engine before the zetec so easy for me to fix if it goes wrong (spent a lot of time on my first car with same engine).

now, i know there are a lot of MOT guys on here so i want to know if i can just slap a patch down inside the boot and seal it up from the top, or does the weld have to be visual from the side it will be checked? i.e. underneath? if it can be welded up form inside then its a simple job, if not then it might mean time taking it to bits, havent had a look yet but its the opposite side to the filler neck but unsure as to what else is under there that would need moving to gain access

 

[Spark plug]

Dosent matter witch side you weld from as long as the repair is fully seam welded

 

[BrokenBiker]

cheers, welded from the top it is then

 

[Freddy0309]

I've not long done it on my disco and the mot tester was happy with it being patched from the top

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

It will be simpler from the inside. As long as it is fully welded all round.
Underneath I would slap some sealant underneath to stop the water seeping back in.

If you are lucky you might find a panel in a scrap yard you can cut out and there an instant patch/

 

[Justme]

Dosent matter witch side you weld from as long as the repair is fully seam welded

Its a boot floor. Unless its near the suspension / brakes its not structural.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Not what you'd want to hear but forget the rotten Fiesta and sort out the Ignis as it's the better car all round. Removed the "travelling to and from work" from insurance as not needed and that will reduce premium - made quite a difference for me when I retired.

 

[normspanners]

Its a boot floor. Unless its near the suspension / brakes its not structural.

it is actually, seat belt mounts and if like disco body security is still within 30 cm rule

 

[Turbo]

If you haven't already done so thoroughly check the rest of the fiesta for rust. Every one I've seen around that age are rotten, especially round the rear wheel arches. £150 sounds dear, you can't give them away round here since the scrap prices have dropped!

 

[Justme]

it is actually, seat belt mounts and if like disco body security is still within 30 cm rule

Its a fiesta there are no body mounts.

Yes I forget seat belt mounts.

Still leaves a lot of boot floor that is not structural.

 

[normspanners]

cheers, welded from the top it is then

just be careful of any plastic fuel lines under the steel floor

Its a fiesta there are no body mounts.

Yeah I know I have tested the odd one or two (thousand)
just gave the disco as an example

 

[BrokenBiker]

Not what you'd want to hear but forget the rotten Fiesta and sort out the Ignis as it's the better car all round. Removed the "travelling to and from work" from insurance as not needed and that will reduce premium - made quite a difference for me when I retired.

he hasnt got commuting on the policy and its still over 3k to insure with a black box in it...the fiesta is £1400 without a black box! I have riven the fiesta around my estate and its spot on, ive had 3 of them before in various flavours, one the same as this one, a zetec 1.25 and a 1.8 diesel and the only thing that really went wrong with any of them was sills needed welding and one of them failed mot on brakes i think...the sills on this one are solid and dont appear to have been welded before either.

even if the car only last a year until the next mot he will still only have paid 1550 to buy and insure it, a few quid for the mot and whatever fuel he uses...if he has the ignis for a year he will have spent 3200 on insurance, god knows how much on getting the parts in for me to bring it back to being a half safe car, plus its mot is up in 3 months and its quite heavy on fuel too...

I have to ask about this whole 30cm from a structural part rule...how does anything in that area ever get repaired? surely if you cant weld that close to something structural then every car that failed mot on seatbelt mounting point (which 2 of mine did) would have to be written off...my second one failed on offside outter sill (seatbelt mounting) so i took it home, welded a bit of an old wing over the holes and took it back, passed it and drove it away.

and what about the people that weld up chassis rails? are they not structural either?

 

[BrokenBiker]

If you haven't already done so thoroughly check the rest of the fiesta for rust. Every one I've seen around that age are rotten, especially round the rear wheel arches. £150 sounds dear, you can't give them away round here since the scrap prices have dropped!

ive had a good look over it, given it a good prodding with a screwdriver in all the usual areas. its an s reg but only on 70k miles, 2 owners, first was a ford mechanic and second was his son so i get the feeling that this car was well taken care of during its life... its been dry stored for a while, 2 years i think, but has had a full fluid flush and change and it sounds like it should, pulls well and apart from the welding i cant see anything it would fail an MOT on

I think you misunderstand...

You are allowed to make repairs to structural areas, but the repair must be fully seam welded (unless spot welded to replicate the original, and then only in the original locations - i.e. a full replacement panel) and of 'sufficient' quality and integrity.

so a patch is fine as long as its fully seam welded? thats no problem then

 

[normspanners]

anything holes / structural integrity etc outside the 300mm sphere of a testable item, is not fail'able or testable unless it causes a pedestrian hazard ie sharp edges etc
so if the boot floor is spot welded at the edge seam the patch can be spot welded again there as long as the old seam lip has been removed and it has a continuous seam weld for any other part of the repair. effectively making it a solid panel, so imagine the repair as making a new complete boot floor if you cut the old spots out and the new spots the panel will come out as one piece of solid panelling