24th April 2011 - Will the rot ever end?

Well, I finished my last post with a photo of the rot in the strengthening gusset under the rear axle. I wasn't sure what the approach should be here, so I asked the very knowledgeable folk on the Series 2 club forum. The response was unanimous - if it looked that bad on the outside, the inside would be a lot worse, so it'd have to come off. In severe cases the rust will have attacked the axle casing itself requiring even more repair work.

So today I went through several cutting discs with my trusty angle grinder, and cut through the strengthener. Look what was inside...

I was obviously concerned at this point as I feared the worse for the axle casing. So I pressed on and ground back the surface using a grinding disc and then my favoured wire brush.

It looks like I've been lucky and caught it in time - although there was a lot of surface rust, there is decent metal underneath. I have the option of fabricating a new strengthener out of sheet steel - certainly if I was planning to do much off-roading with Pod I would do so. But given that Pod is likely to lead a fairly easy life once he's back on the road, I don't think the strengthener will be necessary. The only other minor concern I have is that all this rust followed by some fairly drastic grinding will have reduced the thickness of the metal. Without cutting through it I can't possibly tell, so I think it's one of those things I'll have to take a chance on. If the axle bends the first time I hit a bump in the road - I'll know I should have added the strengthener!