Body/Trim: 850: Rust...please take care with your 850 and check all is well.

[cyclogenesis]

Thank you so much for highlighting this issue. I thought my car might not have an issue but I was wrong. I think I may have caught it just in time and I have a brother in law handy with a welder. It seems the weakness starts where the Belgians (my car was built in Ghent) have spot welded on the hanger for the seat bolster and have not made good the underside afterwards. I have also found rust in the front arches just where the bumper ends, in the roof seams underneath the weather strip and several places on the tailgate. I also have one irritating spot at the top of the windscreen where a screen replacement bod clearly scratched the paint when he was removing the glass

[amazondean]

Yes, that is exactly the place when it is at its worst. You are seeing the rust from the inside, so when you remove your plastic lining from under the wheel arch, be prepared for some work. Usually, you don't see the rust on the inside because it hasn't quite got that bad, but on your car expect a good sized patch repair. Both sides need the liners removing ASAP

[cyclogenesis]

Yep I got underneath just after taking these photos. I have made a temporary repair with wire brush, rust eater, isopon P40, primer and hammerite before placing the lining back on. I noticed a couple of other areas to be cautious of as well, where the pins for the screw on plastic nuts are and on the top of the spring mountings.

I will clearly need to cut out a considerable amount of rot and get my brother in law to weld new pieces in but thankfully, it looks like it has not spread to the strong points where the seat pivots. Some more pics from today attached.

[amazondean]

That third photo looks suspiciously close to your back seat swivel mounting. I had to reconstruct the mounting on my car. It is critical the position and orientation of it. If it is just one or two millimeters out of position,the back seat wont locate properly at the top of the seat where it clicks into place.