The "Official" Mk1 Fabia Rust Thread

[AnnoyingPentium]

On the back of what @VanhireBoys was saying on another thread, I thought it would be wise to create a thread to document common rust spots for the Mk1 Fabia and how to spot early signs of it. Feel free to share your own images etc as it all helps towards documenting the rot on these cars, particularly as they become a little more... decrepit.

 

One of the areas where I've seen these cars rust most is at the sills, particularly at the rear, or at the base of the front wings. As an example, here's where mine is just beginning to go at the rear, with some surface rust. Mine had been beginning to bubble up at the two points further along the sill, but I may have accidentally blown the paint off with the pressure washer.

 

 

This is the other side, which isn't as bad, but just beginning to visibly rust.

 

 

In regards to rusting at the bases of the wings, I'll use the photos that @TMB posted on my project thread...

 

 

 

It seems to be that dirt likes to gather in here and rot them out. As a solution (which might be like peeing in the wind), take the arch liners off, and clean in behind there. I've also used the power washer in the gap between the sill and the base of the arch and it has blown a metric **** ton of dirt out.

[TMB]

They also like to rust on the tailgate around the number plate lights. Also seen it happening on much newer Skodas. Here's a pic of a 2015 Superb....

 

[Lofty]

Going back a few years the anti-corrosion warranty was still valid for a lot of these cars and a number of the common spots were reluctantly fixed by the manufacturer. The rust around the number plate lights was the most common to be fixed with little resistance, especially as they could not blame stone chips for the rust in that spot.

 

Now that the corrosion warranty is long gone it's left to owners to fix these issues.

 

Generally the Fabia is well put together and had excellent protection from the factory, however after many years of shall we say less diligent owners, they can fall into disrepair quickly. In essence there are no intrinsic rust traps as long as the car is cleaned properly and chips touched up before they fester. 

 

The sills are an issue now as they get battered by stone chips and the rust starts there and creeps unknowingly under the factory applied stone chip, festering away until they go in a hole, just in time for an MOT. Regular checks in these areas are essential and if needs be a proactive approach to remove ALL of the factory stone chip back to bare steel and then treat, and re-apply then repaint will give the car a few more years. Also in these areas are the sill lips themselves. Years of numpties jacking the cars up on the non-reinforced areas of the sill flanges causes them to bend, crack the paint and then water gets in. This affects all cars, and the Fabia is no worse than other cars on the market for this.

 

Rear arches as Ryan pointed out are usually pretty goof and the arch liner themselves can rub the paint of the lower edge, causing a bare spot for rust to start. One thing that would frighten most Fabia owners is to remove the arch liner and look behind at the multitude of spot welds in the inner arch. By now they spot welds will have paint lifting off them so a pre-emptive grinding back and treating is a worthwhile job. 

 

At the back of each rear wheel arch, where the rear bumper meets the rear 1/4 panel is another hotbed. The bumper rubs against the 1/4 panel, rubs the paint off and the rust starts there. Eventually it will spread under the bumper and up onto the rear 1/4, again catching it early helps.

 

Front wings suffer with being stuffed with dead leaf matter, mud, dust and crap, from behind the arch liner, again regular removal of the arch liner and cleaning out will prevent most of this.

 

In short, most of the corrosion can be prevented by regular cleaning, looking at and touching up chips when they happen. It's obviously possible as there are cars with 200K miles on with pristine sills and arches.

[sepulchrave]

I've noticed the earlier cars seem more resistant to tinworm, cars that have lived up norf get salted underneath most winters whereas here in the beautiful sarf they don't.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Another thing I've noticed is that a few of these cars have broken arch liners. Mine is an example of this, with the driver's side arch liner missing the bit that covers the sill, which accelerated the rust on that side (which was "terrifically" painted over, as the passenger side is relatively good in comparison.

 

 

Edited 27 June, 2022 by AnnoyingPentium

[Lofty]

The originally fitted rear arch liners were of a better quality than the ones currently supplied by Skoda, the early ones seemed ever so slightly thicker and more resistant to breaking on the lower edges like you show above Ryan. 

I fitted new ones on my yellow one years ago a broke one the first time out, and that was new genuine stuff from TPS.

 

The earlier cars in general seemed a little better protected from rust, I know it's almost unheard of to find SE's for example without corroded sills and arches so maybe the protection applied to later ones was lacking somehow?

[sepulchrave]

The Fabia was supposed to be the car that salvaged Skodas reputation, I think they initially overdid the bodyshell rustproofing, probably by slowing the line that puts the bodyshell through the bath to give it a thicker and more thorough coating, then ze Germans with clipboards showed up and made them run it faster.

[DC2990]

In my experience with the sill rust with the cars age now the factory applied stone chip is a problem.

Where the stone chip ends you can have surface rust and what i found was that this had spread under quite large areas of the stone chip.

Water gets in between the sill and stone chip and is rusting away unnoticed

The stone chip can look fine but when in my case having a scrape of the surface rust next to the stone chip quite large areas of the stone chip could be peeled off showing at this stage as surface rust.

Basically there must be alot of cars where the sills look good which are rusting away under the stone chip which you will only find out about when it's too late.

[Lofty]

13 hours ago, DC2990 said:

In my experience with the sill rust with the cars age now the factory applied stone chip is a problem.

Where the stone chip ends you can have surface rust and what i found was that this had spread under quite large areas of the stone chip.

Water gets in between the sill and stone chip and is rusting away unnoticed

The stone chip can look fine but when in my case having a scrape of the surface rust next to the stone chip quite large areas of the stone chip could be peeled off showing at this stage as surface rust.

Basically there must be alot of cars where the sills look good which are rusting away under the stone chip which you will only find out about when it's too late.

I had a 206 GTi 180 with exactly this, on cursory inspection the sills looked immaculate, i jacked it up one weekend and heard the crunching sound of metal moving and then when prodded the entire drivers sill was like weetabix. Ended up having a complete outer sill on and it was about 9 years old at the time. Got rid after that. It was rotten as a conker under the shiny stonechip. I suspect it had rotted from the inside out as there were very few stone chips on the sills.

[Lofty]

16 hours ago, sepulchrave said:

The Fabia was supposed to be the car that salvaged Skodas reputation, I think they initially overdid the bodyshell rustproofing, probably by slowing the line that puts the bodyshell through the bath to give it a thicker and more thorough coating, then ze Germans with clipboards showed up and made them run it faster.

The real early 1999 Fabia's that came through the dealers as W plates were very, very well put together like you say. The underbody coatings were hugely thick, especially compared to the then still current Felicia models. They really did go OTT on the protection of the early ones. Mind you the same was true of early Octavias, they were tank like in their assembly, only getting cheaper parts and less spec as they got longer in their production run.

[Stewartasb]

On 27/06/2022 at 01:45, TMB said:

They also like to rust on the tailgate around the number plate lights. Also seen it happening on much newer Skodas. Here's a pic of a 2015 Superb....

 

second that thats the only place i had some rot and ive seen several with this same spot rusting the issue is it holds water and people dont tend to wipe that area well when cleaning the car.

[DieselMonte]

My 2001 fabia has a serious amount of rust protection on it, still in decent shape rust wise 21 years on. 

Even with the state of mine, I'd agree that they're better put together than even the mk2.

[VanhireBoys]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204026900938?hash=item2f80f371ca:g:5fIAAOSwdcViwzuq

 

Pretty extreme case of rust here - 157k miles - This confirms what yous have said earlier about the SEs being rusty ! 

 

Ryan you should put a bid in here and get 2 new inner and outer sills put on - You would need tp see it first ! 

 

This particular car is well in the danger zone 😓

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 hour ago, VanhireBoys said:

Ryan you should put a bid in here and get 2 new inner and outer sills put on - You would need tp see it first !

 

Right, I know I make daft decisions, but I've refrained from looking at that again so I don't buy it!

 

I do know a guy who can weld for mucho cheapness... mind you...

[Lofty]

It surprises me that it's already at £2300 being in that condition..... mind you Fabia prices always make me gulp a little in surprise.

[TMB]

Seen better cars in the scrap yard.

[DieselMonte]

2 hours ago, Lofty said:

It surprises me that it's already at £2300 being in that condition..... mind you Fabia prices always make me gulp a little in surprise.

I know someone who has payed £4500 for a 30k mile minter. 

Makes me realise I'm probably not getting my hands on a cheap rotter to reshell into my car anytime soon.

1 hour ago, TMB said:

Seen better cars in the scrap yard.

My mk1 is less of a mess than that thing.

And it rough as a week in jail.

[Boatman1]

06 plate 130k Scotland repainted my sills 3 yrs ago looked great for about a year then the rust came through worse than ever. I think I need to rustproof them from the inside before bothering with the paintwork. also have bubbling on the rear quarter panels where they meet the plastic and on the front wings where they meet the sills two spots on the wheel arches are now rusting good style. Am in 2 minds as to whether to let it go for another 5 years since we probably wont be allowed to drive diesels by then or take the time and effort to do something about it.

[DieselMonte]

They should have cavity wax on the inside already.

 

[Lofty]

13 hours ago, DieselMonte said:

They should have cavity wax on the inside already.

 

They do but there's no harm in spraying another load in there, I did all of the sills front to back on the yellow one and the wheel arches via the blacking gromets under the rear arch liner. Every bit helps and all that

[TMB]

Cavity wax is only any good if the metal is already sound before it is applied. If the metal is ruting from the inside-out it's a complete waste of time putting wax over the rust.

[J.R.]

Whilst I would once have completely agreed that is exactly how Rustol is used and it stops further rust in its tracks, I'll add the qualifier that if the metal is perforated then it must be used on both sides.

 

Whilst I was cynical at first I have used in on rusty subframes and a cast iron garden fontaine that had a really nice rusty patina from new but was continuing to rust and in both cases it sealed out the air and moisture completely and stopped further rusting.

 

The restorers of Rat Rods spray Rustol or clear coat over rusty panels.

 

So I would not say its a waste of time reapplying cavity wax inside sills that have some internal rust and would lean towards agreeing with "every little helps"

[Kelly_Heroes]

I did both my sills sanded them down with a drill wire brush to the metal. Then red oxide paint 1 or 2 coats. Then next wax oil seal and the sills are like new now no rust. I did the same in the boot tyre well area around one of the drains. Then other bits on arches. The main bits you see on the car I painted after colour matching paint. 

 

I will see if I can find pictures but there no rust now cleared most of it up now. Then once in awhile any small spots I re treat its 98% to 99% better then it was cleared a lot up.

 

I've been doing this to cars for years and it works well and lasts.

Edited 15 July, 2022 by Kelly_Heroes

[AnnoyingPentium]

Underseal seems to be cracking up a bit here. Located behind front passenger arch lining.

 

[lewis66]

Mines not as bad as that blue one on eBay, took it to the bodyshop for new cills and it needed 2 front floors as well