Minty T-bar Mk1's - a few questions

[anna]

hello all!
You might have figured that i'm looking for my next mk1 - and I have found a pretty minty T-bar that could be a candidate.....

It's arches are lovely - no rust at all, and have never been repaired. With the right prevention (waxoyl etc) are rusty arches inevitable (in a couple of years)? or will it really stop the rust ever coming?

Also - this one has the dreaded T-bar leak. What's the deal with this? I heard that there is some way to treat the door rubbers to stop the leak... is this true? Also - can leaky T-bars cause probs with the interior and floorpan that I should check?

[Lauren]

I think its unlikely that a leaky t-bar would have got to the point of corroding the floor pan, so i wouldn't overly worry about that.

You can silicone them up with silicone spray, which can help to rejuvenate teh rubbers.

Also some have stuck cabling in the rubber seals to help provide a closer fit.

Contrary to popular belief not all t-bars leak and don't pose a problem for the most part. You could try pouring a bucket of water over them when you look at the car.

If the car isn't corroded and you waxoyl properly then no reason why they shouldn't be good for a while yet.

[Milothicus]

Just to be sure... did you check inside the wheel arches for rust? the rust on my arches is just starting to show on the outside, but that means it's come all the way through from the inside. be sure to feel around the inside of the lip...

[anna]

yeah- i'm pretty sure - although I didn't actually stop and do the complete check (stumbled across the car on the last day of my holiday) so i'll be going back to do the full check if I decide to go for it.

I got Alex to crawl around to have a look at the underneath - apparently it looked tip top...