After my little whoopsie with the wrong wheel bolts, I decided to be safe and replace all the hubs on the Coupe.
The rears are simple enough, the bearing and hub all come as one piece so a quick job...... Or so I thought !

The trailing arm had some flaking paint so I thought I'd wire brush it off and paint it, the wire brush was soon swapped for a chisel and the chisel swapped for the angle grinder with a wire brush head.

God dam tin worm all over the trailing arms, only surface corrosion but the whole things under the paint

I then looked at the two front hubs Joe supplied me with, I got Joe to fit new wheel bearings in them seeing as they were being swapped I may as well fit new bearings. These were exactly the same, lift up the loose paint and there's the corrosion.
So sat on my work bench currently is a pair of shiney silver front hubs waiting for a few coats of hammerite tomorrow.
It's taken most of today to strip the old paint off and using the wire brushed grinder and a Dremel for the fiddly bits to get them down to metal. They look great in bare metal but I feel that would last about one puddle until they are covered in corrosion again, they will probably have surface corrosion by tomorrow !

I did notice a Brembo sign on the hubs, I'm not sure if they are made by Brembo or if they just have the sign on them because they are designed to carry a Brembo caliper ?

Anyway, my battle against tin worm has now continued to the suspension parts, what next, carpet rust... maybe the leather will corrode on the seats, nothing surprises me on this car anymore.

thats exactly what I said, just before my battery exploded and it set on fire, god bless that inky, it was indestructible

noticed the same pal on my trailing arems when I fitted the refurbed calipers, the subframe is passable, vbut will be cleaned up, but the trailing arms, being some cheap cast iron shite, are well flaky, a summer job

shit build quality i'm afraid

...or lack of it

I put some rust treatment on the rear for now but I don't really rate it, unless you get right through all the flakey layers to almost the metal, the rust treatment will turn the top layer of rust back to metal but leaves lower corrosion alone.

You can pick off the top layer of converted metal and find rust again.

...you should try owning an X1/9

only real way would to fit a set of spare arms that have been properly shot blasted & powercoated.

I would do that, but don't know how easy it is to swap out trailing arms

if it's a few hours per side, then yes, if no, then the coop can rust itself, even I am getting bored

It would be a perfect time to replace the trailing arm bearings and get the lot all sorted at once.

Your not getting bored, it's just that time of the month

rear trailing arms is how mine all started

done the arms last winter and then this autumn i thought i may as well drop the sub frame and do it aLL properly.

which has lead to my nice new red pi springs on the rear and yellow anti roll bar

its all ready to go back on and brake lines be refitted

the front is a different story as you know jimbo...but im getting there.....and now there is an anglia meet on the 11th of april so ive got to be finnished

The trailing arms are the last bits at the rear I need to replace, mine are too far gone to recover. Replacing them is the only way to get the finish and standards I want. They are exposed to all the elements and get a fair bit of hammer is suppose.

Wire brush attachment on the grinder is great. Except when you get a bit clumsy close to the ABS cables.

Or even a 124

or an Alfasud if you really want to experience rust

Go for the rat rod look - I can seriously see it catching on in the next few years cos of vandalism and people getting fed up with spending to try to keep the paintwork looking mint.

bollox, the rust on the trailing arms is 100% coverage

due to my car being on axle stands, I knew the rear Novitec springs need replacing ( they are literally rusted to bit ). Took them off & spent most of the day scraping the loose rust off, cleaning, then hammeriting the the sdubframe I can see & the arms.

Maybe next year I'll just drop the whole bloody thing from the car & send it away to have it all powedercoated etc.

On a sidenote, the hotbits suspension will be fitted soon ( once I get some new bump stops etc ): Same ride height as the Eibach / Novitec springs too

Taz, there's a pile of pictures of many of the places rust can get to here - on the second page there's a shot of the removed rear subframe.

Neil,

Cheers pal, It's not too hard to remove the subframe, I just cannot be arsed with the car.

Perhaps this year I'll drive it for a bit, then take it apart next year

Thankfully, the is no other rust I can see on the shell, including the suframe mounts ( if there is, it's very surface light stuff ).

Cheers,