'96 850 corrosion check

[sonicbarbecue]

Dear all, I'm new here, thank you very much in advance for support. I'll try my best to translate technical terms correctly, please forgive any mistakes.

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Basically the car is corrosion free but there is a guess that I might have some problems in the hollow spaces in the rocker panels, not sure if the visible corrosion comes from inside out as I see it on boths sides, driver and co-driver, pls. see pic.

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Any way to inspect the inside without disassembly work by video camera?
If not, could a kind soul advise how to deinstall the metal arch trims without damaging them? No idea how they are fixed, just that they are not glued over full surface, just fixed along their rear side. Might they even be clamped together with the plastic rocker panel covers? It is the 96 version with the plastic rocker panel covers fixed from bottom, not from top.
Removal of plastic rocker panel covers is clear, just the arch trims are in question

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Again, thank you & regards Sonicbarbecue

[scot850]

Hi Sonic and welcome to MVS!

I have recently gone through this with a young friends 96 850. I think you have mud flaps at the front of the car?

We had to remove the plastic covers to have the metal welded underneath. To remove them you have to remove all the plastic rivets along the bottom edge. You have to push the center pin in to release the rivits/clips. Be careful not to lose all the pins. Also check while you are doing that the metal brackets the pins go through are even still there! It is a good opportunity to clean and paint this area when the cover is off.

To remove the rest of the cover, you need to drill out the rivets holing the front mudflap in place and remove it. Then you have to pull up fairly hard or in my case I used a 90 degree 'pick' to get under the edge of the upper part of the plastic cover below the door area and use it to pry up the plastic to un-pop the clips. If the nice shiny trims come off, they are only held on with double sided body tape so can easily be re-fitted.

I'm not sure on the P80's but some cars have plastic round covers on the inside of the rocker/sill panels behind the carpet that can be removed for access.

Another option is to get some rubber plugs and drill a few holes along the top of the rocker panels. These can be used to pass an inspection camera through, and then you can try something like Bilt Hamber? protection which comes with a 360 degree spray head on long tubes you can then spray and protect the rockers from inside.

I wish you luck! By the way, the 850 I was working on had lived here in Calgary all it's like with salt and de-icer on the roads. It also had lived mostly outside and had over 500,000km on it!

Good luck!

Neil.

[Clemens]

The metal pieces that cover the plastic rocker panels are just glued on. Use a screwdriver to get them off and any kind of flexible glue to mount afterwards.

You can inspect the rocker panels by removing the rubber plug behind the rear door and use a flashlight to see how they look from the inside.

I'd guess you are fine, your 850 looks quite clean. Only one of my 3 850ies has rusty rockers.

[sonicbarbecue]

Neil & Clemens, thanks to both of you.
Neil: thanks for detailled and clear advise! Meanwhile found also a vid on youtube which shows the different mounting systems/disassembly of the plastic covers -95 and 96-. I do not have a garage for the car and to work on it, therefore I am trying to understand and plan the right steps in advance. My car mechanic should know but does not. I try not to damage parts during disassembly as some of them are meanwhie hard to get. Heavy use of quite agressive tpe of salt here, I decided for Mike Sanders underbody coating which really works fine but drives mechanics crazy. Just as addition to my 850 I would add a 4runner V8 without thinking twice ; )
Clemens: thank you for the hints, perfect completition to Neils contribution! Would you possibly know where to go locally for a new window screen including clips and horizontal plastic trims and installation?

Cheers Sonic

[scot850]

The 4Runner V8 is a gas pig as it is in continuous AWD. 15l/100km on a good day. I also have 'upgraded' the exhaust manifolds to stainless tube aftermarket versions. Supposed to get more power but I know they have lost the low down torque of the rubbish OE crack prone parts.
Car does pull much better at higher speeds. Car is noisy in windy conditions and expensive to repair. Separate frame is also a piece of crap as they rust really badly. If I hadn't spent so much in repairs I would have got rid of it by now and bought a V8 Gen 1 XC90. It is faster and costs less to repair, and with R design seats more comfortable.

Back to your 850, protecting it now is the right thing to do. From Clemens advice it seems there may be an access hole requiring little disassembly. We did remove the 850 covers and ran it like that for a month or so. It is not an issue.

Neil.

[sonicbarbecue]

What can I say, my first car was a '72 Volvo 142 back in 1980. Later on used to own '89 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4,0 High Output, State of the Art concept with sheet thickness of Campbells soups tin cans, high intake of regular but slow in return, teached me the real meaning of "cruising" until it died a sudden rust death. Will never ever forget and always miss the engine sound at idle speed. Later on VW Touareg w air suspension, suspension comfort stellar, engine V6 TDI output top, car alltogether a total mess and cheat, went to eternity only for defect reasons at 140k km and 12years age only, a sad day. However, if somebody would leave me his ElCamino or '90 Chevy 1500 pickup (or any with no electronics but min. V6) I would not abstain and take the risk of social isolation.
"Living in a new world with an old soul"

[jsrnsis]

It's hard to tell if you already have the plastic rocker covers off, but I recently found some nasty surprises behind those nice plastic covers. You can get a little bit of an idea by putting your head under the car, and looking at the back side of the pinch weld. If it looks like some brown is peeking through the undercoating, or if the bottom edge isn't straight, it may indicate a problem.
Once the panels are off, there are holes in the top of the rockers, as well as access through the brackets that the pins clip into at the bottom.
You can put a borescope/endoscope in here to get an idea of the condition, since they rot from the inside out. If you don't have one already, they're available on amazon, I'd suggest one with both an end AND side mount camera, or one with a wide field of view (I've seen ones with 120° lenses).
I'm not sure what undercoating is available in your Austria, but try to find a set of cans that come with a 360° sprayer wand that you can stick in the rocker and coat the inside. Just don't buy anything that's rubber-based (rustoleum, ziebart). Look for woolwax, hopefully its easier to find than an El Camino in good condition.

[sonicbarbecue]

@jsrnsis, thank you. I am really pleasantly suprised how proficent and clear the contributions are comming and how helpful you people are, no bs here.
I will go now, book a slot on the lifting ramp and lend a 120° video endoscope. Will decide during work how far in disassembly I will go.
Strange enough, to me it seems that one can find 850s with rocker insides like new as well as fully corroded ones, in similar environments. However, I would not start a discussion about individual wearing problems of a 27y old car. Used to talk to a car tinsmith recently about the problems, he shares your concerns but told me that the 5' BMWs from this aera are much worse, usually. However, it probably will again cost me something but that's normal with this kind of passion.

[abscate]

Gruss Gott, Sonic

MVS is amazing forum in that we do not attract the negative behavior that most other Fora seem to get. I think it has to do with the Volvo crowd being more civilized.