Rear bump stops

[Mighty306]

Anyone got any tips for getting rear bump stops off? All pretty welded up with rust as usual. Would like to get them off complete if poss but there's a limit to my patience & the angle grinder might have to make an appearance.

[Eeyore]

Havent done it before but im sure ill be doing the same soon! Are you cleaning up rust?

[Mighty306]

Yes I am dealing with rust. That part of the chassis seems to be particularly vulnerable. Have discovered that you just pull the rubber part off to reveal the bolt that holds in the cup. Not tied to remove the bolt yet though. It won't give up easily as I used a small mirror to look behind at the captive nut / threads of the bolt. Look like they've been under the sea for 100 years!!!

Anyway, will update as I go. Have already scraped the worst of the rust off the chassis in that area. Access is so poor that a small sharpened chissel seemed like the best bet to deal with it, along with some sharp hammer blows. Still looking pretty bad so it's about to get a load of deox gel slapped on it!

[Mighty306]

So, the more I investigate the area around the bump stops & the rails behind them the worse it's seems. The mounts for the bump stops are corroded through in a couple of places.

   

In Ben's words from his Rallye Resto project (https://www.306oc.co.uk/forum/showthread...75&page=10)  "... a real issue was that odd closed box section that forms the rear suspension bump stop. I got in there with another wire brush bit on a drill as much as I could but access is still awful, even with the car on its side."

I'm sure I'll get these cleaned up eventually but it really won't be easy. Then they'll need repairing somehow. Don't have power in the garage (away from house) so will either have to employ a mobile welder or find another way to strengthen that area. Was just investigating using industrial strength 2-part adhesives (now used a lot in auto industry to bond parts, inc metal to metal). Gives similar strength to welding apparently.

[Mighty306]

The more I clean this up, the more I think the whole lot needs cutting /grinding out & replacing with new.  I am having to concede that it likely needs professional & probably costly input.  Now see the bump stop is made up of two pieces, one cup facing up & one down.

Where the whole lot meets the inner part of the N/S wheel arch (red arrow) is a mess ... 2-3 mm of thick scaly rust trapped between the two surfaces.  The more you look at it the more you think it's a s**t design, and it's clear Peugeot didn't bother putting any kind of anti-corrosion protection up in that area.

There are a couple of other small areas that have rusted through on the N/S wheel arch but nothing to get stressed about & the rest of the underside only has some surface rust, so in the scheme of things I'm grateful for that.

   

   

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Looking on Servicebox I can't see the bump stop mounts anywhere in the bodywork section. I'm guessing new ones will have to be 'fabri-cobbled' (an AVE quote for any watchers in the house!).