It seems, most owners don’t follow the maintenance instructions, concerning wheelwell cleanliness. They also drive in salty conditions. At the German Daihatsu forum of which I’m also a member, other members continue driving in such conditions, despite knowing better. Thereafter, they rid of their cars and then surrender membership.
I don’t own this particular vehicle anymore. I ended up trading it for a silver one with an engine knock of which I’ll get to later. It’s as good as rust-free, aside from some surface rust on the undercarriage.
Getting back to this rusty one, the M.O.T. inspector asked me if I really wanted to have this repaired, since there were also suspension issues to deal with. I told him that I already spent money buying it and am at the point of no return. Because I didn’t bring my torch to Germany, I ended up preparing the carriage for repair, through removing all carpetting and trim, before heating up the tarry coating for scraping off. This is a 1998 model. My replacement is one year older and doesen’t have the tar of which only served to accelerate the corrosive processes, by not releasing moisture and salt, once the coating became perforated. The welding cost me nearly double of what I paid to buy the car. The suspension bits set me back even further.
What I suppose happened was that the previous owner paid the garage to have the inspection falsified. Critical areas around the rear wheelwells were cosmetically repaired with filler and the body was waxed.
Theoretically, the vehicle should have been sold for a salvage price. Supposedely, the garage who did this could get penalized. Since both the garage and inspector weren’t Dutch, I did not even bother reporting it, because I’m not responsible for Dutch immigration policies.
Here are some of the modifications done. I found the seating to be too low. So, I built a form of elevation, using wooden blocks, skateboard bits and aluminum plates. I’m of average height. But my torso is unusually short and legs are unusually long. There is more than plenty of space between seat and roof, so I raised the seat as much as the steering wheel would allow:
