detcord49

heya, new guy would like to know how to spot rust in the bird cage??
i plan on buying a C3 soon and everybody says "check for rust in the bird cage!"
how do you check for rust in the cage? any secret spots to check? any tell tales to look for?
thanks for any comments on an old topic.

Bruthish

One of the biggest problems is that water leaks into the framework(birdcage) and sits and rusts. Two places to check will give you a good indicator of what the condition of the birdcage is:

1) Take the A-pillar trim off from inside the vehicle. It should be 2 screws and should lift right out. You will get a good view here.

2) Down at your feet you can take the kick panels off. From here you can look down at the body mounts. This area is also a great "catch-all" for standing water and will rust.

3) also look at the main frame, as they like to rust too! Especially at the rear kick-up in front of the rear wheels. Tap the frame with a hammer and look for rot.

Good luck!

xCCTer

Here's what I did, but some sellers may not allow you to.

Get under the car and look carefully at the frame rails from front to back, paying close attention to where the body of the car, or anything else is attached to the frame.

Pull the kick panels and you can see the front body mounts just in front of the doors (body mounts 1 & 2). First you have to remove the sill plates. Takes 2 minutes.

Remove the passenger side dash (map pockets) and look up towards the bottom of the windshield. It's only 4 screws, 2 in the door jamb and 2 on the edge of the instrument cluster, and the t/signal flasher will pop off it's mounting clip when the panel comes out. Takes about 8 minutes.

The driver side is impossible to get to easily because of the Speedo/Tach panel.

Remove the small access panels on the lower front of the rear wheel wells to look at the rear body mounts (3 & 4).

These are excellent pics somebody posted over the last couple months.

SIXFOOTER

You can, but should not have to pull the map pocket out to find out what you need to know. If there is any rust at all on the lower corner up there behind the dash, there will Definately be rusted at the #2 mount.
The reason it gets rusted there is because the lower windshield corners rust out. They do that because the end of the front fender mount is pop riveted to the WS frame with No Protection on it, It holds water there and rusts thru, the water then runs down the door pillar and right on top of the #2 mount.
The top and side windshield frame also rusts out and the water takes the same path right on top of the #2 mount.
The fix is a bitch, front clip has to come off, windshield and dash out, all the trim around the WS and T-Bar trim. Cut/Grind out all the rust, treat with something to stop the rust and weld in replacement parts or patches.

detcord49

thanks guys, very helpful, scarrrrrry!!

jim2527

Shut the doors hard a few times...if there's rust flakes on the carpet there's rust issues up under the dash

Kick panels.....take a picture up into the pillar as well...






Rear inspection panel inside wheel well....