When I bought the Sirion last October, I was aware that it had rather rusty rear arches. I set about bodging them up to get it through the winter.

You may have noticed that it’s not winter anymore. The temporary bodge has worked fairly well for about six months now, but rust was starting to creep through again. With an MOT looming, I decided to unleash another round of bodge. Doing a proper, tidy repair just isn’t going to happen at the moment. I don’t have the budget to get the back arches properly stripped down. A load of mastic or something similar was slapped about the place, so the chances of a smooth finish were entirely nil. I opted just to rub back, scrape the worst of the rust off, apply a little filler here and there and then on with more coats of zinc primer and top-up paint.

The end result is dreadful!

Horrible

It’s about as smooth as my face. When I was 13. Also, the colour match just isn’t as the tin of paint I had seems to have separated out a bit. Still, it beats looking at corrosion. Out of sight, out of mind! It’s MOT time next week, for which the wheelarches shouldn’t be a failure point anyway, I just thought they should look a bit better. Other work may well be needed, but I’ve opted to put the car in for test almost a month before the old test expires, to give enough time to carry out any repairs. If no repairs are needed, I will be thrilled. There’ll be no chicken counting before this one though.

Because I can’t count, the Sirion has actually been on the fleet for a full eight months now. It’s heading into unfamiliar territory for the vast majority of the 60-odd cars I’ve owned. Less than ten have made it beyond six months, so it’s already doing well. I wonder if I’ll still be using it next winter? It remains on a set of winter tyres. I’ll be keeping an eye on them to see if the wear rate becomes horrendous over the summer.

Aw, it’s so cute!

I have been wondering if the Sirion is deserving of the classic tag though. Classic doesn’t necessarily mean old, but it should mean ‘interesting.’ For some cars, the fact that they are old is pretty much their only trick. I personally think that the Sirion’s cheeky looks make it worthy, especially as the driving experience also impresses. Even I feel it’s a touch too young though. Mine is one of the first imported in August 1998. Is that too recent?