The triangular section of a Sprite inboard of the front tires is a trap for dirt and debris. There is a weep hole in this section, but these are often clogged. Because they trap dirt and debris over time, and that debris holds moisture, these sections of the body often rust. We made this post as a reminder that you should check to make sure yours is clean, and that the weep hole is clear, to protect the integrity of your Sprite’s body.
On one of the cars we are preparing for paint, we had to fix this area because it had rotted away and previously been repaired elsewhere with body filler. You can see this old repair in the photos below.
This little triangle that is inboard of your front wheels is a lousy design that will trap all kinds of things that get thrown up by the tires. It is a good idea to make sure periodically, when you lube your front suspension for example, that you clean out any crud present in this void. If not, you will end up with tremendous corrosion, which leads to the rust-through that you see above on the pieces that we cut out.
Ultimately, we had to replace the entire diagonal reinforcement here with all new metal because we weren’t happy with the amount of body filler and shoddy rust repair that had been done. It is not an easy process, but the result is a very important structural area being transformed into a piece that is better than new!
We sell many body panels and sheet metal pieces in our parts catalog, one of which was used in this repair. Click the photo below for more information or click here for our full catalog!
