Mysterious Holes

[yecalsemaj]

I'm doing work on the boot of my R4 at the moment. I've noticed 2 holes in the wings about an inch above the boot floor, which go outside into the wheel arches they dont appear to do anything and they're caused rust on the floor from water ingress. what is the point of them? and is there any harm in filling them?

 

[bantamallan]

Are they the holes for seat belt mounting?
Allan

 

[yecalsemaj]

might well be hadn't thought of that i'll have to find a good sized bolt to put in them. rather than blocking them with filler because i might fit seatbelts at some point

 

[Rutger-peer]

I personally don't think they are for mounting seatbelts since I think the body is too thin a material to fit seatbelts to, unless the holes are in the thickened section of the wheelarch. My Renault's also got two bolts at that place but I haven't got back seatbelts.

Chances are somebody drilled them during some point in the life of your R4. Those cars have long histories of use and abuse and people have done all sorts of things with them.

I think it's best that if you don't use the holes, you weld them closed or else find a good alternative for closing them up. A bolt might also attract water between it and the body. A bolt would do if you spray it over with a lot of bitumen, anti-stonechip or the like, so no water can come between the bolt and the body.

Good luck on it.