rear wheel arch panels

[Crazysteve]

I am after some rear wheel arches to replace the rusted ones on my old ladys impreza on a 99 plate.
Is anyone out there doing pattern parts to fit the classic impreza?
cheers

[JM]

I'm needing something too.

There used to be fiber-glass ones available on one of the online Scooby parts websites, but I've not seen them for a while.

I saw somewhere else a suggestion that front wings would fit.
i.e NSF to OSR.

[Lefty]

I've been looking too.

I've even considered having some made, hoping to sell them to offset the initial costs. They are a very common trouble spot on classic imprezas

How much would you be willing to pay for a pair of wing repair panels?

[UberMeister]

At what point are replacement panels required over repairing what's there?

Just bought a classic Impreza and it's very tidy apart from:



I'm undecided whether to fix now or just leave for the time being!

[cheesesliceking]

Take the boot liner out from the sides of the boot, peer down into the rear side of that arch....
Brown.... Brown everywhere. That damn sealant Subaru use seems to act like a sponge.

[JM]

Lefty said:

How much would you be willing to pay for a pair of wing repair panels?

I'm getting mine repaired at £250 a side.

Guy is well recommended and near where I live so not much hassle in getting the car there and back.

Not sure how great the price is, but if he does a good job I'll be pretty happy.
(was thinking £200 each side would be the ball-park figure)

[johnnyr6]

Considering this is such a common problem you'd think there were replacement panels everywhere. I've heard of people using front wings (reversed i think) as repair panels. Unfortunately i have a type r so the rear arches are different.

If you find decent panels let us know.

Johnny

[JM]

Just to update and say I've had mine repaired.

The guy thought he might be able to fill and fix it up, but ended up having to cut out the rust and cut arches from (some Audi I think he said) which were welded in and all sanded and sprayed to look as good as new again.

He said he should have charged me more for the work, but kept to the quote he gave me.
He might well be interested in panels if he was to do more Impreza's.

Sorry no pics, yet.

I payed £500 + vat, he said it should/would be £600+ vat if he was doing it again.

ECS in Currie, west Edinburgh.

[Crazysteve]

JM said:

Just to update and say I've had mine repaired.

The guy thought he might be able to fill and fix it up, but ended up having to cut out the rust and cut arches from (some Audi I think he said) which were welded in and all sanded and sprayed to look as good as new again.

He said he should have charged me more for the work, but kept to the quote he gave me.
He might well be interested in panels if he was to do more Impreza's.

Sorry no pics, yet.

I payed £500 + vat, he said it should/would be £600+ vat if he was doing it again.

ECS in Currie, west Edinburgh.

cheers for the info, i don't think the cars worth much more than £800. Worth every penny to us though as it's been so reliable. Never once in 13 years has it let us down.
I was hoping to find some archs from another make and do the work myself, maybe make some cardboard templates and try our local auto factors.

[HonestIago]

JM said:

Just to update and say I've had mine repaired.

The guy thought he might be able to fill and fix it up, but ended up having to cut out the rust and cut arches from (some Audi I think he said) which were welded in and all sanded and sprayed to look as good as new again.

He said he should have charged me more for the work, but kept to the quote he gave me.
He might well be interested in panels if he was to do more Impreza's.

Sorry no pics, yet.

I payed £500 + vat, he said it should/would be £600+ vat if he was doing it again.

ECS in Currie, west Edinburgh.

Great info thanks, I'm occasionally through Edinburgh so worth knowing about this option. How long did it take roughly? Oh and it'd be good if you could update in 3-6 months time with how the repair is bearing up.

Cheers!

[UberMeister]

Well I've booked mine in. At this stage it is pretty minor, the rust hasn't spread much further than what is visible in the photo above. Figured it was worth while doing anyway. I'll report back with after photos when I get it back next week.

[JM]

Here's a pic of the bit's that were cut out.



The worst bits were where the front fixing for the bumper was, and I'd had to try and get a screw in to hold the bumper on for the last year or so, the screws never stayed long due to the rot.



I dropped it off on Wednesday morning and it was ready on Friday afternoon.



I'll maybe give it a wash this afternoon and post up some after pics.

Edited by JM on Saturday 3rd August 14:54

[72twink]

I've got the week off so I thought I'd try and prevent the onset of nasties ......







I'd still be interested if anyone starts making panels - just in case!