shall i get some rusty arches repaired or not?

[rongagin]

danlightbulb said:

From what I have read, it is only the rear arches that are a problem on this generation (gen 7). Its poor design on Honda's part.

Knew someone with a Mazda 6, about 53 reg (Ford era?), rear arches were going like yours. We bought some Bilt Hamber gear and ground down the rust to (mostly) shiny metal and treat, filled, flatted, primed and painted using a rattle can from a proper paint shop that custom matches them.

Lasted 2 years and still looked good when car went.

[danlightbulb]

moustache said:

I am in exactly the same predicament, on a similarly priced car. As it's in banger territory, I am unsure whether to bother, as it might suddenly become worthless through a couple of faults.

I love the car but could buy another easily and cheaply so wonder whether to bother. Chances are i'll procrastinate and it'll be too late!

Lets see a pic then. Show us your rusty arches ooh yeah...

[designforlife]

danlightbulb said:

Thanks for this pic. I note the bubbling further up the arch and also the wavyness of the undersill of the arch where presumably moisture has got in, frozen, and expanded the metal. Do you have the pic after repair?

Yeah its shagged and bubbling all around the arch (little tricky to see the extent of it from the pic), it was taped up by the previous owner but this pretty much trapped the water and made things worse.

I managed to source a breaker Asti in ireland and the chap very kindly cut me out the rear arch, so that repair panel will be stitched in (I figured the swage line around the arch would be a bit fiddly to replicate from scratch)...PITA of a labour job though- fuel tank out, rear axle dropped, rear interior out, makes the £600 seem pretty cheap considering the work involved.

I scraped about an inch of mud off the inside of the lip of the arch when i got the car...that probably wasn't helping the rust situation (i wondered if the previous owner had been using it in some sort of farm based rally cross hehe).

I'll get back to you in a few weeks, it's booked into the bodyshop on the 20th feb!

Edited by designforlife on Wednesday 13th January 10:03

[Gunk]

that looks like a proper job!

[Willy Nilly]

OP, if it makes you feel any better, a client at work has a 2005 Gp;f with rusty rear arches, the difference being that the rust is the least of the cars issues, it is an unreliable piece of crap and she'll definitely have another