Replacing rusty wheel arches

[De Sisti]

My 320d Touring is currently in a workshop having the rear wheel arches replaced with some I bought online. I've used this place before and they're ok. The chap said that because he's previously used lots of underseal on the car before, he was going to use a new technique to attach the new wheel arches; and this would be by the means of a special glue (I'm assuming it's not Loctite superglue or Gorilla glue :-) ). I'm not aware of such a technique. Anyone know of such a method of attaching arches?

Caveat here; I am not in the car restoration business, so wouldn't necessarily know if it's a new thing.

[Glassman]

Arches, or trims?

Thatcham 'methods' do include bonding certain panels, but it's not as simple or straight forward as the Superglue 3 advert would suggest.

[warch]

Yes bonding has been a thing for years, mainly because it doesn’t cause heat distortion like welding does. I believe it is fine for non structural panels.

[helix402]

It works a treat. If you look at my silver 330d thread you’ll see the a rear arch repair done with 2 pack adhesive. No panel distortion, no risk of rust where the metal joins (as long as you seal the join well).

Edited by helix402 on Friday 19th March 08:17

[warch]

helix402 said:

no risk of rust where the metal joins (as long as you seal the join well).

My mate who used to work in car bodywork repair told me about that, welding obviously burns all the paint/rust treatment off the metal so you get corrosion where the repair is pieced in.

[De Sisti]

helix402 said:

It works a treat. If you look at my silver 330d thread you’ll see the a rear arch repair done with 2 pack adhesive. No panel distortion, no risk of rust where the metal joins (as long as you seal the join well).

Edited by helix402 on Friday 19th March 08:17

Nice work. They've had my car since Mon 8 March and they've said they've done one side and
it looks ok. I'll give them a call later to find out if they've finished the job.

[De Sisti]

Glassman said:

Arches, or trims?

Title of the thread and first line gives a clue. ;-)

Edited by De Sisti on Friday 19th March 08:44

[De Sisti]

helix402 said:

It works a treat. If you look at my silver 330d thread you’ll see the a rear arch repair done with 2 pack adhesive. No panel distortion, no risk of rust where the metal joins (as long as you seal the join well).

Edited by helix402 on Friday 19th March 08:17

Thank you for the reply. I have posted the picture of the repair to another forum (who weren't aware of the new technique). I hope you don't mind.

[helix402]

De Sisti said:

Thank you for the reply. I have posted the picture of the repair to another forum (who weren't aware of the new technique). I hope you don't mind.

Happy to help.

[helix402]

This is what I used:

[De Sisti]

They did say they'd have to take the rear bumper off (for better access) and have to respray it
in order for it to blend into the arches when they've had their new coat. I don't expect to get much
change from about £800.

[helix402]

De Sisti said:

They did say they'd have to take the rear bumper off (for better access) and have to respray it
in order for it to blend into the arches when they've had their new coat. I don't expect to get much
change from about £800.

Sounds a fair price. It takes a while to do.

[Glassman]

De Sisti said:

Glassman said:

Arches, or trims?

Title of the thread and first line gives a clue. ;-)

Edited by De Sisti on Friday 19th March 08:44

You threw me with the mention of Gorilla glue.

[De Sisti]

Just phoned him up. He said it'd be ready by Monday; £700 (cash).

[g3org3y]

De Sisti said:

Just phoned him up. He said it'd be ready by Monday; £700 (cash).

Good news. Would be interested in before and after pics.

[De Sisti]

I'll see what I can do on Monday.

[De Sisti]

Apologies for the [_]before[/_] photos not being in the correct orientation.

Chap said he had to remove the rear bumper for ease of access. He also said he had to fade in
the paint on the rear doors too. Some paint over-spray on the tyres, but not a big deal.
£700 all in.

[i][Edit: There are some less than knowledgeable people on these forums, whose estimates for the
job were unrealistically low.[/i]

Rear offside: Before:


Rear offside: After:


Rear nearside, frontal area: Before:


Rear nearside, back area: Before:


Rear nearside: After:

Edited by De Sisti on Tuesday 23 March 18:33

Edited by De Sisti on Tuesday 23 March 21:14

[helix402]

Top job.

[De Sisti]

Chap was very complimentary of my Touring, and of various VWs and Mercs (of a certain vintage),
whereupon he criticised those brands for making their cars too complicated with tech. He's of the opinion of regular maintenance and oil changes on older vehicles to keep them in good working order, rather than changing cars every 3-4-5 years.

[fuel_intentions]

De Sisti said:

My 320d Touring is currently in a workshop having the rear wheel arches replaced with some I bought online. I've used this place before and they're ok. The chap said that because he's previously used lots of underseal on the car before, he was going to use a new technique to attach the new wheel arches; and this would be by the means of a special glue (I'm assuming it's not Loctite superglue or Gorilla glue :-) ). I'm not aware of such a technique. Anyone know of such a method of attaching arches?

Caveat here; I am not in the car restoration business, so wouldn't necessarily know if it's a new thing.

It looks to me like the E46 bonnet skin is mounted to it's frame using panel adhesive (presumably applied at the factory?)

http://www.mwstewart.co.uk/images/6242/