Rogc

Having purchased the car back in Jan this year, I was worried about rust in the rear arches. As it's a nice sunny day I decided to get the wheels off and clean under the arches properly. It didnt look as if it had ever been cleaned, so a old wheel brush and a hose removed all of the mud and crud. Inspection with a mirror and torch once the wheels removed thankfully did not reveal any rust, the protective coating was still in place doing its job. However having seen others, with rust that had set in I decided to do what I had intended to do for a while and stone chip the arches. First off was a degrease with pre paint solvent, amazing just how dirty it was even when i thought i had cleaned it. I have a compressor and stone chip spray gun, but decided to apply 3 to 4 coats by brush first, making sure it was right in the corners. This was then followed by 2 spray coats. Looks good in black, and will certainly protect against stones, water and salt. You can use spray underseal, however personally I prefer stone chip.

rsdub

not sure if thats the real problem with the arches.i believe it to be the space between the inner and outer archeswhere they are spot welded together.a bit similar to the ford rear arch problem.i took the rear side carpets in the boot and the back panels behind the seats out and sprayed the inner wheel arch with watery strength waxoyl so that it ran into the seems from both sides

loftust

The problem is that they are exposed and owners do not clear the hood drains frequently enough, which allows water into all sorts of places.

Well worth doing IMO. CoolChrisUK did something very similar recently, and used silicone to attach the strip back on, which is a first class idea