When we bought our S2000 last year, it had a small scab on the offside arch and I had read that the arch lip protectors can cause some rust, not to mention the fact I had seen far worse - so I wasn't too worried at the time.

The other week I decided to have a look at cleaning the inner arches up, and see how bad it was under the strip.

This is the offside:

S2000 rear arches by Hallsy01, on Flickr

and underneath the protective strip it looked a bit worse:

S2000 rear arches by Hallsy01, on Flickr

So for now it has been rust treated, and when I get the time and can keep it in the dry for a little while, it will be better dealth with and painted.

Weird thing is, I looked at the nearside arch and it was pristine!

S2000 rear arches by Hallsy01, on Flickr

Now, as I had had a clean around under the arches, I noticed that the seam sealer was different from side to side. The offside, that had the rust, has clearly had some extra non OE sealer added, as it's a bit messy:

S2000 rear arches by Hallsy01, on Flickr

Yet on the clean, nearside, the seam sealer stops short of the lip:

S2000 rear arches by Hallsy01, on Flickr

S2000 rear arches by Hallsy01, on Flickr

So, it got me wondering - is either side correct? If so, why did Honda only seam seal part of the inner arch?? With the relatively clean inner and outer arch lip on the nearside, it got me wondering whether the arch skin had been replaced, and not fully seam sealed afterwards.

I'm guessing with the offside, the extra seam sealer is where someone previously has tried to clean up a bit of corrosion - so look forward to seeing what's underneath that, lol!!

So does anyone know what the factory seam sealer was like on these? Is the nearside arch as it left the factory??

 

I assume that the n/s quarter skin may have been replaced but not undersealed as you have said. Looks very clean to be fair.

That o/s arch has definitely been undersealed ontop of the OE stuff

 

If that quarter skin has been replaced then it looks like a good job, as I checked around all of the spot weld points and could find nothing that looked untoward - which is what left me wondering whether it had been replaced or not!!

So the inner arch should be sealed right up to the lip from factory? That is what I will be doing anyway, but it was bugging me whether the quarter had been worked on or not!

 

On my 2004 both rear arches looked like your nearside with the underseal not going all the way to the end

 

Good to know - thankyou. I guess this is just more down to how it was applied rather than a particular reason.

 

The near side is the norm from the factory ,Mr Honda was a bit miserly with the underseal it always stopped short , I dare say to allow the rubber trim to be fitted easily in the factory
I think the underselling wasn't really done very well , it was just a sop to the European market where we use nasty salt.
Under my rubbers it was clean both sides just a bit of surface rust further up inside the wheel arch where there wasn't any underseal , just like your near side , so I suspect ur off side has been subject to some repairs crash or otherwise .

 

Same as mine too on my 2004.