AlyWW

Help, my car is disintegrating!!

I've always kept the wheel arch lips covered in grease and not used the trim that was on the car when I bought it. However, while working on the car this afternoon I noticed a bit of rust showing through the thick layer of grease and a couple of rust bubles starting to climb up onto the side of the car. As I had a bit of time there and then I started rubbing this down only to find that virtually the entire wheel arch lip was rotten to the core and just flaked off the car when disturbed. After looking behind the trim in the boot, there is loads of rust visible from there as well. To make matters worse, I then started looking at the point where the rear wing meets the sill, under the door, only to find I could literally peel layers of rust from there also.

It's at a point where it needs a car restoration shop rather than a body shop!

Has anybody ever had a new rear wing fitted and if so, how much did it cost? Are there any other options? The rust is far to ingrained to simply paint over and ignore. There is not even enough metal left to put the wheel arch trim back on.

Can anybody recommend a good car restoration company in or near Stockport?
Cheers.

Joeh

Do you park in the sea?

I'm sure its not as bad as you say..

Pictures would be better if you could take some?

AlyWW

I'll take some pictures in the light tomorrow.

I remember watching an ancient horror film once, Poltengiest I think, where a bloke standing in front of bathroom mirror noticed a spot on him face. He started picking at it and next minute his whole face was in the sink, leaving just flesh and a couple of eye balls, which is something like the experience I had today!

Hopefully I'll be able to get away with just grinding away what is left of the arch lip and sealing it up.

I am guessing that it has had a new rear wing at some point in it's life. There is no rust at all on the rest of the car, just the drivers side rear wing, but it really is totally rotten round the edge.

I've owned a lot of older cars over the years and never seen anything like it, I almost feel like my nice shiny car has been stolen.

JonUKS2000

You can get it cut out.

My car had a small rust spot on the rear left wing. Panel beaters cut it out and fibreglassed the whole area.

Apparently thats the only way to stop it spreading without replacing panels or sections.

AlyWW

I had the day off work today and amogst other things have ground down the wheel arch lip. The rust is well ingrained and goes beyond the join between the inner and outer panels. Basically I am going to need a new wheel arch / complete rear panel welded in.

Does anybody know if you can buy a repair panel for the wheel arch or will I need a complete rear panel?

Nick Graves

Probably removing the protective strip didn't help.

AlyWW

Looking back, probably not. Although having said that, the car has had a repair or new panel on that side before I bought it and the first time I removed the strip there was already a lot of rust comming through the metal which I rubbed down and coated in grease. That probably only delayed things by a couple of months as it's taken less than a year from then for the whole wheel arch to lip to rust through from the inside.

The moral of the story is to get rust sorted as soon as you see it.

veehexx

how much jon?

ive been quoted £500 for a hand width area...

Ste_Nova

also protect from the rear, heat up some waxoil and pour it into the rear arches on the inside

JonUKS2000

It cost me £350 to have the rust taken out, repaired properly and have the rear of the car sprayed.

Was a referral from a mate who sends him alot of work, so got it cheap.

The work was really amazing, unfortunately is choice of colour was shyte. He used the red from the Civic Type R, so its slightly more milky at the rear. FAIL !

Will have the whole car blown over in a few months time to solve it.