Hi everyone trying to sort my lude out and with all this nice weather i think its time to attack the rusty arches lol Basicly im seeking some advice from you knowledgeable people on the best products and procedures. Here's a few pics:

This is around the windscreen:


and these are from the rear arches:











So guys, from the pictures do you think this is something i could tackle my self or is this more of a job for the bodyshop? any and all advice welcome

Cheers, Ben.

Unless your good with your hands.... i would say body shop.. as if you do it your self you'll still have the same problem next year.. but you can always give it a go and see what happens.

Bri are you saying that the front offside wing profile is the same as the rear nearside arch profile?

Sell that prelude for parts and buy another one. Probably the easiest solution, might well be the cheapest too.

@ stk prelude: I certainly dont mind getting stuck in and having a go! got nothing better to do at the minute lol and i can usualy turn my hand to anything, to varying degrees of success

@ Shadowcat: Realy wouldnt want to sell the ole girl, dont think she is worth much in parts either to be honest.

Going to give it a go either way, dont have much to loose other than a few pennies. I have looked at the guides in the sticky and How To sections but cant find much on dealing with the rust. Im sure someone will have covered it before though, ill have a look through the Project threads

Thanks Pushki, been reading through his thread and its very interesting indeed! Got to page 20 so far lol and from what i can gather the proccess goes a little like this:
Expose Area (scrape paint n rust away with wire brush's/screwdrivers etc)
Clean Area (using Marine Clean)
Treat Area (Using Metal Ready *ed* or Bilt Hamber De-Ox Gel?*/ed*)
Protect Area (Using POR15 Rust Preventive Paint)
Paint Area (Primer, Top Coat, Lacquer)

Does this sound about right? I will start ordering the bits n bobs i need and hope the weather is still nice by the time they arrive

yeah thats about right, grind out the rust best you can. However looking at those arches there isnt much left to work with. You should really cut it out and have a new arch piece welded in.

With the screen i would remove it as it will be coming from the seal area usually and you cant get to it properly with the screen in

Is removing the windscreen something that can be done DIY or is that a job for the experts? I dont mind spending money on the car but there are limits as i have a baby on the way. The cost of a new windscreen to fix a small patch of rust is pushing that limit somewhat, if its something i can do and save the current windscreen i will do it though.

paul bristol uk wrote:

Quote:

Bri are you saying that the front offside wing profile is the same as the rear nearside arch profile?

Thats a brilliant idea for getting a replacement arch profile, far cheaper than getting a whole quarter.

Anyone know how close they are?

I'll be doing my arches soon and was going to make repair panels out of sheet metal, but this will save shed loads of time. Nice one.

Well, cos i am cheap, I would have used old body panels. But when I worked in a bodyshop, we used to get large sheets of varying thickness delivered.

As for welding, I'd use a combo of the mig for joining the new bits to the inner and outer quarter, and spot for where the outer arch meets the inner (as OEM).

Even if there not exact (which I suspect) I'm sure they are close enough to work well.

At least there are bits you can cut out and the thickness of the flat part of the arch are the same. Just the curve is much more harsh on rear arch.