hi can anyone help me as i'm wondering once you get the rusted rear arches welded how long should they stay rust free even if the car is lying around. i got my rear arches welded end of april early may and i think i've noticed some rust bubbling, would that mean they have only sanded it down?


cheers

if they are bubbling already then the job wasnt done properly in theory once rebuilt they wshould last as long as the originals did

unless they werent protected on the inside. its no use just welding it up with new metal you need to put the protection back on the inside where the join is

I feel your pain, my arches are horrific - I sanded them down, resealed them and primered over the top (then ran out of time to paint them), and there's orage patches coming through the primer now

Didn't want to get them cut out (££££££) but looking more likely now.

spoke to the garage and they willing to sort it out but apparently its not gonna sort the rust out as much as i thote as i havnt given them sills to go over the arches as just welding over a certain bit doesn't cure the problem.

ive just had a quote for my arches the guys said he'll cut new arches. £400 gonna get it done in Jan whilst im on paternity leave

i got told that even if you weld new bits back in without getting a whole archthe rust will come back which sounds odd

Shouldnt do, What Im hoping to do before the year is out si to cut away the damaged rusty bits and weld in new metal. Im thinking of cutting some of the inner skin away so I can weld from the back of the outer skin. Once I have done that I can slap loads of rust proofing everwhere and weld it shut again.

As I have said in another thread I will document everything as well as I can. Shouldnt be long now, cant wait to get rid of the rust for good.

It's a case of once the rust is in the metal, it doesn't matter what you do it and how you treat it, you can never actually get rid of every particle of it. It will always eventually come back.

If you cut it all out and weld new metal in then you should be alright. The problem still underlying though is a design issue, why does that part go rusty in the first place? I've heard it's to do with the way the water is thrown back into the arch when driving in the wet.

You can spend all the money you like but until you find a way to treat/protect the area properly after the work has been done, you may be wasting you money if it just rusts again?

Good point made there, the theory is though now we all know there is a re occouring issue in that area we can keep them areas free from dirt and keep treating it. At least the new metal should be fine for at least 5 years which sohould give me time to save for some new rear quarter pannels.
Im sure MadMax has a rust prevention product to reccomend.

Prevention is the best cure. Keep the arch lip clean and free of mud, and it significantly reduces the problem. It would obviously need to have been done by the previous owners as well though for the arches to be rust free. My Lude is a '93, and the arches are damn near spotless.

showoff