E30 Zone

hi folks have two rear inner arches that have conpleted rusted the hole way hrough. now by the looks of it if i was to weld would it be over componsating the arch as its only thin stuff covered in some kind of coating. has any one filled isopon their inner arch. wats the best kits?

Recommend patterning up repair panels out of sheet steel (oven backs and panels are galvinized are very little money from tips) cut with tin snips and bond to car with liquid metal, halfords sell it and it claims to be as strong as a welded join. Then spray with aerosol zinc primer, seam sealer the edges and cover in stone chip/ wax oil/ underseal. Ideally welding is first choice but everyone has a budget and not everyone can weld. Sorry to the sobers who would call it a bodge but I see it as economical unless in a structural area...... Good luck.

you my friend are a legend lol. Thanks, to be honest that's what I thought would be the best solution, welding seems to be the long lasting solution, however with poking at the inner arch on the weekend there, it feels like old plastic rubbery substance with a small metal backing. That oven back panels and liquid metal sounds like the business, I don't really want to use isopon as the previous owner has been there and done that. Any ideas wheres the best place to get the galvanized oven backs?.. Ile give halfrauds a go for this liquid metal. Thanks again chap.

Chemical metal and oven bits FTMFW

Maggspower I pressume you have done it before ? any advice or recommendations where to purchase the stuff from. Thanks

One look at maggspower's avatar should tell you that he isn't really advocating this means of repair!
The rear arches are largely structural, and non welded repairs will result in a MOT test failure.

But surely for the inner arch being mostly like a soft rubbery substance it never striked me that it would affect the overall structural of the arch.. I have considered welding however, with looking at the arch again, if you could get like a flexible sheet of steel, i.e. galvanized steel then it would be easily shaped. The inner arch has a plastic cover, so surely that should take a way the patching look. Does isopon go through the MOT?

as said, rear arches are structural - so any repair must be fully welded for safety - if you bodged it as suggested above you'd need to hide the bodge with lots of sealer and underseal so the mot tester couldn't tell - which is obviously a stupid thing to do.

no part of the car body shell is made of a soft rubbery substance, that's just the underseal coating that is put over the metal to protect from rust - if yours is that bad then the metal must have rotted away and it needs serious surgery.

I was actually relieved when I got to the bit where it was advised to wallpaper paste the galvanised oven back to the arch, thought the advise was going to be to weld it in

personnaly i would get these welded properly,

however its not all that shocking, that someone would suggest such a bodge as above, i purchased a mk2 fiesta some years ago that had cills constructed mainly of p40 and pairs of socks

Is it a four door ?

2 door mate.. Yeah well I am really only after some solutions. As stated I already know welding is the best job, however where the two inner arches have completely rusted. Yeah the underseal is the rubbery substance. However the tin snips, galvanised steel sounded like a better solution than isopon. Its the welding, if I have to get it weld, its getting the time to strip the car, cause the tank will have to come out, and past experience suggests its a fair bit of screwing to get it off. Isopon is looking more and more.

you wont have to take the tank out to get that welded !!! get it done properly if its not a heap of shite, if it is a heap o shite just use cornflake packets

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I find papier mache/chicken wire strengthened cornflake box backs are more than adequate for filling in those pesky holes, all welding does is draw strength from elsewhere in the shell.

Having said that Pacers solution is just as good









I didn't mean that really

ahaha thanks for the picture representation guys. Ive never herd of using chicken wire before lol. So chicken wire, pon, tetroseal and is that last image stone chip LOL.. So from this thread so far its either using oven panels or chicken wire ?... Or weld lol. I have to take the tank out now anyways apparently because the fuel breather pipe has completely rusted away.

Shiz wrote:ahaha thanks for the picture representation guys. Ive never herd of using chicken wire before lol. So chicken wire, pon, tetroseal and is that last image stone chip LOL.. So from this thread so far its either using oven panels or chicken wire ?... Or weld lol. I have to take the tank out now anyways apparently because the fuel breather pipe has completely rusted away.

or try this.

Hope that helps

Sterling work that.

Well, that's cleared that up, dig deep in the pocket and weld...... If you don't know now you do!

With steel, not chicken wire. Thought the advances of chemical metal and bonded on panels by manufactures paved the way for my idea to be good. Better find a mig welder for me self and practice seam welding....... What a reaction!

Biscuit tin lids and araldite works for me...

...or ref. Senna's post above, you'd be better pop-riveting in aluminium repair panels so you get plenty of differential corrosion.

Lol, I used a biscuit tin lid with pop rivets on my old escort under the fuel tank also ! and yes also did Pets's trick of some mud/stones whe the underseal is still wet. Good old days those

Beware if welding galvanized steel, not to breathe in the zinc fumes, which are quite poisonous, and give you a severe headache or worse.

I've used fine wire mesh and fibreglass to repair rear inner arches before, with good results. They're usually hidden by trim from above anyway, so it's not that bad a bodge if done right, and infinitely preferable to gaping holes letting in water.

amateurs,
i've gone poking at a few e30's before and on more that one occasion seen the pockets behind the rear cards filled with expanding foam!
a skim of filler on the outside of it.
the arch looked absolutely mint from the outside too!

obviously i'm not telling you to run out and do it

lol, expanding foam sounds fun. Naw I went today and got a sheet of car panel, hoepfully a friend and myself will get at it in the weekend. However for the mean time, it looks like I am going to have to take the bloody tank out. Never took the drive shaft out before.. So that is startling me.. Thanks

senna wrote:

Shiz wrote:ahaha thanks for the picture representation guys. Ive never herd of using chicken wire before lol. So chicken wire, pon, tetroseal and is that last image stone chip LOL.. So from this thread so far its either using oven panels or chicken wire ?... Or weld lol. I have to take the tank out now anyways apparently because the fuel breather pipe has completely rusted away.

or try this.

Hope that helps

in the 20 years i have been a paint and body man i have come across people driving around in cars repaired like this

post up some picks of your wheel arch rust so that we can see were it is and hopefully give even better advice

My dad had a Ford Anglia with no passenger door, the metal sheet and rivet method was used as a substitute.

PROPER JOB!!!