Replace/repair conv. rear wheel arch.

Post Sat Jul 28, 2018 9:24 pm

Hi all, Found a welderguy to help me cut out rusty-bits and remake nearside rear wheel arch. His advice is to get new repair arch to cut and weld in, and also a new outer-wheelhouse-arch-moulding to make a decent job of it. Schmiedmann do an OEM wheelhouse moulding, but the OEM drawings don’t show a ”˜usual’ arch repair piece, these only appear to be available from other manufacturers. As usual, convertible panels are also different in this area. Anyone have experience with a really good solution?

Post Sun Jul 29, 2018 11:50 am

If you mean a inner wheel house repair panel , that joins the outer arch and the inner middle seam, they are on back order at Bmw worldwide until 2019.

I think convertibles outer arch panels have to be made to fit, as only saloon ones are around?

Post Sun Jul 29, 2018 2:18 pm

Maybe you should be looking at a restorer who can make up the arch themselves and weld in the necessary pieces. I had this job done last year on both rear arches which saved the cost of buying new ones from BMW. Obviously a fair bit of skill involved in this so worth checking out the right person.

Post Mon Jul 30, 2018 8:37 pm

Is the restoration panel maker also in Ireland-West?

Post Tue Jul 31, 2018 6:57 pm

I managed to get someone who was local and who had the equipment to formulate arches. There were a number of choices of restorers in Ireland having checked this out, as I'm sure you would have in England. I removed carpets, seats, doorcards etc to get a full picture of the damage. I was very happy with the work and I cannot see where the join is on the outside arch. As regards the work, the drivers side is the most awkward as it has the fuel pipe in the way. Maybe, the arches on my car were not as bad as yours as my restorer never considered that I get repair panels.