rear arch replacement guide

[seanc]

does anyone have a guide or a thread i can look at showing the best way to replace the rear arch sections on a car ? i need to do the ones on my civic and im wondering what the best way to do it would be !

at the moment im thinking:

cut away as little old metal as possible
repair inner arch which is most likely rusted
joggle edge of old arch
overlap new metal and spot weld in place
seam weld join on inner and outer panel
lead load seem and then a thin coat of filler if needed

am i completley wrong ? is there a better way of doing this ?

 

[W4yne]

I hope This will be of some help?

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/wheelarch.htm

 

[seanc]

yup i had read that. i was thinking of doing an overlap and then seam welding the inner and outer. would it be better to do this or to but weld the 2 pieces together ? i think alignment would be easier with a overlap but if the result would be better with a but weld then i`l do it that way and spend a bit of extra time on it

 

[seanc]

oh and also would it be good to seam weld the inner and out archs together to stop any water ingress and future rusting or would this just add extra hassle if it needed doing again ? there just spot welded originally

 

[W4yne]

As you rightly state the overlap is definately the easiest option to align the two edges. Even though some say that the inner wing protects the overlap inside from water getting trapped, I still personally prefer a butt joint less filler needed as well.

The only problem with a continuous seam weld on such thin metal is that their is a good chance of the metal distorting through the heat, many people prefering the thin metal technique.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/thin-metal.htm

 

[Ian D]

does anyone have a guide or a thread i can look at showing the best way to replace the rear arch sections on a car ? i need to do the ones on my civic and im wondering what the best way to do it would be !

at the moment im thinking:

cut away as little old metal as possible
repair inner arch which is most likely rusted
joggle edge of old arch
overlap new metal and spot weld in place
seam weld join on inner and outer panel
lead load seem and then a thin coat of filler if needed

am i completley wrong ? is there a better way of doing this ?

Out of interest, what sort of civic do you have?