Rusty wheel arches

[AlexBrown_1]

Hi all,
Looking to buy a wrx 2002-2005 and I think a common issue seems to be bubbling/outright rusty wheel arch or two.

How do you go about dealing with this? Cut it out and weld, or rust preventer and paint?

Also if anyone knows of a good one for sale...!

Ta

 

[CompoSimmonite]

I'd cut out rot and fit a repair panel

Pardon our interruption...

 

[charlysays]

Depends whether its on the surface or in the seam. If you're lucky it'll just be surface rust caused by stone chips but if the seam is bulging out with corrosion you'll need a repair panel.
For surface rust, shot blasting followed by epoxy is good. Bilt hamber deox gel/ citric acid gels are a good alternative to blasting but are slow. I usually needle gun it to death then use the gels and allow for 3x 24hr applications with rinsing and wirebrushing and possible more needle gunning inbetween. I've used the acid gels on heavily surface corroded wheel arches, then applied bilt hamber electrox, then stonechip/ paint as appropriate and the rust never came back, even after 10 years. Whilst electrox is weaker than epoxy it definitely has better anti corrosion properties, it's almost like hot dip galv that you can paint over and is tough for a 1k paint.