Thank god I found this site, though a bit too late this time.
The story so far (brief version): Taking driving lessons, mate sold me his old car for 50 quid, car chassis is sound, rear valance and both wheel arches disintegrating, mot runs out next month.
Q: how hard is it to fit new wheel arches to rear of my rustbucket, will it require the services of an expensive mechanic or can novices (like me)get to grips with the epic adventure.Or shall i just take it straight to scrapyard, have limited budget and no real experiences of car repairs. Maybe buy haynes book ?
Cheers
Fiesta fool
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Quite hard if you've got no experience. I'd scrap it. Had an N reg MK3 LX that had the same problems, and was only 6 years old. Rear wheel arches, valance, hatch all went. If this is happening, there's probably a good chance that the top section of the doors below the window, and bottom edge will go as well (from inside to exterior). I've also known people with mk2s where the front section that holds the bonnet hinges has gone completely.
Appalingly bad Ford quality control on these.
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Only requirement for body work on the MOT is that it is not dangerously sticking out or falling off. So... provided there is no structural rot, just hammer in the arches a bit to knock the worst of the grot out and make sure there are no sharp bits sticking out, then stick some gaffa tape or heavy duty carpet tape over the top. Job done for a few pence!
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Younger son has a 1993 1.1 Fiesta. I have just rebuilt rear wheel arches - partially using Liquid metal, filler, Bondaprimer and Dinitrol combined with Spray can of Ford Diamond white. Turned what looked grotty (but structurally sound ) to looks quite nice. Took 4 hours work.. 24 hours elapsed time.
Next step is to cover all rusty parts underneath with Waxoyl - did it 2 years ago - needs a refresher.
Expect it will last 3 years more or until he wants something better. As he is 22 it makes an ideal car.
I would not bother with welding on non strutural items: too complex to get right/too costly and frankly not worth the effort.
madf
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Cheers guys, just got off phone with local garage, they reckoned a cost of £300 to remove arches weld new ones on. not including paint
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That's quite simply not worth it mate.
Either bodge it yourself, or scrap the car.
I echo the points about bits falling off and jagged edges, that's all that matters. Though a dishonest mechanic might tell you othewise, loads of rust and even bits of the arches missing completely will not fail an honest MOT.
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I did the back arches on my mum's Clioa while ago. The actual repair panels are very cheap. I just pop riveted them all around the edge and blended it all in with Plastic Padding front and back. Then a good coat of Hammerite on the inside and aerosols on the outside. It's started to rust again a little bit after 3 years but still looks much much better.
Graeme
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I think you are talking about bangernomics, not classic restoration.
If the car works, and otherwise gets its MOT it sounds a bargain. You just need to bodge the wheel arches. There are two realistic options, depending whether or not you care about appearance.
One is a hammer and then some gaffa tape, as suggested, the other is to spend more time and do a pop rivit and bodyfiller job. That can look fine, and even be virtually undetectable if you spend enough time on it, but it will eventually rust through again.
But before then you may have had a few years of use from a cheap and reasonably looking car.
I'd do the tape job and get it through the MOT, then put in a bit of time with the bodyfiller.
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