mot repair advice for rear arch's

just had me fail cert for my disco...

only two items on fail sheet... (i'm amazed too!!!)

rear seatbelt mounts o/s and n/s..

the arch is pretty solid apart from the vertical join where it meets the rear quarter panel.. this allows the vertical outer part of the arch to move in and out.. i'm thinkin this is the fail..

problem is the rear quarter panel aint steel, well my magnet wont stick to it, so i cant weld the wheel arch to the rear quarter panel.

how do ya stop this bit flappin about for the mot if ya cant weld to the alloy stuff the rear quarter panel is made from..

i've added a picture of an arch with an arrow pointing at the bit i mean...

The arch should be welded to the body shell, not the alloy panel over it.

I replaced both my arches as they are only spot welded in and are quite easy to remove and replace. Cost was around £75 and just over a days work inc the painting of them.

I dont know if i posted on here or elsewhere how I did it, I will try to find it for you.

I've got the same problem and was only thinking today how to go about fixing it. problem solved, Thanks!

Would be good if you could find it, horse62. I've got a couple of little patches to do, but if it's easy enough I might just replace the arches and be done with it.

I have found the pics they will appear here shortly

My were not totally rotten but worth doing all the same.



If you remove the rubber seal you will see the spot welds on the join, sand the join and they will stand out more, drill them with a 6mm drill going half way through and use an old wood chisel and you will split the join easy.
The the panel will wrestle free with a bit of effort. Leaving you with this.



Treat it for rust



Then weld in the new panel, drill 6mm holes and just plug weld it to replicate the spot welds. I did also weld it around the base of the piller then seam sealed it.



I also repaired the other small area of rust



Then a trip to halfords and a quick spray with a rattle can



In all it is quite an easy job, the panels come form island4x4 and the were under £30 each.

Hope this helps

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That's great, thanks for that. Looks a really nice job you did there. The other little bit you patched up? Mine needs a patch in exactly the same place. Does the patch have to be welded to the out rigger/body mount, or is it just the wheel arch itself that needs patching?

I find that a product called Fertan is quite good a converting rust if you get there product in gel form. The manufacturer used to send out free samples via their website if you sent them an email.

The patch under the arch is if I remember right is just part of the inner arch and I just cut the rot out with a grinder and cut a new bit of steel to fit the hole. I then plated over the top so it's now twice as thick.

i've done it!!

it was the outer edge of the arch panel.. it was unsupported so was flappin about.. once i cut bits out i could see that the rear quarter panel turns in to make the front of the door piller then turns back toward the rear.. the arch lays flat against this and is bolted together..

the return piece on mine had gone!

so there was nothing to stop the arch panel flapping. so i repaired that with an angled piece of tin and a couple of pop rivets to make the return and re-attached the arch to it..

both sides were the same..

would replace the whole arch's, but mot ran out monday, so takin it back in mornin on my way to work, otherwise it takes me 3 hours to get to work on public transport.. 20 mins in my disco...