Rear Arch!

[novaspeed]

Hi guys. My arch has pretty bad rust on it. Im on about the straight bit at the top cos the rest is covered by side skirt. Can i bend the lips round with a hammer? How do i get it flat again on the outside?

cheers

Nova say never

[apples]

"pretty bad rust" chances are that if you hit it with a hammer, or try to fold it in any way, your arch will fall apart.
best bet is to replace it with a repair panel.

[Maimpreza]

where can you get a repair panel from as im thinking of replacing my current arches as the rust is starting to creep in!

[apples]

try the phone book for local panel suppliers, failing that pop in to a body shop and ask them were they get them from.
shouldnt cost much more than a tenner per side.

[Rich Dale]

Mine were ?12 a side....like apples said....shouldn't cost much more than a tenner per side.

Also, like apples said, hit it with a hammer and it's likely to drop off.
My "better" arch on my previous Nova did just that.....I gently tapped it around to get more clearance for my wheels and all that happened was it split along the outer crease!
My "worse" arch didn't need to me modded to fit the wheels simple 'cos the lip didn't exist!

It's got nice minty new arches now though :) (and up for sale soon!)

[novaspeed]

so wat is the actual pannel u get?
is it the whole back side or wat? how wud u fit it?

Nova say never

[apples]

put your finger 5 inches above your arch lip, now follow the shape of the arch right the way round from sill to behind the bumper. thats the repair panel. best way to fit em is to cut the old lip off about 2 inches high, seam weld the skins together then cut what you need off the repair panel, bout 3inches, and tack weld it in place. finishing touches require sum fibreglass, filling and smoothing.

[novaspeed]

cheers guys


Nova say never

[Rich Dale]

Yep....apples described exactly what I did except that I cut the repair panel to fit before I did any welding, but basically the same thing.