Rear arch panel repairs

[Jonathan Pounsett]

CALLING ALL BODYWORK EXPERTS!

 

I’ve had new wheel arch repair panels fitted to the rear of my Manta B. (Supplied by tb-fahrzeugteile).
 

I’d be interested to hear from anyone with experience of this work and what is to be expected, particularly regarding maintaining original alignment, swage lines, heat distortion and body filler.
 

I’ve attached some before and after photos for your consideration and comment.

 

Thanks for your anticipated assistance with this - it’s really appreciated.

 

Jonathan

[cam.in.head]

hi. its hard realy to tell from the pictures but seeing as  you have already had them fitted we will have to hope the alignment is correct. some replacement wheelarches i have encountered over the years are a very good fit but i have also seem many which are not.common problems in my experience are 

arch profile wrong(curve)

arch sticking out too much (too much flare)

arch too big and ends up fitting too low (wheel /lip gap smaller than before)

poor fitting method

 

your car may have none of these problems thou and if you have another car to compare measurements with you can check.one thing which is very very important is to make 100% sure that the welded join is waterproof from both sides ( be it good welding or panel sealer or even an epoxy type sealer )before you start to add any bodyfiller for final levelling/ shaping purposes.i have come unstuck with this myself over the years and results in a job which could last indefinately starting to show bubbles,etc after a few years .if you intend keeping the car please make sure this cannot happen or you will end up repainting the arches again and having to repair any corrosion damage again.

then make 100% sure that the inner areas, inner sides are well sealed painted and rust proofed.once arches are painted you can get dinitrol or wayoyl etc into the seam from inside the boot where the two arches meet around the curve.

its always better to protect from corrosion whilst there isnt any but much harder to kill it years later when it finds bits you have missed.

hope this helps a bit, others will be along too to add their experience as well .

best regards.

 

 

[ANDY ABBOTT]

The above info is correct in my experience too. Rear arches on a manta are a pita to fit. Manta steel is soo thin and warps soo easy, and is generally just a pig to weld to. It's one of the jobs I hate doing and dread it every time. The arches do look a little wider than they do originally, however saying that looking at the 5 stud hub conversion I'd say your not going for the complete factory original look ? So if they are a little wider than original it'll only add to the cars look imo. Good luck with the build 👍

[Jessopia74]

I think a big mistake a lot of people make is to use the whole arch as supplied, rather then just trimming out the corrosion 

[cam.in.head]

most definately yes they do. even proffesional bodyshops sometimes 

you would only want to cut away the minimum original rusty steel until you get back to good rust free steel. at least thats the way i was taught anyway.

[TheRealExile]

Still haven't faced up to this (this was the result of a previous Mantzel kit having been fitted) - I do have nos rear quarter for this (two piece) but want to hopefully save it and just use a wheel arch panel.

I'm off all next week so I'm going to start cutting - guess I cut off the sticky out bits and see exactly what I'm left with 

 

[IanMc]

Hi Terry,

I think I might be tempted to try to bend the sticky out bits back down again and then weld the slots closed. Then take a look and see where to go from there, perhaps you might be able to panel beat it closer to the original shape? I think you might be surprised with what you end up with.

That metal all looks pretty solid to me - seems a shame to cut it away unnecessarily.

Just a thought...  

[TheRealExile]

Great minds - that is the original picture, since then I did attempt bend it down - in the main because I keep snagging myself on it when walking past 

Some of it worked well some not so well - really hard to get the shape - I just need to spend more time on it and see how I go but worst case I have the panel at least.

[Julian]

On 11/08/2020 at 23:47, Jessopia74 said:

I think a big mistake a lot of people make is to use the whole arch as supplied, rather then just trimming out the corrosion 

This is what I am doing, I took note of what Ian advised me, and will end up only using about a third or even less, of the new panel.

[Jonathan Pounsett]

Hi Terry,

From that starting point I don’t think you can go far wrong. My arches weren’t too bad, particularly the near side, but I thought I might as well do them both. Big mistake - I think they both need doing again. I’m no welder but I think I could have do equally badly myself. 
 

Covid permitting I start a welding course at my local technical college next month. IT looks quite easy - I should be an expert within a couple of weeks! 😂

[cam.in.head]

dont worry you will have plenty of bits to start welding once you get fully into the car !

personally unless the arches are fitted in the wrong place or look too bad shape wise i wouldnt remove them again.what i would do is get a wire wheel on a drill and thoroughly go over them untill you are 100% sure you have removed all traces of rust,paint etc especially from the weld area and take it from there.

its hard to weld them continuously without getting any distortion so short welds around will suffice. cannot tell how yours are fitted .it is possible to do it but requires care and practise.

as i mentioned earlier the main objective is making sure they dont need doin again.any joins ANY joins need to be well sealed

.after all the original arch was new and rust free once and the rust will have begun on the inner/ outer seam.

if the car had been treated from the inside from new the arches would have been better if not perfect,

but yes i agree ,from your first pictures arch doesnt look that bad at all and could probably have been repaired as localised segments rather than a full arch but that doesnt matter now.

you'd be suprised (or not! ) by how many bodyshops want to replace whole panels,sections rather than repair smaller areas and then make a hash of it .they say its better in the long run but i think its just easier for them.

both my cavs are on original sills and i have repaired just the rear 6" or so ,rest of sill was fine 30 years ago and is still fine now.

[Kurtupsin75]

2 hours ago, TheRealExile said:

Still haven't faced up to this (this was the result of a previous Mantzel kit having been fitted) - I do have nos rear quarter for this (two piece) but want to hopefully save it and just use a wheel arch panel.

I'm off all next week so I'm going to start cutting - guess I cut off the sticky out bits and see exactly what I'm left with