Ebay wheel arch repair panels?

[browno]

Since I've just paid out for tax and insurance, I think I've managed to justify another year of fun from my MX5!

Unfortunately, after the salty winter, it's looking a bit shabby (but on the whole, pretty good for a 91 UK car on 128K miles!), and so needs a bit of TLC (the usual arch tidying). The driver's side looks like it will be fine with a small patch, so no trouble there. The passenger side, however has a fair bit of bubbling around the wheel arch, so I was looking into fixing it properly and cutting out the rust and fixing a repair panel. The ones on MX5 parts are £106, which I thought was a touch steep. I was looking about on ebay earlier and found what looks like the same panels for £49.

Has anyone used either of these panels, and were you impressed by the results? Has anyone used the ebay panels and have any comments on fit/quality - should I save the cash on the ebay panel, or is the fit likely to be poorer, so that it would be better to go to mx5parts instead?

[bluetone]

IMO you should get an assessment from your preferred bodyshop; the guys I used made-up the repair sections for my rear arches from scratch; £250 all-in, which I thought was incredibly reasonable

[bluetone]

Dooshbag said:

I have a nasty feeling the total cost of a professional job would be more than the car is worth.

I had both panels done for £250 inc. cutting out rusted sections, fabricating new steel patch panels to replace the rotten sections, welded-in, prepped and painted (including the orange-peel finish on lower sections of the wings). So shop around for a good/cheap bodyshop. If they are not VAT registered, all the better

[browno]

I had a chat to my friendly body man, who reckons that the one arch would be best done with a panel (as it would take a while to match the curvature, without needing loads of filler) - so it should take less time and give a better fit... He's now away for a bit (he's semi-retired), so is going to have a go at sorting mine for me when he's back in late May.

The panels I was looking at are these Link - a search on ebay for mx5 wheel arch panel gives a few different suppliers at similar prices. I don't know if there's any difference between them all- but this looks about the cheapest and seems like a well rated seller...

I'll keep this updated when I get mine done with before/during/after pictures - and would be keen to hear if anyone has used these panels on their cars and how they've held up!

Edited by browno on Thursday 18th March 21:50

[bluetone]

Here are my before/after pics.

[browno]

That looks like a pretty impressive transformation, and shows that despite rusty sills looking nasty, they're by no means terminal! With that level of rust, did that just need the outer panels sorting, or was there more lurking in the inner panels? Looks like a very tidy repair for a very reasonable price too!

Mine is looking a little bit different to that, unfortunately. The driver's side is starting to bubble on the sill (it's been previously plated, and looks like a new plate will sort that out). The passenger side sill looks fine, but there's quite a big area on the edge of the wheelarch (just above the swage line) that's just split, and there's a couple of other bubbles round the arch. Because of the position there, it will be tricky to make a patch - so I think it's going to be a new patch on the driver's side and a panel on the passenger's.

I'll try to get some pictures up over the weekend to show what I mean!

Edited by browno on Friday 19th March 07:54

[bluetone]

browno said:

That looks like a pretty impressive transformation, and shows that despite rusty sills looking nasty, they're by no means terminal! With that level of rust, did that just need the outer panels sorting, or was there more lurking in the inner panels?

Thankfully there was no major corrosion of the actual sill box-section so these were rubbed down and treated with detrimol (sp?) the stuff that "turns rust to metal". No issues on inner panels - just the outer sections needed replacing.

As you can see, this got pretty bad and the rot was basically accelerated by the fking MOT bloke poking about with a screwdriver (to ensure there was no structural weakness as a result). Because my car is a daily driver and this was in the winter, the rot spread alarming quickly once he'd perforated the out panel; to say I was unimpressed would be an understatement but I guess he has to do his job and make sure I wasn't driving a deathtrap

[browno]

Well, I ordered the Passenger side repair panel from ebay (the seller I linked to earlier) about noon yesterday, to have it delivered to my mate's garage... Phoned him this morning to say there might be a package arriving in the next few days, and it had already arrived, so I can't fault the service!

I'm just waiting now for his body man to get back from holiday and it'll be game on!

Will keep the thread updated with before/during/after pics once we get going on the repairs.

[bluetone]

Do you know if he plans to cut a section from the new wing for the repair or is he going to replace the whole thing? IIRC the rear quarters are a pig to replace because they are welded to the chassis rather than using fasteners..

[Pete Franklin]

bluetone said:

Thankfully there was no major corrosion of the actual sill box-section so these were rubbed down and treated with detrimol (sp?) the stuff that "turns rust to metal". No issues on inner panels - just the outer sections needed replacing.

As you can see, this got pretty bad and the rot was basically accelerated by the fking MOT bloke poking about with a screwdriver (to ensure there was no structural weakness as a result). Because my car is a daily driver and this was in the winter, the rot spread alarming quickly once he'd perforated the out panel; to say I was unimpressed would be an understatement but I guess he has to do his job and make sure I wasn't driving a deathtrap

Hi Bluetone. can you tell me where you had that work done please- i think i may need similar doing prior to my MOT and that looks like a good job/ price. i'm in the South West too.

Cheers

Pete

[bluetone]

Pete Franklin said:

bluetone said:

Thankfully there was no major corrosion of the actual sill box-section so these were rubbed down and treated with detrimol (sp?) the stuff that "turns rust to metal". No issues on inner panels - just the outer sections needed replacing.

As you can see, this got pretty bad and the rot was basically accelerated by the fking MOT bloke poking about with a screwdriver (to ensure there was no structural weakness as a result). Because my car is a daily driver and this was in the winter, the rot spread alarming quickly once he'd perforated the out panel; to say I was unimpressed would be an understatement but I guess he has to do his job and make sure I wasn't driving a deathtrap

Hi Bluetone. can you tell me where you had that work done please- i think i may need similar doing prior to my MOT and that looks like a good job/ price. i'm in the South West too.

Cheers

Pete

Here you go Pete I'd be interested to know how you get on as last time I tried to get in touch with them (quite a while a go now) they never got back to me..?

[Pete Franklin]

Cheers Bluetone i'll let you know how i get on

[skinny]

would be interested seeing how you get on - mine has rusted from the inside and is falling apart...

[Tonyroo]

bluetone said:

I had both panels done for £250 inc. cutting out rusted sections, fabricating new steel patch panels to replace the rotten sections, welded-in, prepped and painted (including the orange-peel finish on lower sections of the wings). So shop around for a good/cheap bodyshop. If they are not VAT registered, all the better

Can you tell me where you had these done as I am definitely interested.

Thanks

Tony

[buzzer]

I found the repair panels I bought off Ebay to be VERY poor, they were only as thick as Bean tins, and were the wrong shape! in the end I made my own. Fortunately my sills were good when I cut the outer off...

[tonymor]

Has anyone removed a rear wing in order to put a new one on
and what did it involve to remove?

[crolandc]

[quote=buzzer]I found the repair panels I bought off Ebay to be VERY poor, they were only as thick as Bean tins, and were the wrong shape! in the end I made my own. Fortunately my sills were good when I cut the outer off...















[/quoWow! that is impressive, find it hard to weigh up why nobody else said so after BUZZER went to the trouble of showing how it's done....oh well.

[battered]

Yes, that is good work. I've fabricated a few panels myself, usually straight edges and corners, it's good fun. Never thought of using a bit of door frame as a former though.

[BigTom85]

Thanks for the tips!

I've just picked up a cheap welder to have a go, having never even touched a welder before...

How hard can it be

[GTIAlex]

BigTom85 said:

Thanks for the tips!

I've just picked up a cheap welder to have a go, having never even touched a welder before...

How hard can it be

If its rubbish, just cut it off and try again.