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Classic arch repair, separating inner/outer then bonding the new ones together?
Hi folks, I was hoping I could get away with repairing just the sills for the short term on my V1, but yesterday I managed to put a screwdriver pretty easily through the side of the strut housing at the rear (the outside of the car side).
I really have two choices now: abandon the build and switch to building up the rust free Type R shell I have, or go ***** deep and attempt a proper repair.
If I attempt a repair, I'll buy the repair sections from Automotive Repair Panels on FB. The bit I'm most unsure about is the separating of the inner and outer arches on removal, and then the bonding of these back together when the new bits go in. How exactly is this done? How are they bonded together from factory? Are there any spot welds involved in this area? I've seen a few threads about these repairs but I haven't seen this part touched upon.
They are spot welded so you will need a spot weld drill, if you grind back the paint and rust these spot welds will appear like small dimples if you then centre pop the dimples and drill out you will entually be able to split the two panels.
When you start to rebuild you will need to plug weld the two new panels back together if you don't have access to a spot welder, I use a decent weld thru primer
Last edited by lockheed; 02 March 2020 at 05:42 PM.
You’ll still have to seam weld the join Jay. I did this a few year ago on mine. I used wings reversed. I have never done anything like that before and sadly the rust is back! I think it has travelled from the inner arch out. I’ll be doing mine again probably this year.
You can seam weld it but I always used to joggle join it and plug weld that too, it aslo cuts down on heat transfer and warpage of the panel.
Use the weld thru primer and then flood the joint with it after it cools, you can get many years of service doing a repair like this.
Of course it will never be as good as the factory.
You can seam weld it but I always used to joggle join it and plug weld that too, it aslo cuts down on heat transfer and warpage of the panel.
Use the weld thru primer and then flood the joint with it after it cools, you can get many years of service doing a repair like this.
Of course it will never be as good as the factory.
Agreed, that’s what I’ll be doing next time. I’d never tackled anything like that before. I’d also say cut out more than you think is enough to make sure you remove as much rotten metal. I should have cut back the inners too but didn’t
Agreed, that’s what I’ll be doing next time. I’d never tackled anything like that before. I’d also say cut out more than you think is enough to make sure you remove as much rotten metal. I should have cut back the inners too but didn’t
You got it exactly what you said rust is like an ice berg ………….. a lot more underneath than on top , also a compressed air blow gun can help cool welds to reduce distortion if you have a compressor .
I also try and avoid welding panels that you cant paint the other side of as this will cause bare metal that cant be protected unless you start drilling holes and using fan sprays .
Why don't you transfer all the parts over to the rust free shell? Or do you have parts for this?
Money!
Actually I am now looking at doing this. The issue is the rusty car is a V1 WRX. The rust free one is a V4 Type R. It should have DCCD, STI heads etc. All my bits are V1 WRX and the long term plan was to six speed DCCD it and put a later engine in etc. Now I'm going to have to just frankenstein it to get a running car for competing this season and go back and change bits as and when I can I think.
So next ont he list is to try and find a V4 manifold with all the bits and find out whether my engine could go straight in with the manifold or not...
02 March 2020, 11:07 AM
Classic arch repair, separating inner/outer then bonding the new ones together?
