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Thanks that’s what I thought but hoped not. Are there many occasions this is a isolated area or would you expect to see the arch or other surrounding area corroded / welded? Looks tidy on pics with no apparent issue on arches which I know is rare and most likely slightly suspicious.
Thanks again
Also check the other side. Ideally get the car on a ramp and get a light in the arch. If you don’t have access to a ramp try to get right under and shine a torch around paying attention to the top. Have a feel for corrosion.
While you’re at it check sills and arches. If the MOT with the advice was some time ago chances are rust will be affecting other areas.
Also just looking may not reveal the rust, poke n prod and push at the metal ( mine looked fine, was only upon doing the poking etc i found this ) undersealed every yr from owning it, at the time was 11 yrs in my possession.
Wow thanks for the heads up. It’s difficult because as the owner says it must (in theory) have been done well as it was back in 2012 and it has never spread or had other works to arches, wings or skirts and looks solid. Other thoughts are that if one side went that long ago there must be more.
suppose it depends which way you look at it.
All depends on price really. My Bugeye just failed it's mot on rust. Needed 2 patches on the outer skint on the rear arch close too turret.
My mate did it for me quoted a good price. But I told him to hold back on that quotation as I know what Subaru rear arches are like. Took him a good 12 hours as once he started digging around loads of the arch came out. Although he said the chassis was solid it was just the outer skin mostly.
Only had 90,000 on the clock a few owners from new, nearly full history and tones of receipts for work. But think original owner lived down south maybe near the sea. Front subframe looks new, so looks like it's been replaced early in its life.
When my Bugeye failed its MOT for the same reason as the OP I was pretty disappointed too, especially as from outside the I couldn't see anything but a few rust bubbles on the rear arches:
But as @The Rig said a bit of poking and prodding underneath revealed that it was much worse than it looked.
What made it worse, was that none of the panels were available any longer.
My local Subaru dealer would quote prices and then would tell me the parts were on indefinite back order.
I managed to find a local fabricator who was able to cut out the visible rust and weld in sufficient new metal from underneath to get through the MOT re-test.
Luckily for me, Ryan Jones (aka 'ProdriveRules' on here) had set up shop a few miles down the road from me.
So over the following winter, he stripped out the car and completely refurbished the underside and rear turrets.
There was even more rust than I'd expected on the inner arches and wheel housings.
Ryan cut out the rust, then rebuilt the turrets and laid in new plates to the wheel housings using much thicker gauge steel.
The rest of the under-body was stripped to bare metal then coated with Bilt Hammer rust cure, heavy zinc-rich primer and seam sealers.
Then Ryan covered the under-body with rubberised anti-chip stone guard.
I suspect most UK model 20 something-year old Bugeyes and classics are probably hiding similar issues.
All that was visible on mine from the outside was some minor bubbling on the arches.
Last edited by SouthWalesSam; 08 April 2020 at 05:46 PM.
Wow what a mess. Very expensive? My mate got a hammer under the arches and knocked all the the rot out and then used a cutting tool until he found solid metal.
Pulled all the seats out turrets don't seem too bad. He said chassis was solid. Looks like yours, why is it that same patch that goes?
Anyway 2 days later and a tone metal, it looks loads better now. He did a cracking job.
If it was as nice as yours I would invest further. My other classic has a rusted arch. Doesn't look good but solid inside the turret. Still has the paint on. Original owner spent loads on having body inspections and undersealed from Subaru when car was new and for a number of years after.
The nearside was even worse. It would've made Swiss cheese look structurally solid!
I thought the car was a write-off but Ryan insisted it could all be fixed.
Expensive? It probably cost more than the wagon was worth.
But as we were there and had everything stripped off, it seemed a shame not to take the plunge.
I sourced a full 6-speed package, rear Brembos, new filler neck, handbrake cables, etc. and renewed, replaced or refurbished everything under the car.
Thanks to Ryan's efforts, two month's later, it turned out nice, after all:
As you say, they all seem to go in the same place.
Wheel housings, turrets and sills are the killers on this model.
I could do a whole project thread on Bugeye rust restoration!
05 April 2020, 08:43 AM
MOT wording
