Hi all

Picked up my impreza hawkeye last week and love it so far, but upon washing it for the first time today I noticed very tiny rust bubbles appearing on one of the rear arches! Needless to say I was not impressed especially since it is an 06 car with 52k on the clock!

I plan to have the offending section cut out, weld in new part and respray. Question is, how easy is the blue to match? I have had silver cars sprayed in the past and they could never match it quite right. I'm guessing the blue is a lot easier to match?

Does anyone have pictures of their resprays?

Thanks all

 

Where about is the rust? That's bad for a newage shouldn't be worrying about that apart from the bootlid!

Any body shop. Can do it don't worry yourself

Steve

 

have it rubbed down and some rust treatment put on then resprayed. cutting out the arches shouldnt be needed just yet. get some bilt hamber and treat it. http://www.bilthamber.com/corrosion-...ust-treatments

 

I thought it was bad too especially since it is not that old and it hasn't done many miles.

I'm sure having it rubbed down would be cheaper, but I would rather have it done right first time to make sure it doesn't come back.

There are a few of these little bubble clusters around the arch and one large bubble around the size of a 5p coin.

 

I would pull the black rubber trim off which will probably reveal a stone or something rubbing against the metal and causing the issue. I also wouldn't bother putting it back on.

You shouldn't need to get that cut out, rubbing back to clean metal should sort it.

 

Agreed. I hate rust and as a bodyshop owner have had people ask about repairing properly shot rear arches thinking it's a quick and simple job. Well it is if you're happy to see the rust coming back through in 6 months time, but I'm certainly not!

But in the case of that it will just be a minor chipping of the paint has exposed some bare metal which has bubbled slightly. No need to cut something like that out at all. Just DA the paint off, rust treatment and then build the paint back from there.

 

rubbing back and cleaning then painting will not sort rear arches on a subaru, they go from above/behind so you see it after its set in and will just come back if you don;t sort it properly. May not need cutting out and new metal but depends how bad it is where you can;t see easily

 

That won't be the case on a Hawkeye I'm sure (not yet anyway!). That will just be a case of some paint being chipped off and exposing the metal to rust.

On a classic (or earlier newage) you're certainly right and I know better than most after searching for ages to find some decent rear arch sections to cut out of another car to replace mine of my STi V1. Although to be fair, once I cut my old arches out they were nowhere near as bad as I was expecting, they were just made to look worse by old filler blistering up on top of a very dodgy plate repair, although as ropey as the plate was, that did actually help stop a load of the crud and it spreading further.

 

06 hawk is 9 years old now don't forget, so not exactly a new car any more. Just depends how far it's gone.

I saw a classic a couple of weeks back that had rusted through the whole arch for a 8 inch section on both sides, god know what was found when they stripped it back lol

 

If said bodyshop could not match your silver then dont take this to them.
Just because a colour is 'silver' or 'blue' it doesnt mean its any easier or more difficult to match.
People have such a strange conception on how paint is matched! I.e its silver so it difficult or its blue so its easy.
Not the case my friend im afraid.

 

silver is a bitch, i'd seriously be having to think long and hard about buying a silver car, i've seen so many crap silver matches done, luckily I know a fantastic sprayer.

 

Thats the bodyshops fault dude not the colour of the car.
There are so many dodgy bodywork places out there.

 

yeah i hear what you're saying - silver doesn't do much for me anyway, and as far as SUBARUs go, i'm blinkered and never have to consider silver only blue

 

I'm taking it to autoline in wigan now. They specialise in MX5s and have seen their work from forum posts, they seem to do a good job cutting out rust and matching paint. And yeah, 06 is now 9 years old believe it or not, feel like last year!

 

2006 Hawkeye wagon.

When you open both back doors rust on the sills and wheel arch that is hidden by the door coming from the inside.

Where the back bumper meets the rear quarter panel just behind the rear door there has been bubbleing there again from the inside for about a year.

The underneath is still good but on the 2 post the flanges that the lift pads contact are failing at the back. Ok we are in Aberseenshire where they lay lots of salt and some MK3 MX5's from 2006 are starting to get bad back arches especialy the ones that live by the sea.

Pictures if requested.