Rust above/near rear arches: cost to fit arch repair panel?

amoeba · May 25, 2023

Rust has just made it through near both my rear arches on my 2005 204k miles STR;

I had a quote from 1 repair place, who said "repair panels are a nightmare, I would just sand/glassfibre/paint: £1000".

The idea of patching the existing panel VS fitting a proper repair panel does not seem a good choice to me - what do the collective think?

Any ideas on the cost to cut out the rust and fit the repair panels?

Obviously a 204k STR is not worth alot, so the other option is to allow the old girl to rust to death.....

orsom weels · May 25, 2023

Any one that recommends a 'flaspol' bodge repair over replacement panels, then quotes £1000 to do it, is best walked away from

Replacement pattern panels often don't fit perfectly, and require a bit of 'fitting', but any body shop worth their salt will take that in their stride. If the outer is bubbling, the inner will almost certainly be as bad, if not worse, and will need some repair also, not possible if you don't cut the outer panel out of the way. If you just grind the surface, cover with fibreglass and paint, the rust will just continue unseen below for a few months before it starts to fester out again worse that it was before.

A thousand pounds ought to get you a fairly decent job, letting in new panel sections, that'll last a good while! Always difficult to know exactly until you've got into it to see how bad it actually is

.

John Wilko · May 25, 2023

orsom weels said:
Any one that recommends a 'flaspol' bodge repair over replacement panels, then quotes £1000 to do it, is best walked away from

Replacement pattern panels often don't fit perfectly, and require a bit of 'fitting', but any body shop worth their salt will take that in their stride. If the outer is bubbling, the inner will almost certainly be as bad, if not worse, and will need some repair also, not possible if you don't cut the outer panel out of the way. If you just grind the surface, cover with fibreglass and paint, the rust will just continue unseen below for a few months before it starts to fester out again worse that it was before.

A thousand pounds ought to get you a fairly decent job, letting in new panel sections, that'll last a good while! Always difficult to know exactly until you've got into it to see how bad it actually is .

I agree with this 100%

Rust above/near rear arches: cost to fit arch repair panel?

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