Wheel arches mania

Started welding on the rear right wheel arch today, I hope to finish it tomorrow. It is hard to shape the metal to the smooth round shape of the wheel arch. Much easier if I had a replacement part, but these parts are rare and expensive since it’s a coupe and the rear section differs from the station wagon and sedan models. A part from an old wreck are hard to come by and would had the same rust problem in 99% of the cases. So better off doing it the hard way.

Obviously I had to make a huge hole and remove the old crappy metal.

Cutting panels and shaping it is an art, and I’m not an artist, just a simple engineer.

Welding along the seam needs patience, the metal here is very thin.

Also have to make the inner weld which I didn’t take pictures of.

This last part is a tricky one though. How will I be able to replicate the smooth shape?

Making the car water proof once again.

Welding done! Think I have swung the hammer more times today than any other day in my life! An exact reshape of the arch was not possible from my side. Will need some filler to make up the last touches.

Painting the metal and then applying filler.

I was quite pleased with the result, but is not as perfect as a replacement arch, will look into that in the future…maybe. So fast forward in time, here is the end result. Not bad for an amateur like myself!

You can see the slight difference in color where the old and the new paint meet. I also think the shape of the arch is nice.