Rust on wheel arch Ford fiesta

bonelessbread

i own a ford fiesta 01 and the wheel arches have started to rust a little bit. Its not a lot its only really surface rust would it be easy to do it myself or better to get a garage to do it?. If i got a garage to do it what price would i be looking at to get it done?

cletus

bonelessbread wrote: »

i own a ford fiesta 01 and the wheel arches have started to rust a little bit. Its not a lot its only really surface rust would it be easy to do it myself or better to get a garage to do it?. If i got a garage to do it what price would i be looking at to get it done?

This comes up quite often here. Rear arches particularly on the mk4 and facelift fiesta are very prone to rust. Unfortunately they tend to rust from the inside out. So once you start to see the problem its often too late. You could try and do some cosmetic repair, but it will probably show through again.

As an aside, I would check the rear sills and strut mounts for rust too

bonelessbread

cletus wrote: »

This comes up quite often here. Rear arches particularly on the mk4 and facelift fiesta are very prone to rust. Unfortunately they tend to rust from the inside out. So once you start to see the problem its often too late. You could try and do some cosmetic repair, but it will probably show through again.

As an aside, I would check the rear sills and strut mounts for rust too

I'll take pictures of it tomorrow or something hopefully it is fixable also would it be a nct failure?

corktina

It needs cutting out and a repair panel welded in....can be expensive to do properley. It depends how serious it is whether it would fail NCT I guess

TheChizler

Weird, I was about to post pretty much that exact OP. Wheel arch has started to bubble up from under the paint. I'm going to have a go at grinding it in the next week but it's not looking good... I'll post here if I get around to it!

cletus

Wno't fail the NCT unless there is an actual hole in it

bonelessbread

corktina wrote: »

It needs cutting out and a repair panel welded in....can be expensive to do properley. It depends how serious it is whether it would fail NCT I guess

I was hoping it wouldn't lead to have to do that

bonelessbread

TheChizler wrote: »

Weird, I was about to post pretty much that exact OP. Wheel arch has started to bubble up from under the paint. I'm going to have a go at grinding it in the next week but it's not looking good... I'll post here if I get around to it!

As far as I know its pretty common with this car what year is yours? and that would be great if you could keep us posted on what your going to do with it

bonelessbread

I'd like to take a crack at grinding and re painting it but I have never done stuff like that on a car before

cletus

Grinding back and filling/painting will almost certainly only be a temporary fix here. Its a well known issue.

bonelessbread

cletus wrote: »

Grinding back and filling/painting will almost certainly only be a temporary fix here. Its a well known issue.

So is there any way to perminantly fox it without welding on a new panel?

cletus

Unfortunately not, my sister just scrapped the same mark and year you bought for this very reason.

*edit* Thought I should just expand on that a little. I have a mk4 ('99) with rear arch rust. It has come through the paint completely on both sides. I have had the car for 3 years or so, and it has always been like that since I bought it. It has not failed the NCT yet because of it, although I do expect that to be the case some day. It also has not yet spred (visibly) to the sills or strut mounts. The car cost me not a lot, so I have probably got my money's worth.

Point is, unless/until the rust make the car structurally unsound, drive on

bonelessbread

cletus wrote: »

Unfortunately not, my sister just scrapped the same mark and year you bought for this very reason.

*edit* Thought I should just expand on that a little. I have a mk4 ('99) with rear arch rust. It has come through the paint completely on both sides. I have had the car for 3 years or so, and it has always been like that since I bought it. It has not failed the NCT yet because of it, although I do expect that to be the case some day. It also has not yet spred (visibly) to the sills or strut mounts. The car cost me not a lot, so I have probably got my money's worth.

Point is, unless/until the rust make the car structurally unsound, drive on

i have mine about a week plan I driving it into the ground when and if I pass my full test soon I'm just doing a few things to fix it , I only spent 600 on mine and it only has 61k miles on it hopefully it's not as bad though

TheChizler

bonelessbread wrote: »

As far as I know its pretty common with this car what year is yours? and that would be great if you could keep us posted on what your going to do with it

2000 mk4 facelift 5 door 1.25 zetec. I'll let you know! Was eyeing up the angle grinder in the Lidl specials today, fate methinks.

Plan on running it into the ground, 4 people have/are learned to drive in it so cosmetically it's not the best, grand to practice detailing with.

bonelessbread

Here's some photos of the rust on the arches

TheChizler

bonelessbread wrote: »

Here's some photos of the rust on the arches

Wow, that's a lot worse than mine. The worst of mine is about the same as the patch on the left in your 4th picture.

bonelessbread

TheChizler wrote: »

Wow, that's a lot worse than mine. The worst of mine is about the same as the patch on the left in your 4th picture.

Yeah pretty bad might take a crack at it of the weather is nice over the week end