S203 rear wheel arch rust repair

[steve pratt]

There is evidence of rust on the leading edge of my rear wheel arches, so far only on the return lip and so i am going to have a go at repairing this myself. What is involved in removing the rear arch liners? I have all the necessary rust removal tools, some Kurust and top coat and lacquer plus Hamerite and Waxoil and plan to plaster these on the inside once the crud is all removed. Are these repairs effective? I have been quoted £150 to have these done by a body shop but would be unsure as to how well they treat the unseen areas and have heard of the problems re occurring shortly after such work.
Thanks Steve

 

[Piperbob3]

Hi Steve,
Cannot give you much advise only that I am going to try the same sort of repairs on my CLK. I think it's worth while giving it ago yourself and see how it goes the best advise I can give us buy good paints etc from reputable companies.

 

[steve pratt]

sound advice and good luck i shall post any findings myself

 

[steve pratt]

well i'm glad i tried this myself as the amount i was quoted would never have covered the extent of the work needed. I removed the left rear wheel arch liner to find quite extensive ares of surface rust along the leading edge which had rotted clean through in one place. fortunately not where there was any external faces so the paint work still looks mint from the outside. Not impressed considering my last car was an 03 laguna that had no rust at all and ended up with 165k on the clock.
I started by scraping of any old bubbled paint with a screwdriver, wire brush and dremel then two coats of Kurust and then silver hamerite. On the visible edges of the return lip where there was some pitting i filled with Isopon onto the Kurust to level it then sanded flat. Got the fan heater on it now to dry the hamerite and will primer, top coat and lacqer the lip later.
hoping the rear right is better think i have caught this in time and may get a few more years out of it cosmetically.