Rear Inner Arches Uncovered

After a bit of searching I tracked down a pair of the boot floor reinforcement spars that some good soul has reproduced to a good quality. That’ll save a chunk of time so well worth getting them.

Took the car outside and with the rear bumper off, started to clean up the inner rear arches to see what I was dealing with.

Near side first. That large black lump of stuff turned out to be a big chunk of silicon sealant. There was a fair amount of rust but to be fair, it’s no worse than the other cars I have worked on with the same damage. However, it’s the first time I’ve seen it rotten all the way through to the cross member under the boot floor.

With the crap off, made the first few cuts to chase out the rot and creep between the layers of steel. Again not as bad as feared.

The offside was next and not pretty either.

This had been plated, but it was just laid over the underlying rust which had continued to spread. So did a bit of chopping out there too. I am not sure why the plated repair has rusted so much, unless it had no paint on it!