Front wheel arches, panel supply and construction!

[Guest]

Having been in the restoration business for a good many years I can assure you (from painful experience) that there is another factor to consider in the use of repro parts & front arches are perfect example. About 7 years ago I replaced both front arches on my van using repro parts, (I can't remember whose, but I think they're all much the same). They sort of 'fitted where they touched' and took a lot of work to get an acceptable fit under the door along with a reasonable amount of lead to get the surface and curves right. This year I find that they have perforated all along their length from B post to bottom step, despite seam welding and rust treatment of the box section. It would seem that they suffer the same problem as 60s & 70s Italian cars, ie they are made from a poor quality steel that seems to have enough oxygen incorporated into the material so that it rusts from within the steel itself, no matter what you do. The steel tends to be thinner than the original too as then the press tools don't need to be as large or expensive. This is one manifestation of the eternal problem of repro parts (the metalurgy itself): they may look good, they may work well (for a while), but they may be more time consuming to fit and remember, if they're significantly cheaper than the original there's probably a jolly good reason!
My arches? I got some originals off Graham at FBI and will be fitting those in due course, with galloons of rust proofer. As this is no longer a workhorse needing to be fixed at any cost I don't want to be doing this for a THIRD time.

good advice! :wink:

 

[sparkywig]

Got mine off rocket ron at VW Evolution.
Cleaned up and rustproofed ready to be fitted.

 

[angus]

oh b*gger - thats blown my plans :? :lol: - they look really good, and you can certainly see the attraction of perhaps cutting back more than one initially wanted to, in order to fit complete, original, constructions!

 

[Guest]

the GSF repros are bend overlapped the outer edge and spot welded leaving a great big nasty seam on the bottom step, the best water trap spot on the arch :roll: . i dont understand why they did this as it has to be completely seam welded from top to bottom if you dont want any rusting.

Those arch cuts look like just what im after 8)

 

[sparkywig]

oh b*gger - thats blown my plans :? :lol: - they look really good, and you can certainly see the attraction of perhaps cutting back more than one initially wanted to, in order to fit complete, original, constructions!

That's what happened to me, bought a pair of repro arches, went to Bristol Volksfest and saw a pair that FBI had for sale.
Sold the repros the week after and bought a pair of cuts.
Have also bought a complete roof cut and an osr complete rear corner (although corner for sale due to change of plans ). No point putting crappy metal back when you can fit VW steel. It maybe more expensive in the shorter term, but if it's a keeper, it's worth it. :mrgreen: