How to Repair a Rusted Wheel Arch

hey it's steve with ray buck auto body parts i have my 2012 ford f-150 here and you guys may have noticed there's some bubbling right here so yeah this is a victim of the notorious wheel arch rot um a lot of trucks have this it doesn't really matter the year maker model um it happens a lot so what happens is there's this outer wheel arch area that's here that's the outside of the bed or the outer bed skin and then there's a wheelhouse that's underneath it's that metal piece that goes from the outer skin all the way to the inner part of the bed where those two pieces meet there's a tendency for water to build up salt grime debris and then eventually it just leads to rot it literally rots from the inside out so a lot of times you'll start seeing bubbles like what you see here and then as soon as you touch it the paint pops and there's rust and water and stuff underneath of it this one has gotten kind of bad um it's this lower section from here to here and here's a close-up of the rust bubble so you can see where the bubbles are starting to pop through the you can almost hear it i could hear it as i push on it yep hear that that's the rust underneath the paint and obviously this already started coming through these areas started already coming through look at that that's horrible that's all coming apart so um and there's the underside right there so you can see like the inner wheelhouse still looks fine it's just this lip so again it's this whole lip right here and where the water just sets um in between the outer and the inner piece that's where it gets bad what causes this a lot of newer vehicles a lot of the newer trucks is the process that the manufacturers use for sound deadening they literally spray like a hot tar inside this area inside that inner lip as the vehicle is being made and then as it cools it expands and it turns into like a foam it's supposed to be used for sound ending which i have no idea why you would need sound ending in the back of a truck in the net of the truck but from my understanding that's what they do so as you can imagine as soon as you put that hot tar in there any sort of galvanized coating or anything that's in there is probably going to get eaten away it's going to deteriorate that and then it's going to leave exposed metal so what happens is that foam that's in there will literally absorb the water and hold all the grime and salt and everything that i just talked about and as it holds the water it acts like a sponge and then the water eventually just sits all along this inner lip and works its way through and rots that out so that's what happens so what i'm gonna do is i'm actually taking this truck in uh to my friends down at ray dodge body works um they're good friends of mine they do great work they're gonna do this repair for me we're going to record that so you can see what this looks like so i'm going to show you the panel we're actually using one of our panels the ravok auto body parts panels um and they're going to take it they're going to cut it down to this so i'm going to show you what the panel looks like i have it right here um so if you ever look on our website or pretty much any other competitors websites you see wheel arches it looks something like this so you see it's this big rectangular arch and it looks very daunting you can see this one even has the the cutout for the um for the fuel door right here well i don't need all that i don't need this whole section i don't want to disturb that whole part of the bed this repair on my truck is actually fairly straightforward because there's a body line right here so all we need to do is take this lower section of the panel and cut it cut this section out weld it in do the body work and replace it and then literally we can just paint this body line from this body line down and then blend that in instead of having to paint the whole side of the truck so when you see a repair panel like this or any of the other repair panels we have don't think that you need to cut the whole piece out you can we make them larger have them made larger so that way if you do have more rot if it's gotten a little too far it's gone all the way up or you have areas around the fuel door opening or somewhere else you need to replace you can do that but you don't need to use the whole thing you can literally cut just a portion of it out now some of you may say well why would i buy this whole panel and only cut a section out i could just get a piece of flat stock and make that myself well you can but if you've ever done bodywork or any sort of sheet metal work um paying 40 50 60 or whatever the panel might be is a whole lot better in my opinion than trying to get a couple pieces of flat stock and making these curves and with these wheel arches they have this lip underneath too so as the arch comes out or the bed skin comes down and it rolls underneath that lip was already built into the panel so literally i'm going to take this out or they're going to take it out and they're going to weld it right in and it's going to be ready to go it's going to fit the body lines perfectly so that's going to save a ton of time when it comes to trying to make panels or doing the body work on it so my suggestion always is to just get the panel even if you don't need the whole thing just use a section of it and then whatever section you need replace it with that so we're going to take it up to the shop those guys are going to get ready to start doing their work on this again they're going to cut this section out they're going to cut a section of the arch out weld it in do the body work paint it blend that paint line in right along this body line here and then i'm going to show you what the end result looks like after that when i get it out of the shop okay so you can see the panel held up over the vehicle right now and the mark that's on it um they're only going to replace like i said a section of it so there you go you can see the section that they cut out uh again like i said earlier in the video you don't have to use the entire panel you just use whatever piece you need to replace the area that's rotted out so what they're doing right here is um putting a line around it they're just putting a score around the edge of it so they could see the area that is affected that they need to work with and then what they're going to do next is they're going to take the panel off and they're going to draw a line inside of that and that's going to be their cut line so in this particular case instead of butt welding or putting a flange they are going to tuck it underneath and mig weld it in place so the outside score is the length of the panel and the inside mark what you see right there is going to be where the weld joint is so what they're doing now is they're going to get this area cut out and then they're going to get ready to fit the panel up in there and make sure that everything aligns [Music] so you can see he's cutting along that edge he's going to get down to the bottom of this cut it out and then get that section of the panel removed from the truck okay so he made the last of his cut right there he's getting ready to pull that panel down and get that out of the way [Music] oh and holy cow look at all that foam that's in there so that's what i was talking about earlier in the video so that is that uh hot liquid substance that the manufacturer spray in there and it cools and turns the foam and it eats into the uh the inside and galvanization or anything that would have been on the inside of the panels and it also holds that moisture it holds the water in so all that foam held that water in and that's what causes that area of the vehicle to rot out you can see it looks pretty bad it looks like the inner structure has some rot to it as well so even though on the outside we saw some bubbles and you can see it was starting to get pretty bad um it starts from the inside so like they say you're seeing kind of the tip of the iceberg so now we're seeing the base of it and you can see a lot of that is rotten away so he is cutting out the rest of that outer panel and then it looks like he's going to have to cut some of that inner panel out as well so right now he's scraping the rest of that foam out i highly recommend that i would scrape out everything that you can even up under that area um up at the top there i would get some sort of uh rod or maybe a part of a metal hanger or anything you can get up in there and scrape out as much of that foam as possible see where his finger is there i'd go up underneath that all the way around even get up under the underside of the the truck and scrape it get it all out of there and spray up in there once you're all done with this to seal it up to get that foam out so it puts holding that water in place so there's that inner structure you can see he's wiggling it around it's really loose that metal shot so they're going to cut that out and get that replaced as well so you can buy inner wheelhouse replacement panels for a lot of these trucks this particular one though they're um there's only a small section that needs to be replaced instead of the entire thing which would be a much bigger project so um what you're going to see here in a minute is an interesting little uh fix that uh little trick that they used that i wouldn't have thought of so now he's grinding everything down just trying to get that cleaned up and cleaning up around the edge of that so they can get that paint removed and get it ready for fitment [Music] [Applause] [Music] there you go he's cutting out that last little piece down there is going to get that removed and then that will be ready for um for fitment so what he's doing here he's taking his chisel he's opening that gap up a little bit so that he can tuck that panel in there and uh and tuck it up underneath again so he can get some overlap on the metal before he uh welted in place [Music] okay so he's getting a panel he's going to tuck it up in make sure that it fits and there you go so that looks like it's gonna be a pretty good fit uh maybe a little bit of uh there you go a little bit of wiggling get it up in and that looks like it's gonna be a good fit [Music] okay so now he's going to cut out that section of that inner wheelhouse that's pretty well rotten and if you look right on top of the tire there you can see another piece of metal so this is what i was just mentioning what they did was actually take a piece of the rest of that wheel arch that they're not using and they're going to use it to repair the inner wheel now so a really good idea so instead of buying two panels and only using a small piece of each they only had to repair a small section of that inner wheelhouse so they cut part of that outer wheel arch and they're going to use it to repair the inner wheelhouse really really good idea so now they are hitting it with some weld through primer to seal up that metal that bare metal they're going to hit the back of the that panel they're going to weld in with the same primer and get it ready to go so now he's going to get a couple of tacks in place to make sure that that everything's going to line up properly [Music] okay now that inner is tacked into place he's going to put the outer back in just to make sure that it's going to clear everything there's no other alignment issues because that piece that he just tacked into the inside is going to flood up against the uh that outer piece there so you got to make sure everything fits and aligns before you weld that in completely or else you could end up having to cut it back out and start over [Music] [Music] okay so everything's in alignment he's taking the outer piece out and he's gonna get ready to weld that inner piece in so what he's going to do here is get a couple more tacks in it and then he's going to start stitch welding it so any type of panel that you're welding in like this definitely recommend stitch welding it instead of running a bead from one end up to the other you want to go in sections literally like stitching it so you're going to go a couple in a couple inch increments and work your way around uh if you try to start on one side and work your way all the way up the edge of it you're going to end up applying too much heat to it and warping the panel so you could warp the outer panel and that inner panel that you're trying to weld too and it could cause real mess uh so you see here he's using his hammer he's going to tap that edge over to fit the contour of that inner wheelhouse to make sure he gets a nice tight fit and then he's going to start putting his tacks in place [Music] so here's the first set you can see he skipped a couple of inches he's going to his second set he'll probably skip a few more inches and work his way all the way up the panel there you go a couple more inches and then same thing you do this all the way up the panel let it cool for a little bit come back to the beginning of the panel and start over so depending on the size of your panel you may have to give it a little bit more time to cool or if it's a longer panel you might have time to just go right back to the beginning by the time you get to the end go right back to the beginning and start over [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay so he's back to the beginning of the panel or towards the beginning where you started putting a couple more tacks in it getting an air hose putting it up underneath the back to help cool it down a little bit make sure no undercoating or anything else happens to be on fire up there and then continuing to uh to stitch up and around it [Music] okay a little bit more air underneath of it cool it off get ready to grind it down clean up those welds [Music] if you noticed on this one he stitched weld around it but he didn't do a complete weld now you can completely weld that whole edge of it in or for this particular panel um you can keep it just the way that it is right here being stitch welded and then apply some seam sealer to clean it up so that's what he's going to do next oh hit it with a little bit of primer first to seal it up and then once that dries use a little bit of seam sealer to seal completely seal up that entire edge and what that's going to do is that's going to help prevent any moisture from coming in through the uh that wheel opening area up behind that panel to cause the same what would have caused the same problem to happen again so you can see here he's uh putting on a seam sealer caulk it all around there and now he's using an acid brush flat acid brush to smooth it out get into any little grooves that are in there any little holes and smooth that whole thing out so once that's done you want to go over top of all that again maybe a little bit of primer a little bit of paint and then get your outer panel in so he's got the outer panel clamped into place and he's going to do the same thing here he's going to put a couple little tack welds up around the edge of it to make sure that everything's in place exactly lined up as he wants and then this panel is going to get welded completely all the way around so it's going to be one continuous weld all the way around but again done in a stitch welding fashion so he's going to start on one side and put some welds in and then keep working his way up and around and keep doing that in a circular motion all the way around the panel until the whole thing is welded in place so there you go you can see it's welded in uh it is sanded down so now he's gonna clean up the edges and get it ready and actually probably strip the rest of that edp coating off there and get it ready for body filler [Music] so that's all ground down all the edp coating is removed now he's hitting it with a slightly less abrasive disc blending in some of that paint around the edge get rid of that real sharp line and give the filler a nice clean surface to stick to and now is the first coat of filler so you're gonna have two different at least two different coats probably two different coats of filler so this one's gonna be more your rough coat you're blending in and filling in the weld area and getting a skim coat over the whole panel and then once this is on and sanded down you'll get a smaller or a thinner like filler glaze coat that goes over it and smooths everything out and gets it ready for primer and [Music] [Music] okay so that first coat is on he's gonna get it sanded down so this is your first sanding it's gonna be a pretty heavy grit uh disc or paper whatever you're gonna use you're probably gonna use something um depending on how smooth you got it you might start with a 36 grit uh get down into like an 80 and a 150 grit um or if it's fairly close you might just do something around a 150 or so or even a 220 again depending on how smooth that first coat went on but you're gonna get that sanded down and pretty close to where it needs to be as far as the inner structure is or the underlying structure and then get ready to put the second top coat on [Music] you can see there he's hitting the whole area with a less abrasive uh disc to smooth it out even just a little bit more and take out some of the sanding marks and blend everything together and get ready for that next coat okay so the next coat is on and he is hand sanding it now so a lot of times what you'll do with this is you'll get a block sander and sand it down and get it pretty close with something maybe again in the 150 grit range and then start working your way and the 220 320 500 600 800 000 whatever different um abrasive grit levels you want to use definitely something probably closer i would think to 800 or a thousand for the the final could even be a little bit finer maybe 1200 or 1500 to really smooth that out before you put primer on [Music] [Music] okay so that's all sanded we obviously skipped a little bit of additional sanding steps now he's down to the scotch brite pad what that's going to do is help scuff up the surface um mostly around it where the paint is to help give the primer something to stick to they got it all cleaned up they're doing a final uh blowing it off a lot of times you could blow that off and then maybe use a tack rag to get any dust particles off and then you're gonna hit with primer so that's what they're doing now they're getting it primed and ready to go and once the primer is dry they'll scuff that down and get it ready for paint okay so there's the finished product you guys saw the work that those guys up at ray dawns were doing um you can't even tell the replacement panel was put in here that this was all cut out and replaced it looks really really nice so uh they did part of the underside you saw in the video part of the inner wheelhouse which is this area right up in here so you can see the seam they didn't have to replace the whole intersection of this wheelhouse they just did a portion of it um and they actually used a piece of the uh like i'm saying they used a piece of the arch that they didn't use they didn't need and they flipped it around and put it in there so pretty cool um re-undercoated it so everything blends right in and it's all sealed up the only thing i'm going to do next is up on the underside of this the inside so back in here between the panels i am going to hit with either a little bit more undercoating or some cavity wax to seal that up and then i'm going to put fluid film all up in there i highly recommend spraying fluid film once a year maybe in the fall clean everything up under there spray up in that area of the bed up under the doors anywhere there's a pinch mold anything like that um it helps seal everything up and protect it from the winter element so i hope you guys uh enjoyed that gives you an idea of what it takes to replace a wheel arch at least one way to do it there's multiple ways and depending on the area that you need to cut out you might have to do a little flange work and and put a panel in but this is how these guys did it thanks again for watching please subscribe to the channel we appreciate it and click the little like button below thanks you

Channel: Raybuck Auto Body Parts

Views: 201,723

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Id: zFXXC48YJ-8

Length: 22min 59sec (1379 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021