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Wed Jun 11, 2025 2:09 pm

So unfortunately took my rear seats out the other day to uncover the fact that vaders rear wheel arches are completely rotten, i wondered if anyone knew if you could get repair panels or if i should just plate it and weld it up. I have attached photos as the area outlined red seems to me just to be an inner skin, guessing i would just be able to cut this out as there is the actual structural panel underneath it. However the area outlined blue doesn't seem to be rotten but instead a seperate plate that is somehow attached (and has pulled away), the hole in the middle of it has a thread, should there be something attached to this plate? Or is there even a way of buying these plates and replacing them?

Sorry if this doesn't make much sense, not quite sure how to word it :)

Wed Jun 11, 2025 2:21 pm

Dalecook321 wrote: Sorry if this doesn't make much sense, not quite sure how to word it :)

You should post some photos from a few feet back, just for a better idea of what you are talking about / dealing with. There is no reproduction sheet metal for that area, so you will need some donor pieces. With better pics, it will be easier for us to help.

Thu Jun 12, 2025 12:02 pm

What Micheal said above, in that there's no reproduction pieces for those areas. The tapped hole in blue is for the rear outer seat belt mount on that side (lap belt, or 3 point, your choice). The section in red is a boxed section for the body to bolt to the pan. In both cases you might be better off making plates to rebuild those areas, unless you can find a "parts" car to get them from. I only say that as shipping those pieces from California could get expensive. On my very rusty 71 Notch, I had to rebuild those areas too, as it was very rusty there. In fact most of the lower 6 inches of that car were gone. You might want to look in my gallery on here starting on page 10, and working toward page 5 to see what I did to that car. I only say that as I have two Notchbacks in that gallery my old 71 and my 65. Keep in mind that area where your car is rusty is common between the 3 different body styles (Square, Fastback, and Notchback), so you can look for other models to get what you need to fix it (meaning you're not limited to just one body style for parts). I hope this helps.

Thu Jun 12, 2025 5:08 pm

You can try to find a rust free car to get them, or if that’s not an option, do what I did and buy a cheap planishing hammer, bead roller and shrinker/stretcher and make your own. I had no previous metal working experience and to be honest it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.

Fri Jun 13, 2025 2:08 pm

Very nice work Jason. That's kind of what I was trying to tell the OP, but you don't have to get it that nice, as most of it is hidden.