Body Part Replacement Advice

[Grim.Badger 15]

Whilst findling around with my gearbox I've found that the passenger side inner arch is fairly rusty with a small hole in the chassis leg; I'm planning on getting this replaced rather than patching it up as full body parts don't seem that expensive but;

 

Should I get a genuine part? I presume the original ones are better rust proofed and better quality steel.

 

Who should I get to do a decent job of it? I don't think a normal repair shop will do a decent job as it's an "Old" car, should I go to a classic car repair specialist or a national repair shop or what?

 

I also take it that to do the inner arch I will also need a new outer arch and possibly headlight/front panel but some advice on this would be good

 

Cheers

[welshpug 1,657]

whereabouts is the hole? some holes are meant to be there

 

pictures will help greatly in advising which direction to take .

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Although the panel may not be expensive, replacing a chassis leg is probably going to stand you nearly into the thousands in labour charges to do it properly. If it is a small localised hole personally I would rather repair the area in question rather than disturb the rest which is probably A-OK.

[Grim.Badger 15]

It's in front of the battery tray, facing into the engine bay.

[pugit666 2]

i have a hole there too, it was where the plastic relay box was

[Paintguy 0]

I'd agree with Tom 100%. There are times when repair is much better than replacement, and this is one of them.

 

Have a look through the Rebuild section of my Project Gallery, and you'll see a repair done in that area. There's no way I'd have fitted a complete new inner wing, even if I could have afforded it

[Grim.Badger 15]

Fair enough, then what kind of bodyshop should I go to? I don't trust a normal garage to do a decent job I presume that I should be trying to get a flush repair rather than getting a plate welded over? Would any specialist bodyshop be good enough do you think?

 

I'm going to try some of that back to metal stuff first to see how bad it is; I will also try this on some repair work that's been done at the bottom of the door pillars as it looks like a bodge job to me