Arches

[spunkymonkey]

Im considering removing my plastic arches, is it an easy job and what condition is the paint going to be  behind them? Is there anything a need to buy or remove to do this? Cheers.

[jamie_pyrite]

What year/model is it?


Some people have found perfect paint underneath, some people have found a complete mess!

When I took mine off, they just needed a really good T-Cut and they came up nice. But There's some horrible looking black plastic plug holes to the side of the arches that some of the trim clips into. To smooth this over would be alot of work.


That's for my 90 spec Driver with small bumpers. Don't know if it's different for big bumper models..




To remove the arches the best method I've found is to take the wheel off, starting from the top center rivet, drill into the center a little bit (You don't need to drill all the way through.. Just maybe 5mm down. If the disc bit of the rivet doesn't pop off, just prise it off with a flat head. Then just get a smallish crosshead screwdriver and a hammer and just whack the rivets through.

[sharpie]

if someone's taken them off in the past and stuck them back on with tiger seal or equivalent, expect to peel all your paint off.

[jamie_pyrite]

Any suggestions on what I should do when I put my replacements back on? I don't want to use anything that could damage the paint.. Would waxoyl work? ok? Or is it just a case of getting them on nice and tight?

[spunkymonkey]

Its a mk3 and they seem to be riveted on round the arch lip i think.

[kernow-8v]

easy job to do mate just get a 5mm drill bit and drill the heads of the rivets off, but as said above expect there to be some nasty rust patches or dodgy paint work lerking behind there, gripfill or similar are also common lol, i done it to mine and found pinkgrip but luckilly i managed to get it off with out damaging the paint, hope this helps

[Kent]

Im in the process of doing the body work on my mk2

Under the arches I found a complete mess. New o/s/f wing and a lot of filling on the others was needed.

Whilst doing this I took the side trim off and found the same across some of the plug holes along the doors.

I have decided to leave the arches and side trim off and use spats to fill the awkward holes over the rear arches.

[Wayne]

Its a mk3 and they seem to be riveted on round the arch lip i think.

Easy, drill the rivets out and see what your arches are like, I also removed the skirts on mine.