- Joined
- Sep 19, 2010
- Messages
- 1,220
I thought I would do this small write up as I got caught out when buying my car and at 1st these problems where not obvious to me. Hopefully this will help when you go to view a car or even have some work done.
As most of you know the Civic suffers with rust in the rear wheel arches and although my car didnât have any I did miss the signs of a cheap and quick repair which has now made things worse.
No. 1 Check the body for any rust particularly the rear arch where it meets the bumper if there is any it may look like this.
No.2 Check for any signs of repair work. These may not be so easy to see so have a good look around the decals as you can see in the picture below there is paint on the top where it has been masked over for painting.
The next spot would be around the edges of the rear quarter windows if they have been masked over and not taken out for painting then it may look something like this. Nice and flaky!
The next thing that can be easy to miss is any sign of filler. Filler is not a bad thing when used correctly. The easiest place to check for filler is the inner edge of rear wheel arch as you can see in the picture the spot welds that should be visible, just stop after the 1st few. This is not a great spot for filler and the fact that the arches have rusted after just one winter really shows.
No.3 Check the overall condition of the paint. If there has been a re-paint and it has been rushed then there could be a potential problem with Micro Dots. These are small dots/lumps that appear on the paint and they are caused by trapped moisture which is stuck between the primer and the paint. The moisture is trying to escape so causes these small bumps in the paint. They can be quite hard to see so rubbing your hand across the paint is the best way to check. If the bumps are quite large it will kind of feel like brail. If you do find some of these and think âThatâs not many.â Trust me they will get worse over time as the car heats up and cools down again. These can potentially be anywhere on the bodywork but check the rear quarter as they are more likely to be there if the arch has been repaired before.
No.4 Overspray. This can be easy to spot and is another sign of sloppy work. So any door shuts and gaps where the paint could get into like this small amount under the bonnet.
Thanks for reading, Rob
As most of you know the Civic suffers with rust in the rear wheel arches and although my car didnât have any I did miss the signs of a cheap and quick repair which has now made things worse.
No. 1 Check the body for any rust particularly the rear arch where it meets the bumper if there is any it may look like this.
No.2 Check for any signs of repair work. These may not be so easy to see so have a good look around the decals as you can see in the picture below there is paint on the top where it has been masked over for painting.
The next spot would be around the edges of the rear quarter windows if they have been masked over and not taken out for painting then it may look something like this. Nice and flaky!
The next thing that can be easy to miss is any sign of filler. Filler is not a bad thing when used correctly. The easiest place to check for filler is the inner edge of rear wheel arch as you can see in the picture the spot welds that should be visible, just stop after the 1st few. This is not a great spot for filler and the fact that the arches have rusted after just one winter really shows.
No.3 Check the overall condition of the paint. If there has been a re-paint and it has been rushed then there could be a potential problem with Micro Dots. These are small dots/lumps that appear on the paint and they are caused by trapped moisture which is stuck between the primer and the paint. The moisture is trying to escape so causes these small bumps in the paint. They can be quite hard to see so rubbing your hand across the paint is the best way to check. If the bumps are quite large it will kind of feel like brail. If you do find some of these and think âThatâs not many.â Trust me they will get worse over time as the car heats up and cools down again. These can potentially be anywhere on the bodywork but check the rear quarter as they are more likely to be there if the arch has been repaired before.
No.4 Overspray. This can be easy to spot and is another sign of sloppy work. So any door shuts and gaps where the paint could get into like this small amount under the bonnet.
Thanks for reading, Rob
but will all be fixed very soon. 