[MrT]

The rust on my wife's puma drivers side wheel arch has been recently repaired, the bodyshop agree with me (and many others on here) that its probably caused by the crappy carpet style wheel arch liners.

My question is - Has anyone removed the liners and not put them back or is there a reason why I should not do this?

Clearly if they are removed the metal underneath will need a good thick coating of underseal but if this is being done anyway to help slow down any further rust problems so why not just leave the liners out? The search show me this has been talked about many times but has anyone actually done it?

Cheers all.

This post has been edited by MrT: 17 March 2011 - 07:59 PM

[Bentleya]

The FRP dosnt have carpets in the rear arches. If you put some protection on there is no problem in doing it .

[MrT]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Its currently looking like this but probably needs another coat tomorrow when this one is dry.

[roadrally]

Yes, it will need another coat, the problem with taking them out is that road grime, salt, grit, crap etc can get up into the void around the filler neck and start to rot from in there.
Should be ok if you pressure wash out every so often and dont allow moist dirt build up to stay there for long periods.

[grandad chris]

Interesting subject..I personily would not remove the wheel arch carpet for exact reason that Roadrally mentions..I have had my current Puma 10 years(dry use only last 4 years) when first got it i was i was given some very useful advise by Tony at Pumaspeed. that one way to prevent the rust was to cut back approx 1 inch of carpet around the wheel arch .So this is what i did..i removed the carpet cut it back but i undersealed about 3 inches around the wheel arch and then put it back. i also waxoyled as well..It seems to work ..
Regards Chris.

[VOA]

I think "dry use" is the main reason why some puma's have avoided rust around the arches . I have only owned my current puma few months but it is a 2000 x reg which has no rust on the arches my puma had low mileage and it looks like the previous owner garaged the car and probably only used it mostly in the dry.This was the opposite to my Milly which had bad rusty arches which couldn't be cured and kept coming back , the milly had to live on the drive and the arches were not protected in any way .

On my current puma which 11 years old I worked on the front protecting them by using hammerite and and waxoyl . I might use the same process on the back when I get round to it but as Grandad Chris and roadrally say I would still use the wheel arch carpet as it still needs the protection from the elements. Would be nice if some aftermarket plastic arches were available.

I did the same underneath but did it this way round hammerite ,underseal after using kurust and jennolite to kill surface rust - the underseal does chip and break off quite easy that is why I didn't us it on the arches....... some say hammerite is the same i.e easily chips, but with the smooth stuff I have never had that problem.

I might try cutting the carpet back as the rust area's on most puma's appear to be round the edge of the arch where the arch carpet touches.

This post has been edited by VOA: 18 March 2011 - 01:15 PM

[grandad chris]

Chris (voa)..Less to hoover!!!??

This post has been edited by grandad chris: 18 March 2011 - 05:46 PM

[VOA]

grandad chris, on 18 March 2011 - 05:43 PM, said:

Chris (voa)..Less to hoover!!!??

That is a good idea - although the wife also has one of those hand dysons which are ideal for cleaning the car - not sure if she knows I use it on the outside of the car lol

[tristan73]

I am doing this just now, I jet washed the carpets for what felt like days before the water ran clean then water protected them and put them back in, nice reduction in road noise as well with both done. Still plan to clean now I know where to get into.