Im not sure if i am not breaking the rules of this site by sharing my find, and I would also like to emphasise that i am not in any shape or form related to particular company, but THERE ARE FINALLY rear arch repair panels available for freelanders. I've seen many of us suffering from rust under the rear passenger doors as well as around rear arch. This is also an issue for my car, and for a while now i've been gathering the right tools to make the repair panels by myself, but surprise surprise, last week I saw them available on ebay.

Cheers. If you are interested, I may also create a ''How to'' video, when my panels arrive.

That is good to know when the time comes. Many thanks for the info.

Nice spot, thanks 🙏

Like the old days of minis and Austin 1100 😄 Back in the fold after 8 yrs. V8 Disco 300 series-Gone.07 Freelander 2 HSE Auto Rimini Red.
Gone.
2013 HSE Lux Havana ( Brown! )

Going to follow this…

Soul Fan wrote:

Nice spot, thanks 🙏

Like the old days of minis and Austin 1100 😄

blaster1232 wrote:

Im not sure if i am not breaking the rules of this site by sharing my find, and I would also like to emphasise that i am not in any shape or form related to particular company, but THERE ARE FINALLY rear arch repair panels available for freelanders. I've seen many of us suffering from rust under the rear passenger doors as well as around rear arch. This is also an issue for my car, and for a while now i've been gathering the right tools to make the repair panels by myself, but surprise surprise, last week I saw them available on ebay.

Cheers. If you are interested, I may also create a ''How to'' video, when my panels arrive.

Bobupndown wrote:

Soul Fan wrote:

Nice spot, thanks 🙏

Like the old days of minis and Austin 1100 😄

Except you could be needing to do that to a 3 year old mini or 1100, not a 14 or 15 year old Freelander.

Quite so. Just a quip not a complaint. Back in the fold after 8 yrs. V8 Disco 300 series-Gone.07 Freelander 2 HSE Auto Rimini Red.
Gone.
2013 HSE Lux Havana ( Brown! )

ShropshireLad wrote:

Hi..Did you get the panels
were they good quality
Did you fit them

Hi! Got the panels, haven't tried them on or fitted them, but with bare eye the quality seems OK. The only issue I seeis that one edge, where it is supposed to be welded to car is wavy, most probably because of scretching / shrinking. This could be an issue, since by straightening the edge you could slightly change the shape of panel, BUT.... I haven't seen a single freelander, which would be rusted that high. Rule of thumb - cut out only the parts that are rusted.



I have currently decided to postpone the cutting and welding till spring, since there is a lot of salt on roads and the temperatures are very low. But I will keep you updated once i start the process.

Have you got the link please

Sent to you in PM

Hi do you have the link for this please

https://easyparts.online/Car-repair-panel/...;limit=100

Zoom in on the part pic and you can see "easyparts" on the label, and a part number. Google that +Freelander and you get the page above. Current driveway contents:
2021 V60 Cross Country B5
2009 FL2 dog bus and shooting wagon

On Order: 2023 Fisker Ocean Ultra - deposit paid.

Thanks, indeed they come from Easyparts. Not that I wanted to keep it a secret, just didn't want to violate forum rules when it comes to specific shops or manufacturers.

Ok, so FINALLY found some time to spare to fix my rear arches. They didn't seem to be in a terrible shape, but some bubbles started to appear on quarter panel. Some general conclusions:
1) Fix it sooner than later, I imagine that fixing my arches 2 years from now would end up with much more effort and time.
2) Repair panels from EasyParts - in general, they are OK quality. Any bodyshop with basic tools would be able to fit them. One major issue - the arch part itself is not long enough. If on original arches, the lip that goes in 90degree angle around 3cm, it is less than 2cm on repair panels. So a few pictures:

1) Right arch was in worse shape than the left arch. This is how it looked:



2)When started to clean off the rust, I realised that there is barely any metal left. Decided to cut all the rotten parts out.



3) From other side



4) Started to manufacture parts by hand. They don't have to be very pretty, nobody will see them anyways




5) I messed up a little, by not making the outer part straight, but managed to fix that later, when making the inner arch by hand



6)A thing that you cannot buy, and you will have to make on your own - inner arch panel. Here a friend with stretchet/shrinker tool will come in handy.



7) After making the inner arch, cut and fit the outer arch replacement panel



8)Remember - ONLY touch the parts where there are rust. On my car, only few parts of arch were rotten. Thats why we only cut out these spots. Clean the inner arch, apply rust convertor, then grind it again till shiny metal remains. Then spray some weld-through primer and make repair patch. As stated previously - you could take it from EasyParts repair panel, but these things are not long enough, therefore we made them from sheet metal.



9) Weld it grind it, this how the arch inside looks now - zero rust, 100% metal



10) If you do it carefully, with low heat and by small spot welds, you will avoid stretching and bending of original panel. The weld turned out very good, only tiny bit of filler was needed.



11) We primed the welds, now its off to paintshop

Left side:

1) Dont be fooled by ''there are no holes'' (although there are some tiny holes on picture). I managed to punch a hole with finger in this side panel, therefore action was needed.



2) removing the ''infected'' parts



3) making and welding a repair plate from sheet metal, it was quite easy - 30 minute job



4) Weld-through primer



5) A bit more filler was needed on left side, there was some damage under paint from previous owner. Managed to pull majority of damage out.



6) Primed, ready for paintshop





All together, it took around 3hours of dismantling pieces, 3hours of cleaning, 4 hours of cutting everything, 5 cleaning any rust remains, 5 hours of fitting and manufacturing the replacement panels, 4hours of fitting existing repair panels, 4hours of welding, 4hours of grinding welds, adding filler, sanding it down and priming, around 3hours fitting it all back together. So in total around 35hours, but this was done while sipping some beer and talking chatting with friend, so in a rush, this should be manageable in under 30 hours.