My Focus failed it’s MOT on rear wheel arch rust. I had a quote for welding but it was about 400 pounds. However, someone else has said they fixed their car with some kind of rust filler stuff from Halfords.

Anyone done this??

Is it as simple as taking the wheel off, removing the liner, cleaning and filling?

A cheap fix would be good, as the car still drives fine. i’m not expecting it to last forever.

You can buy fibreglass repair kits if you want to do it on the cheap. You’ll need to cut away any rust patches, usually on Fords its the inner arch skin that perishes first and it spreads to the outer skin.

Rear wheel arch? That puts it within 30 cm of the seat belt mount And the floor to sill area, both structural. Needs welding. Outer skin? That can be filled if it’s failed because of jagged edges

Common MOT failure, assuming you mean the inner just forward of the shock mounting?

Get the rear seat cushion up and have a good poke around the rear floor (at both sides, not just the side that failed). The rot spreads up the inner wing/arch towards the rear shock tower and down the front to the seat belt mount and out to the chassis leg section – or rather the other way around. If the rest of the vehicle is in good condition, it will be worth doing. And bin those stupid felt/cloth wing liners.

If it is the outer wheel arch (sharp edges) then gaffer tape will fix it!

Hth
Marko

Yeah, get the old P40 out! Used to do that to all my cars when they went rusty. Spent ages filling and sanding, then buffer, spray and polish the bonnet on my old Hillman Imp, the next week I crashed into the back of someone – all the filler popped out and the headlights fell on the road 🙁