Front fender well rust repair?

[MarcusHMM]

With my GTV 6 up on jack stands getting ready to do the flex joint/drive shaft repair, I started to look at the engine compartment. I have pulled some of the side peripherals off like the washer fluid, overflow tank and the air cleaner enclosure to take a look at the condition of the wheel wells.

The drivers side is solid and absolutely rust free, but the passenger side shows rust at the top of the wheel well and as I poked and prodded and peeled back the undercoating where it failed it is rusted deeply inside and outside. It is at the top of the well and the rust spans both sides of the well upright and is about 2 inches from top to bottom and 4 inches across. Not rusted through, but close to it in that area.

What other areas should I dig deeper into to find the corrosion before it gets to this stage?

The undercoating on the car seems to have been done quite well and seems solid in all the other areas I have checked.

What is the proper solution? I assume cut it back to solid metal and weld in repair metal. Does any one make preformed replacement inner wheel wells? Or is it just get out the old beater and make your own?

Is there a quick fix other than cut and weld?

I may just pull the engine to be able to get at it better and clean up the engine compartment and patch some firewall holes that the PO had opened up.

I will get some pictures tomorrow and post them, but I imagine most rust areas are similar.

Marcus

[MarcusHMM]

Here are a few pictures from above and below.
This is on the passenger side wheel well.

Marcus

[MarcusHMM]

And this is on the drivers side. It looks and feels solid from the top.

Marcus

[Greg Gordon]

Hi Marcus,

That's a common rust spot, almost every GTV6 has rust there. The rust actually starts from the underside. Alfa was kind enough to put a dirt trapping lip at the top of the inner fender in the wheels well. If the dirt is not washed out from there every now and then it traps moisture and causes rust.

Other important areas to check are behind the splash shields in the secret compartments. Clean that area out well and treat it with POR15 or Miracle paint or it will rust there. Also behind the rear bumper up near the top they tend to rust.

Good Luck,
Greg,
hiperformancestore

The good news is it's not structural at that stage and it's pretty easy to fix. Yours is minor enough you could probably just make an effort to stop it and it would be ok.

Option 1.
Clean everything on both sides (i.e. inside the engine bay and the wheel well). Coat it all with a rust eating phosphoric acid product (sold at any hardware store, often called a "rust converter"). Then paint it with a good anti rust paint and keep that inner fender area clean.

Option 2: Same as option one but instead of paint use POR15 or Miracle paint. That will stop the rust from continuing.

Option 3: Cut the rust out and weld in homemade patch panels. It's not a terrible job because nobody can really see the welds anyway. You could even grind the welds down and make it look original.