Technical Passenger side rear inner arch rot

[LittleBlueBarchetta]

My dad recently purchased a '99 Barchetta - it's a lovely car, and mostly free of rust. Mostly. It appears to have only gone in the one spot - the right-rear inner arch, right at the top near where the electrical aerial mounts up. Are these cars known for rusting there in particular? The other side is fine, as are the inner arches at the front of the car.

I wondered if it was because of the earth for the electric aerial that side? We were planning on removing it (the drive from the motor is broken, so we bought a fixed flexi-aerial to replace it), if it's the cause of that rust then I shall get a move on and yank it out of the car!

 

[s130]

That area your are referring to is actually the top of the rear wing. The wheel arch area is below this and the electric aerial sits in the dry above the arch and of course below the wing.

Sounds like the aerial could have been removed/replaced before and the paintwork damaged in the process and/or the rubber seal has gone hard or split.

I'm sure you will find the rust to be very localised and hopefully easily sorted.

 

[blackydog]

Mine was the same, pretty good everywhere else but rusty in the rear inner arch on the passenger side, nothing to do with aerial though. I cut it all out and made new sections to fit in. Absolute pain in the a***, very solid now though. I seem to remember some one posting many pics of inner arch restore on here not too long ago and it looked like a very good job of it.
For me cutting the the old inner arch off where it meets the wheelarch lip was especially painful, so much so i did it over a couple of weeks. If you are going to do it yourself be prepared for it to be worse and take much longer than you think. AND cut it all out or it will come back! I have also left off the plastic trim from the inner arch that traps mud.

 

[s130]

Ah I see. We are talking further down where the aerial bottom mount is and not on the top surface of the wing. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[bollie69]

Have a feel inside the wheel arch.
Feel on the verry top and pull the metal towards you.
if it cracks or you feel a hole the wheel arch is rotten.

Common problem with the B. It's the point where they will most likely rot.

 

[LittleBlueBarchetta]

Dad and I pulled the old electric aerial out of the car tonight, and mounted up the new fixed aerial in its place. Seems like it's the rear half of that inner panel that's going, with the top part of that being worse. I'll get a few photos uploaded tomorrow when it's a bit lighter.