Rust repairs on my Honda Aerodeck

My 1989 Honda Accord Aerodeck is generally in excellent nick and has surprised me with just how much I like it, and how good it is at being a car. But it did have a tiny bit of bubbling on the rear arches, which has got gradually worse with living mainly outdoors. and I wanted to give it some attention before we went through another winter.

It didn't look too bad, seeming to be limited to the lip of the arch. So I cut that out and found...trouble. Some years ago a previous owner had repaired it with filler, in quantity, which saw it through the next few MOTs but really just deferred the pain.

I sourced some outer arch repair panels from Germany and so just needed to make a new inner arch lip, for which I bought a sheet metal brake and a shrinker/stretcher. These plus some hammers meant I could do some reasonable fabrication:

So far so good. But - yes, I know, you're way ahead of me here - the more I ground away at it the less metal I found:

So it's turned into a localised but fairly chewy restoration job. Never having done any bodywork before - but with plenty needing doing on other cars too - I've now bought a range of metalworking tools, including an English wheel. I already have a MIG welder that I've been using for making stainless steel furniture and repairing tools and stuff. And I've watched some YouTube videos that make it look easy so how hard can it be, right?

As of today I'm gradually building it back up with some bits of pattern panel that need a fair bit of adjusting and some home made (the templating for the latter is a story in itself). There's a lot more to do and I'm waiting for some more finger sander belts for removing spot welds - yes, it's like that.

The full story is unfolding on the GrandThriftAuto YouTube channel.

Part 1: https://youtu.be/HLYdmipLESI

English wheel action: https://youtu.be/j7aftv-8BzA

Part 2: https://youtu.be/mN2adnaTK9M