The Lowdown:

This 2012 Mercedes C63 was booked into the bodyshop recently to have some wide custom rear arches fabricated, fitted and sprayed. The owner Jason bought a pair of wide arch extensions designed for the 4 door C63 as they don’t make them for the 3 door model, so as you can imagine they needed a lot of custom work and fibreglassing to make them work on this 3 door Merc.

Also because you cant buy the arch extensions off of the shelf  we will be creating our own fibre glass moulds off of these, so we will be able to supply and fit these for customers in the future. It’s all in a days work for our guys in the bodyshop and should be a cool little project to follow.

The plan:

Suspension: Adjust the ride height to allow for the new bigger wheels.

Bodywork: Custom fabricated wide rear arches, fitted and sprayed Mercedes Diamond White paint.

Extras: Fibreglass moulds taken from the finished arch extensions.

With a bit or trial and error Al has got the arch extension positioned in the right place however as they are for a 4 door there are big holes in-between each piece which Al has fibreglassed in and smoothed over.

Al has cut the inner arch back to create clearance for the new wider alloys that have been bought for the car. He then sanded back some of the paint on the wing to allow the panel bond to adhere to the bare metal. Next he applied a bead of panel bond and drilled and screwed the new arch extension to the wing.

As these arches don’t exist for a 3 door C63 the guys at Sussex Fibreglass and Plastic have created a fibre glass mould off of the arches we have created. They started by applying a gel coat as the first layer and then gradually built up  layers of fibreglass which hardened to create moulds.

Next up we added a bit of body filler to smooth over the joins and then sanded back for a smooth finish. The new alloys were then fitted and the car lowered to the deck. It then headed across to the garage to have the 4 wheels alignment treatment and the ride height tweaked using its adjustable shocks to get the stance just right.

After a quick test drive to check the wheels didn’t rub the arches, the C63 headed back across to the bodyshop where it was masked up and a layer of body filler was applied and sanded back to get the shape as perfect as possible. Next it was sprayed in 2 pack primer (fine coat) and a black guide coat to help reveal any imperfections. This was then sanded back once more, making sure all swage lines aligned correctly.

With the arches sanded back once more and looking sharp, it then headed back into the booth to get masked up ready for the final coating of Diamond White paint, a 3 stage peal notoriously difficult to get right due to the yellow tint in the lacquer.

With everything sprayed and back together the cars was dropped on on the deck and given a final flat and polish. We were then ready to hand the keys back over to its owner Jason, who we are pleased to say loved it, so much so he even gave it a hug.

We then drove it across the yard to Fuel to get the classic shots outside the coffee house. We are also planning on doing a finished shoot soon so watch this space.

To be continued…….