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[davlad22]

When I had both wheelarches done about six weeks ago it came to £580.  The labour was the worst bit.

£580, bloody hell!   You must love your car!?!

It all depends how much you want to spend on your motor. We had our Mk4 Astra G estate done, repainted entire rear quarters (they don't do the fuel cap though) and came to just £150. I think bodyshops are the option everytime, those guys are artists and have the ability to work miracles! I suppose we're quite lucky we have a local bodyshop who is superb. Did I mention the finish is near perfect!?!

If you do it yourself I don't think you'd EVER be happy with the finish and the time that it would take you, (+materials & a mild day!) when you could be doing other things, outweighs the couple of hundred quid it would cost to have it done. It's also a chance to have some other scuffs and scrapes tidied up as well.  

[markrl]

For anyone who ever owned a Senator this wheel arch rust problem was a regular occurrence. I did this twice with 2 separate Senators inflicted in exactly the same place. To do it properly is not cheap I recon about £500 per side as you really need to replace the whole arch as this is where the problem usually starts. By the time you see it on the outside its really taken hold behind in the places you can’t see. This was a problem on the Senator because very quickly Vauxhall deleted replacement arches from their parts catalogue. I think the second time I did mine they were unavailable and the body shop used arches from a Ford Transit which they modified. I believe the Autobahnstormers also sold replacements they had manufactured. Thankfully the Omega is much better in this respect but not perfect. If you just take the visible rust off the outside and repaint the rust will be straight back in about 3 months. A lot of body shops frankly wont want the work as they don’t want the hassle of you returning in a few months with fresh bubbles. If the repair is not perfect it will return. They would rather just do insurance work replacing panels so your best bet is a place that does restorations (could recommend a great place in Sidcup Kent). You really need to do it properly (which is expensive) or just leave it as a brand heritage feature passed down from the legendary Vauxhall Victor.    

[Mr Hagon]

Yep, I love the car to bits.  Looking at the invoice labour was just over £300.  I guess I could have cut the cost by removing all the trim and saving some money there, but SWMBO would have moaned that yet again the Omega was getting more attention than her and my 18 month old son!

Anyway, I put away a good few quid every month for the Omega, so when the service/tax/MOT/insurance comes round I don't have to scrabble around for the cash to cover it.

Mr Hagon