Rust repair on 93 UK Civic

I have some rust (about 10cm long) where the rear bumper attachs next
to the rear wheel arch on the offside (right hand drive) underneath
the fuel filler cap - in fact where the bumper is attached is
completely rusted away so it isn't really attached and is just hanging
there... has been like this since I brought the car 18 months ago.

Anyone any ideas how much it would cost to get the rust chopped out
and a new bit of metal put in? Does it being near the fuel filler
hose mean that would have to come out for safety when welding,
increasing the price?

Other option is just leave it but the car is fine and only has 67000
miles on it...alternatively are there any cheap 'fixes'?

Cheers.

 

You have a sticky problem here.

A proper professional fix will cost you thousands, way more than the car's
worth. Basically the car's a goner. Spend as little as possible on this
car, just enough to make it pass MoT. And save up for a replacement for
when the MoT eventually becomes unpassable.

Depending on the extent of the rot, you might be able to grind off all the
outside rust, then rebuild the panel yourself with fiberglass mat. Remove
the bumper first. And first measure the location and sizes of the various
clip and screw holes before grinding so you can add them back in later.

You will be absolutely astonished how big that 4" hole will get once the
rust is ground away. It will easily double in size, if not be bigger than
that. So take lots of measurements before you grind, to make sure your
fiberglass dimensions are the same.

If all you want to do is make sure the bumper end doesn't fall down enough
to get damaged, you can use pipe strapping and self-tapping screws. Not
pretty, but if you do it right, you can hide most of that inside the wheel
well.

If it makes you feel any better, every single '92-'95 Civic ever made ended
up with this exact same problem if it was driven in a wet, salty
environment.

 

Some guy at work told me he had a similar problem on his Volvo and he
got it 'fixed' by some back street welder for about 100 GBP...
slightly suspicious how good a job it would be but I guess I could
find out. Don't fancy my chances with fibreglass mat - might just
leave it and hope - since I'm only doing 4k miles a year it might last
a while yet... then I can spend more money looking after my
CBR600RR ;-) Options, options....