Bodywork

[t-tony]

My car is fairly tidy considering she's soon 14 years old however there is a little rust showing on the leading edges of the front wheel arches and the sills. I haven't done any bodywork for a few years but I'm going to make a start in early Feb as my wife and friend are going to Florida for 10 days. So heater on in garage get car up on axle stands and get the kneeling pad out.

 

[hard top]

That doe's not look like to much work Tony but I would take mine to a body shop. Mine got keyed last year by some idiot, bonnet and both sides of the car. I am fully comp on a October 1996 Z3 and had a full re-spray, funny thing was I received a call from my insurance company afterwards, so I expected the worst. They asked me if I wanted to stay fully comp on such an old car. When I said yes, they checked it for me and dropped the price by E50.00 per month..!
Happy chap

 

[t-tony]

Good result on the insurance Mike. Last year I insured with Be Wiser and fully comp cost me £27.00 ish per month which I was happy with. I have to have my other car ( my tractor ) VW Touareg on the road all year so it does make it a little difficult to do all I'd like to do with my Z. I've been in the motor trade all my life and I painted the boot spoiler and eyebrows that I.ve fitted so I.m going to have a go and if it comes to the worst - well there is always a body shop. When I get it done I'll post some photo's.

 

[Stormy_be]

I would suggest to take the side skirts off.
The rust might even be coming from the inside.
I took mine off, and the is a lot of build up in the skirts.
Secondly the material of the side skirt is very thin, so rust can come thru very easily.

It's bolt underneath and on the door sill. and then some at the front and the back (for which you need to partially release the front and back inner wheel linings.
But it really worth doing. Even if it's just to get all the crap out and stop the rust from inside going any further.

Regards, Koen

 

[Daz3]

Has that front wing been sprayed before looks a bit hazy?
As stormy says take the skirts off you'll be surprised how much muck and rubbish is in there plus you can protect the inside as well. Use hammerite kurust where the rust is present it removes rust and leave a black coating else it'll be back in no time.

 

[GazHyde]

I followed the procedure to remove the side sills on my silver Z3, and found my sills were pretty rotten. By the time I had the paint bead blasted off, all I was left with was some holey scrap metal.

If it's of any use... http://zroadster.org/wiki/bmw-z3/maintenance-repair-and-overhaul/bmw-z3-sill-removal-and-protection/

 

[jonco]

I followed the procedure to remove the side sills on my silver Z3, and found my sills were pretty rotten. By the time I had the paint bead blasted off, all I was left with was some holey scrap metal.

If it's of any use... http://zroadster.org/wiki/bmw-z3/maintenance-repair-and-overhaul/bmw-z3-sill-removal-and-protection/

I agree with Gary - I followed the procedure on mine and fortunately caught it in time. If you have the wing panels off check bottom lead corner. The sealant along the bottom rim hardens and parts company with the wing panel. The photo is after part of the sealant was cut away.

 

[zedonist]

Tony do you have a picture of your eyebrows ?

 

[t-tony]

Tony do you have a picture of your eyebrows ?

Yes I do. Painted and fitted myself, very easy to fit with 3M double sided tape. Been on 2 years now and still well stuck.

 

[zedonist]

I quite like them, where did you get them from?

 

[t-tony]

Re body work, a few years ago before the Z I had a real hairdressers car, a Mazda Eunos. I started doing some repairs to the drivers sill/floor area and this is how it went.

 

[t-tony]

I quite like them, where did you get them from?

Hi,I got these off eBay but I can't remember exactly how much they were. There are some on at the minute , I will find the item number for you, I can't do links!

 

[t-tony]

Found them. eBay items 161078176838 in carbon fibre at £29.99 or 160638657712 in fibre glass ( like mine ) at £19.99 and both have p&p at £13.00.

 

[t-tony]

Has that front wing been sprayed before looks a bit hazy?
As stormy says take the skirts off you'll be surprised how much muck and rubbish is in there plus you can protect the inside as well. Use hammerite kurust where the rust is present it removes rust and leave a black coating else it'll be back in no time.

I think the wing has been painted before too Daz as for rust prevention I use a product called Vactan. It's very good.