Minor car repair,

[Terry Pinnell]

With the exception of electrics/electronics, I'm rubbish at car DIY, so I'd greatly appreciate advice please.

This illustration of the N/S front wing of my 1996 BMW 2.8 SE shows a section of about 3" that's rusted through. Until yesterday it was probably only the paint holding it on.

Within a year I'll probably finally change the car (if I can find a recent S/H BMW petrol automatic of at least equal performance, with a sunroof). And as the cost of a 'proper' repair would approach the value of the car itself, I just want a simple quick and dirty repair. I can't drive it like this!

Q1: If I elect to tackle it myself, how do I set about it please? So far I've wire-brushed it and intend to buy some body filler from my local Halfords. But I've never done any 'body-filling' so practical advice would be very helpful please.

Q2: Alternatively, anyone know someone in or near East Grinstead who could do the botch up job for me, for say £50 - £75?

[F Murtz]

Blimey where do you keep it? parked on the beach?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It would help to know the actual model since there are several BMWs with a

2.8 engine. And the body construction may be different between models.

If it is an early E39 (528i) I'm fairly sure the front wings just bolt on so a secondhand one would be the easiest way. You should be able to find one in the correct colour with a bit of searching.

FWIW I've got an early 528 which has lived outside all its life and there's not a scrap of rust on it.

[Ian Jackson]

That looks fairly patchable with body filler, fibreglass matting - and maybe some thin perforated aluminium sheet (if you can still get it) or even some of the tin your shortbread came in last Christmas.

However, the rust has penetrated deeply between the seams of metal, and after removing as much as reasonable (don't over-do it if it's going to greatly increase the size of the hole), I'd first to saturate it with one of the rust-preventing oils (say, thinned down Waxoyl-type stuff - or spray can). That should seriously slow down its progress.

Of course, before doing the actual repair, you'll need to de-grease the areas where the body filler needs to stick to. But in the end, with a little care, you could have the repair being almost indistinguishable from the rest of the wing.

[Scott M]

Easiest thing is a good second hand wing off ebay. Done both of my '54 plate 320d wings that way and, unless the E36 is wildly different, it's an unbolt/bolt on job.

Auto petrol BMs are easy to come by - the sunroof makes it a lot harder!!

[Adrian]

Why not? Bit of gaffer tape wrapped around the edge to cover the sharp edges, and job's a good 'un.

Go down to your local charity shop, and get the first "old-style" Haynes manual that you can see. One with a line cutaway drawing on the front. It doesn't matter what it's for. In the back, it'll have a series of photos showing how to use filler (and chicken wire, where required) to bodge a hole in a wing.

But I'm with Dave, if you want anything other than a real quick-and-dirty bodge that won't last long, then look for a replacement wing.

E36 328i, E39 528i, E38 728i?

[Martin Brown]

I'd be inclined to use an etch primer to try and form an impermeable barrier on the existing rust. Waxoyl will work as a pretty good mould release agent which is not what you want. That high adherence Isopon stuff with peroxide catalyst mentioned in an adjacent thread together with some mesh or fibreglass reinforcing ought to hack it.

The trick is in sanding it down going through finer grades of emery to get the profile right and then aerosol spray paint to finish.

Just about any basic bodge it and scarper method as described above will work but it will sooner or later fall apart again.

[Terry Pinnell]

Thanks guys, much appreciate those fast and helpful replies.

Lots to consider now. Hadn't thought about the replacement wing approach. Wouldn't its colouring/texture stand out too much? And if the whole job is going to be more than say £150, it makes no financial sense.

My 1996 N-Reg BMW 2.8i SE Auto otherwise looks good for its 17 years and has been well maintained locally. Only 110,000 miles.

I've just spent £22 at Halfords for a Repair Kit, Rust Remover and Primer/Filler, with the aim of tackling it myself. But I'm still baulking at the task. So I'll first exhaust attempts to find a small outfit locally.

[Adrian]

Stand out more than an edge full of filler, blown-over with a rattlecan...?

[Martin Brown]

It isn't that hard. Practice on a dint in bean can if you are nervous about making a mess of it. The main problem you are going to encounter is that one edge is floating free (but that makes access easier).

The key is patience in sanding it down smoothly once you have built up the filler on the affected area. The matched spray paint will probably be a bit darker than the original paint after 17 years in the sunshine.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But which one is it? There are at least three different models fitted with the 2.8 engine. A 328, 528, 728.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Nothing like so much as a bodge with filler. If it is the original factory colour I'd expect a near perfect match.

EuroCarParts have a new wing for 60 quid. Of course that would need painting.

Usual sort of price on Ebay for a secondhand one seems to be 35 quid plus

12.50 carriage. All you'd need to do is save a search and wait till one in the correct colour comes up.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Given most BMWs are in metallic paint, the chances of a decent match are zero.

[Adrian]

This one's metallic black. No _way_ is that going to get close with a rattlecan.

[John Williamson]

I used to know one bloke that could match *any* colour, metallic or not, with a rattlecan, first go. He never did tell us the secret, but hinted it was all in the angles.

[Scott M]

I've put two wings on a 2004 193,000 mile E46 for about £60/£70 a side and they look indistinguishable from the surrounding paintwork. Metallic paint, FWIW. The only way you can tell they weren't on the car when it was sprayed originally is that the spray paint "shadow" is in a different place around the bolt heads.

Having a quick look, E36 wings start at a tenner.

[Ian Jackson]

Well, it's all a bit of a compromise. It depends on how long you want the repair to last. If you're just going to slosh some filler over (and into) the deep rust, it's going to keep on rusting from within.

If you spray the deep rust with Waxoyl, the filler obviously isn't going to stick to the rusty bits, so you'll need to de-grease a sufficient surface area of sound metal for it to stick to. In addition, you can build up the filler, fibre matting, shortbread tin etc in layers, and before you apply the top layer of filler, secure what you have already applied to anything reasonably sound behind it with some self-tapping screws.

Unfortunately, in ye goode olde dayse (when even brand new cars were guaranteed to go rusty after a couple of years), I had to do lots of bodywork patching on my invariably second-hand rust-buckets. Most of my repairs outlasted the rest of the car.

[Theo Markettos]

One thing I'd be careful on something of that age is the mountings. Are the bolts rusted, and what are they screwed into?

It may be that it's all fused into one lump of rust, in which case it might shatter if you try and take the panel off. Especially if they self-tap into other panels, it could be awkward if the metal no longer has any springyness when you try and refit the fixings after replacing the panel.

Theo

[Martin Brown]

Depends what you mean by zero. The repair I did on mine over the weekend was very close with just the base coat on. Once the gloss coat goes over the top it is all but invisible provided that you did get the surface smooth enough to begin with and don't orange peel the paint. Time was that metallic paints were unmatchable but not any more.

Also helps if you put any boundaries on a natural edge and feather the finish so that there isn't a sharp outline. I grant you that someone repainting the entire panel with a professional system would do a better job but the aerosol paints these days are pretty close.

Although it pays to test it first on a piece of scrap! You don't want to learn how to do it right by making mistakes on the car itself...

[Gazz]

Get some of those bullet hole stickers the chavs love to use, the ones the size of small artillery rounds will be best, and stick them on the car leading upto the hole in the wing,

Then put a few old eastern european tourist stickers and maybe a lithuania country sticker on the back,

Sorted, people will just think you have recently came back from a driving holiday to the old east of europe and won't twig it's really a rust hole.