E46 sill rust - Too far gone? Scrap or repair?
Discussion
HI all
I just bought a 330 CI M Sport Coupe manual - 161K. The car itself is a well cared for example, bought from a friend who owned it for 10+ years.
In this time, he has done calipers, bushes/arms, front wings, seals, gaskets, rad pack, header tank and huge pack of pipework and serviced it well, scorpion exhaust etc.
It then sat in a field for a year and was not used. I bought it from him for not a huge amount of money (less than 2k) and put it on my ramp, pulled the side skirts off and started prodding:
Most of these holes started around the plastic retaining pegs for the sideskirts. It also needs some rust repair on the NSR arch near the bumper edge. OSR is clean (arch wise!).
So, its going to need 2 new sills both sides, paint all around etc. I have had a quote from my trusted bodyshop of £2400 all inc. The jacking points themselves are all still solid.
It also needs a new rear brake line, and a few other little bits (oil filter housing gasket a few other bits)
The opinion of people on here would be very welcome.
As far as I see it, I have 3 options:
1. Pop it back together, sell it for spares and repair, probably for slightly less than I paid?
2. Bodge it a bit (plate it), pop the skirts back on and enjoy it until it rots away
3. Do the bodywork and enjoy it as a nice clean car (I suspect this + the mechanical work would put me in the region of a nice clean 330CI but I do knot know the market well enough to comment on this)
Answers on a postcard. Or even better, in responses to this thread.
I just bought a 330 CI M Sport Coupe manual - 161K. The car itself is a well cared for example, bought from a friend who owned it for 10+ years.
In this time, he has done calipers, bushes/arms, front wings, seals, gaskets, rad pack, header tank and huge pack of pipework and serviced it well, scorpion exhaust etc.
It then sat in a field for a year and was not used. I bought it from him for not a huge amount of money (less than 2k) and put it on my ramp, pulled the side skirts off and started prodding:
Most of these holes started around the plastic retaining pegs for the sideskirts. It also needs some rust repair on the NSR arch near the bumper edge. OSR is clean (arch wise!).
So, its going to need 2 new sills both sides, paint all around etc. I have had a quote from my trusted bodyshop of £2400 all inc. The jacking points themselves are all still solid.
It also needs a new rear brake line, and a few other little bits (oil filter housing gasket a few other bits)
The opinion of people on here would be very welcome.
As far as I see it, I have 3 options:
1. Pop it back together, sell it for spares and repair, probably for slightly less than I paid?
2. Bodge it a bit (plate it), pop the skirts back on and enjoy it until it rots away
3. Do the bodywork and enjoy it as a nice clean car (I suspect this + the mechanical work would put me in the region of a nice clean 330CI but I do knot know the market well enough to comment on this)
Answers on a postcard. Or even better, in responses to this thread.
Yes, well it was not bought with having a 2 year lifespan in mind, however, given its cost it may as well have been.
Additionally, its a 22 year old German car, so it was bought with that in mind.
I Will touch base with the MOT station, but I think both sills will need to be plated front to back for it actually pass. On the OS, the hole is big enough for me to get my arm into
Additionally, its a 22 year old German car, so it was bought with that in mind.
I Will touch base with the MOT station, but I think both sills will need to be plated front to back for it actually pass. On the OS, the hole is big enough for me to get my arm into
What I would do is get an angle grinder to teh whole of the sill with a wire brush on it and take it back to metal.
You might be surprised how little is actually rusted, and at that point make a decision
1) patch weld
2) replace the sill with a new one.
I had the same problem a number of years ago with a 323i I had patched a few holes in the sill but always found it difficult after the patch to get good rustproofing done and therefore the area surrounding the patch used to rust away and therefore the patch got bigger. I did this a few times until at last the MOT guy said look I can pass this but to be honest its starting to look like a dogs dinner. he gave me the number of a welder and told me to go and see him. Probably took pity on me as I was an impoverished student running a car I obviously couldn't afford to run properly.
So bought a new sill online. Went to the welder. Asked to stay and help.
The welder took an angle grinder cutter to teh sill and after five minutes the sill was off. He drilled a number of holes in the sill at the edges I held it in place and he spot welded the sill on.
I don't think I was there more than an hour and he charged me £100. What he did was so much easier than the patching I had done before. I had the car a further three years who no problems with the MOT and then sold it.
I later got a rusty old fiatx19 which was being sold for a song because of teh rust and put two new sills on it using exactly the same technique myself. After that I decided I wouldn't patch again.
I think its really about getting your mind around what needs to be done
You might be surprised how little is actually rusted, and at that point make a decision
1) patch weld
2) replace the sill with a new one.
I had the same problem a number of years ago with a 323i I had patched a few holes in the sill but always found it difficult after the patch to get good rustproofing done and therefore the area surrounding the patch used to rust away and therefore the patch got bigger. I did this a few times until at last the MOT guy said look I can pass this but to be honest its starting to look like a dogs dinner. he gave me the number of a welder and told me to go and see him. Probably took pity on me as I was an impoverished student running a car I obviously couldn't afford to run properly.
So bought a new sill online. Went to the welder. Asked to stay and help.
The welder took an angle grinder cutter to teh sill and after five minutes the sill was off. He drilled a number of holes in the sill at the edges I held it in place and he spot welded the sill on.
I don't think I was there more than an hour and he charged me £100. What he did was so much easier than the patching I had done before. I had the car a further three years who no problems with the MOT and then sold it.
I later got a rusty old fiatx19 which was being sold for a song because of teh rust and put two new sills on it using exactly the same technique myself. After that I decided I wouldn't patch again.
I think its really about getting your mind around what needs to be done
julian64 said:
stuff
Yes I think your right tbh, cut out the entire outer sills, and weld in a replacement and call it job done. Leave the NSR arch for a while and then decide whether to do the lot in a few years. Overthinking it as usual.
Thanks for the input, will see what the bodyshop want to quote
julian64 said:
Shame it's not for a coupe! Might cut and bodge if I can't find another.Am going to get the sills cut out and new metal welded in, fill with dynax after paint and see how long it goes
Alexanderfitu said:
julian64 said:
Shame it's not for a coupe! Might cut and bodge if I can't find another.Am going to get the sills cut out and new metal welded in, fill with dynax after paint and see how long it goes
Not sure about now.
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