No.39 - 1995 BMW E34 M5 UK Limited Edition #39/50
Discussion
'Another day' came sooner than expected! I haven't welded anything in years and what I had done was much thicker material, so a friend of mine (who's wife also owns an E34 M5 6-Speed) kindly came over to the barn and welded in new sections for me.
Managed to get hold of a 1mm thick off cut from a local fabricator, I thought it might not be enough but I only ended up needing about 1/4 of it...
All fairly self explanatory but the method was cut out old, replicate shape in new material, weld in, apply zinc primer and then gravitex over. First point of attack was that corroded corner where the alternator cooling duct attaches...
It's tricky to completely hide the repairs due to the factory underseal being quite thick, multiple layers of gravitex could be built up to match however that seems a waste of product. Wheel arch lining fixings next...
I was in charge of shaping the replacement material which as you can see I'm now a seasoned professional...
The underside of both strut towers also had a little surface corrosion which again I ground back with the finger sander, applied Bilt Hamber Hydrate80 rust converter and zinc primed...
Last task of the day was to apply a few coats of Hammerite stone chip to the underbody sections I had previously treated and zinc primed...
When I return I'll have a couple more cans of stone chip and apply a final finish to all repaired areas, as well as a few layers over the whole underbody forward of the bulkhead.
Managed to get hold of a 1mm thick off cut from a local fabricator, I thought it might not be enough but I only ended up needing about 1/4 of it...
All fairly self explanatory but the method was cut out old, replicate shape in new material, weld in, apply zinc primer and then gravitex over. First point of attack was that corroded corner where the alternator cooling duct attaches...
It's tricky to completely hide the repairs due to the factory underseal being quite thick, multiple layers of gravitex could be built up to match however that seems a waste of product. Wheel arch lining fixings next...
I was in charge of shaping the replacement material which as you can see I'm now a seasoned professional...
The underside of both strut towers also had a little surface corrosion which again I ground back with the finger sander, applied Bilt Hamber Hydrate80 rust converter and zinc primed...
Last task of the day was to apply a few coats of Hammerite stone chip to the underbody sections I had previously treated and zinc primed...
When I return I'll have a couple more cans of stone chip and apply a final finish to all repaired areas, as well as a few layers over the whole underbody forward of the bulkhead.
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