Sorting rust on an E28 BMW Alpina
Discussion
Hi
I am in the process of fettling my Alpina B9 and need some advice on dealing with areas of rust.
There are two main areas/situations I am dealing with.
1: the boot. As you can see there are areas of rust coming through from the inside (E28 boots always leak!!) and the underside has been under sealed. How do I treat this? Do I douse it in 'Kurust' and then spray over the top? Is there another product that will kill the rust? What do I use to then get a smooth finish which can be painted over? What do I use to then spray the floor with or do I use wax oil?
2: one of the doors and bootlid have rust in the corner which I have prodded with a screwdriver which resulted in the inner skin crumbling. Given I've now got a hole on the inside surface is this recoverable or are new panels required?
Thanks for the advice!
I am in the process of fettling my Alpina B9 and need some advice on dealing with areas of rust.
There are two main areas/situations I am dealing with.
1: the boot. As you can see there are areas of rust coming through from the inside (E28 boots always leak!!) and the underside has been under sealed. How do I treat this? Do I douse it in 'Kurust' and then spray over the top? Is there another product that will kill the rust? What do I use to then get a smooth finish which can be painted over? What do I use to then spray the floor with or do I use wax oil?
2: one of the doors and bootlid have rust in the corner which I have prodded with a screwdriver which resulted in the inner skin crumbling. Given I've now got a hole on the inside surface is this recoverable or are new panels required?
Thanks for the advice!
I think you need to work out how bad the rust is. Have you done any body work before? E28's do suffer from rusty boot areas. If you are feeling brave, grinder with a flap disc over the grotty areas to find out how bad the corrosion is.
The good news is BMW will supply replacement panels (not cheap though) and there is some pattern stuff available.
To be horribly honest your boot floor looks a bit far gone for kurust. Good luck anyway!
The good news is BMW will supply replacement panels (not cheap though) and there is some pattern stuff available.
To be horribly honest your boot floor looks a bit far gone for kurust. Good luck anyway!
mark.c said:
If you love the car and want to do right by it, you could do a lot worse than google TonyBMW who knows these (and E12's) inside out. He is currently doing some skilful repairs on an E28 M5 over on retro rides, well worth a read to get a feel of what may lay ahead.
That's superb advice - thank you!!!Just looked at his thread though......I'm very scared....!!
b9boy said:
mark.c said:
If you love the car and want to do right by it, you could do a lot worse than google TonyBMW who knows these (and E12's) inside out. He is currently doing some skilful repairs on an E28 M5 over on retro rides, well worth a read to get a feel of what may lay ahead.
That's superb advice - thank you!!!Just looked at his thread though......I'm very scared....!!
he is a master at what he does though and proves that pretty much anything can be fixed! I very nearly bought one of these a couple of years back, a black one with silver stripes that was doing the rounds at the time but bought an E12 M535i in the end.....I still hanker after one though.
Tony is a very helpful guy and likes a challenge if you ever decide to ask him for help.
To get rid of rust you could use bilt hamber deox-c or more likely in this case, deox gel but that boot floor doesn't look good - certainly the area where the hole is needs cutting out and replacing.
I did a search, it would appear that floorpans are available: http://parts.prestigebmw.com/a/BMW_1986_524tdAutom...
I would guess you can get them from Germany rather than having to go to the US. Will also be worth checking if LHD and RHD parts are the same.
Boot lid, needs that metal replacing. I wonder if this one is as rotten: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E28-BOOT-LID-COMPLET...
You could have that panel repaired from scratch, but to have a donor section for the inner structure would make it a lot cheaper, you'd free it from the skin, cut it out, weld in the donor section and then re-attach (or re-skin). Obviously if you can find a new boot lid its cheaper and easier!
The same will apply to the door.
A very different car, but this guy simply blows me away with what he can fabricate http://www.trifive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=534...
I did a search, it would appear that floorpans are available: http://parts.prestigebmw.com/a/BMW_1986_524tdAutom...
I would guess you can get them from Germany rather than having to go to the US. Will also be worth checking if LHD and RHD parts are the same.
Boot lid, needs that metal replacing. I wonder if this one is as rotten: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E28-BOOT-LID-COMPLET...
You could have that panel repaired from scratch, but to have a donor section for the inner structure would make it a lot cheaper, you'd free it from the skin, cut it out, weld in the donor section and then re-attach (or re-skin). Obviously if you can find a new boot lid its cheaper and easier!
The same will apply to the door.
A very different car, but this guy simply blows me away with what he can fabricate http://www.trifive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=534...
Yes, the inspiration for most of the repair work I've done on my current project, though that was from his earlier FB Victor restoration thread on RR.
That boot floor does look quite bad, but the surface rust may be just that. I'd go over it with a wire brush in an angle grinder, after making sure the sparks aren't going to cause further problems, which will convert any paper-thin sections into holes. Once you know how many holes need to be repaired, you can decide where to go from there. Changing the entire boot floor may be quite a job, depending on how it interacts with the other panels, but will probably be neater than patching the holes. But if you read Tony's threads and can emulate his work, patched repairs can be invisible. And you have the fact that it's the boot floor and not, say, the middle of the roof, which makes things easier.
The inner part of the door and boot lid will be a pain, but not impossible. If you can find good used panels that might be easier, but I've just done a similar repair on the corner of one of my doors and while not up to Tony's standard, it will be plenty good enough. I lifted the edge of the door skin after some advice on the Metal Meet forum about how to make a special tool, cut out the rusty bit and cleaned the inside of the skin, welded a new bit in and tapped the skin back into place.
That boot floor does look quite bad, but the surface rust may be just that. I'd go over it with a wire brush in an angle grinder, after making sure the sparks aren't going to cause further problems, which will convert any paper-thin sections into holes. Once you know how many holes need to be repaired, you can decide where to go from there. Changing the entire boot floor may be quite a job, depending on how it interacts with the other panels, but will probably be neater than patching the holes. But if you read Tony's threads and can emulate his work, patched repairs can be invisible. And you have the fact that it's the boot floor and not, say, the middle of the roof, which makes things easier.
The inner part of the door and boot lid will be a pain, but not impossible. If you can find good used panels that might be easier, but I've just done a similar repair on the corner of one of my doors and while not up to Tony's standard, it will be plenty good enough. I lifted the edge of the door skin after some advice on the Metal Meet forum about how to make a special tool, cut out the rusty bit and cleaned the inside of the skin, welded a new bit in and tapped the skin back into place.
Edited by droopsnoot on Wednesday 8th April 10:41
b9boy said:
mark.c said:
If you love the car and want to do right by it, you could do a lot worse than google TonyBMW who knows these (and E12's) inside out. He is currently doing some skilful repairs on an E28 M5 over on retro rides, well worth a read to get a feel of what may lay ahead.
That's superb advice - thank you!!!Just looked at his thread though......I'm very scared....!!
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