B10 sill corrosion

Ikule · Post by **Ikule** » Sat May 14, 2016 12:08 am

Nice one Jim, a top class job, bet you're well chuffed with that mate 😊

Alpina Jim · Post by **Alpina Jim** » Thu May 19, 2016 10:46 am

I can report that I am really pleased to have the sill repair completed now and those rotten images are a thing of the past.
I spent a bit of time thoroughly cleaning back the inner sill and protecting it which was not an easy job with the brake pipes in the way and the closeness of the fuel tank. Once again after painting it I applied a couple of coats of rubber underseal and Waxoyl underseal on top of that.
I also thoroughly injected the sill with Waxoyl and made sure the repair area and jacking points were thoroughly treated so hopefully that will keep things good for many years now.
The current plan is to put all the plastic underbody covers back on in a few days but I am waiting for the last of the Waxoyl to drain out of the various voids and sill holes first. I had to thin it a bit to get the injection kit I bought to work but this will have helped it to flow better and hence get into tighter areas.
The next job will be getting the instrument cluster pixels sorted as where my car has not been used much recently they have become pretty illegible whereas before I only had the occasional problem.
Hopefully the final job will be waiting for some sunny days and getting the old girl on the road again. There is a full tank of super unleaded just waiting to be used up. 😀

Metrics · Post by **Metrics** » Thu May 19, 2016 1:54 pm

Alpina Jim wrote: The next job will be getting the instrument cluster pixels sorted as where my car has not been used much recently they have become pretty illegible whereas before I only had the occasional problem.

Hi Jim

Not used these guys myself but they get a good write up on the Audi TT forum for the dash pixel issues they suffer from.

Should be nice and local for you?

http://www.cartronix.co.uk/

MarkWG · Post by **MarkWG** » Fri May 20, 2016 10:57 am

I used Cartronix a couple of years back, happy to recommend. Did my B10 & the Transit I look after.

Alpina Jim · Post by **Alpina Jim** » Tue May 24, 2016 8:15 pm

Thanks for the info about Cartronix gents, it is fairly local to me being a massive two miles away

.
I heard through my family that there was someone doing repairs in Waterlooville and now I have checked their website that is where I will be going. I really like the idea of a lifetime warranty as well being a long term owner.

BarryM · Post by **BarryM** » Wed May 25, 2016 12:23 am

I was about to recommend Rudi in Southampton as I used him after hearing about him on the 5 forum but these chaps would have been handier for me too. Not heard of them before so be interested to hear about their service and cost.

Alpina Jim · Post by **Alpina Jim** » Wed May 25, 2016 9:56 am

BarryM wrote:I was about to recommend Rudi in Southampton as I used him after hearing about him on the 5 forum but these chaps would have been handier for me too. Not heard of them before so be interested to hear about their service and cost.

I was originally intending using Rudi at Southampton but my granddaughters boyfriend is in the trade and highly recommends Cartronix. Online quote for the cluster pixels is Â£99. I will give feedback once it has been done.

BarryM · Post by **BarryM** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 2:47 pm

Hi Jim,

Thought I'd ask about the body shop you used as the panel above my rear bumper is in need of rust removal and painting (and possibly a couple of smaller sill areas). I did have a local chap on Hayling pencilled in but he reckons his welder has stopped visiting so I'm looking for a recommendation elsewhere if possible.

cheers
Barry.

Alpina Jim · Post by **Alpina Jim** » Wed Mar 29, 2017 12:06 pm

PM sent Barry.

Bertroex · Post by **Bertroex** » Thu Mar 30, 2017 11:57 am

Hi Jim,

An impressive result indeed. I have an E39 (sadly no alpina) with a sill that needs some attention, and I wonder where you got your repair panel from?

Many thanks in advance for your response!

Bert

Alpina Jim · Post by **Alpina Jim** » Thu Mar 30, 2017 9:57 pm

Bertroex wrote:Hi Jim,

An impressive result indeed. I have an E39 (sadly no alpina) with a sill that needs some attention, and I wonder where you got your repair panel from?

Many thanks in advance for your response!

Bert

Hi Bert,

I bought the outer sill repair panel on ebay from seller id "centralpanels". I paid Â£49.95 plus P&P. They are now selling them at Â£59.95 for either side.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E39-5-SER ... 1711975850

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E39-5-SER ... 1725785563

Only part of the panel was needed for the repair on mine and I was advised by my welder that it needed a bit of modification to make it fit.

I also bought a genuine BMW inner lower rear wheel arch repair panel for Â£16. I was told that fitted really well as expected and was good for lining up the non BMW sill panel to. You can see a picture of it on page 2 of this thread and as I recall I got the part number from Real OEM.

Hope this helps and good luck with the repair.

BarryM · Post by **BarryM** » Sat Jul 21, 2018 2:16 pm

Hi Jim,

Thought I'd post up a couple of photos of my B10 sill area as a comparison now I've got round to taking a look.

At first glance all looks good:

The rust spots are the screws holding the mini flap on and I now think they're what starts the rusting process as you can see I have similar rust to your nearside rear:

Those stupid rusting screws and U nuts are what have started the rusting process from what I can see and if left untouched I think it just spreads! The other sill has similar rusting screws but I've not pulled the arch liner back to investigate yet but I'm expecting the same (hopefully not worse). BTW - how difficult are those wheel arch liners to remove as mine seem stuck fast even after removing the fixings.

I'm hoping to do a short term repair with some Bilt Hamber products I have and I'll get this looked at again when I get a few minor rust spots on the body sorted at the end of the summer.

I still have your camera so gonna pop it into a couple of the holes to double check things are ok inside.

Alpina Jim · Post by **Alpina Jim** » Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:44 pm

Good news that the corrosion on yours looks relatively minor Barry. I reckon the mini flaps definitely don't help, especially if they have scraped on a speed bump or similar at some time and that would wrench the fittings and make things even worse. Definitely a case of poor design with the fittings used at the production stage

I found the arch liners a bit of a sod to get on and off. They are tight where they fit into the flared arches and maybe that is why yours seem difficult to shift?
One of the problems I found when removing / refitting the liners is that they can easily take the paint off the sharp edge of the rolled arches so keep an eye out for that and touch up the paint if necessary.

Good luck and give me a call if I can assist in any way.

Alpina Jim · Post by **Alpina Jim** » Sun Jul 22, 2018 12:05 am

Good news that the corrosion on yours looks relatively minor Barry. I reckon the mini flaps definitely don't help, especially if they have scraped on a speed bump or similar at some time and that would wrench the fittings and make things even worse. Definitely a case of poor design with the fittings used at the production stage

I found the arch liners a bit of a sod to get on and off. They are tight where they fit into the flared arches and maybe that is why yours seem difficult to shift?
One of the problems I found when removing / refitting the liners is that they can easily take the paint off the sharp edge of the rolled arches so keep an eye out for that and touch up the paint if necessary.

Good luck and give me a call if I can assist in any way.

BarryM · Post by **BarryM** » Mon Jul 23, 2018 12:44 am

Thanks for the offer Jim, this is turning out to be worse than I expected.

There was only minimal surface rust visible as per my earlier photo but after digging a bit more I've come up with this which is rather disappointing.

Offside:

Nearside:

Have started to attack this with Bilt Hamber Deox gel more to follow!