Tailgate swop or repair

[woolley11]

One last job on my B10 Touring (#047)is the tailgate.

Some might remember the pics from when it was found on sale through this forum showing paint bubbling/rust on tailgate.

Question I’m deliberating is is it better to get a complete good tailgate off a scrap E39, paint up and swop the bumper extension over? However the wiring loom bothers me - is there a multi plug under the headlining for the rear part of the wiring loom or is it a full front to back piece anyone know ?

Ive a reasonable body shop near by who said he’d have a go cutting out/fixing the rot. Guess by the time I’ve bought a tailgate and painted it I’m got my legs into a £350+ bill anyway.

[Bob]

Yesterday I collected my E39 B10 3.3 Touring #10 from the body/paint shop. They seemed to have done a pretty good job. They've painted the tailgate I bought on eBay too, so once I have that fitted the car will look pretty good from say, 10 yards.

Might be worth speaking to Toasey. He's in the process of doing the same thing on his B10 Touring

[woolley11]

Yes sounds like a plan

[Toasey]

Hi, I'm just catching up after I've been away on holiday. (Devon, narrow lanes, battery died, AA man started the B10 up, took me to a good place in Tavistock (Tyremarks) who stuck in a new Yuasa, everything fine again after that).

But back to the main subject, rusting E39 Touring tailgates. Yes, I bought a used tailgate from marobmwspares on eBay for £120. I collected it in person and it fits in the back of an E39 Touring. It was silver and off a 530D. It's now painted and ready to be fitted. This will happen tomorrow when I take it to Lee Shannon. The bodyshop offered to fit it but I preferred someone who knew the model well. Lee did say that he is very particular about the getting the loom right, so I think I made the right choice.

[Toasey]

So, I collected my B10 from Lee Shannon yesterday. The new tailgate has been fitted and looks great. A couple of bits of trim have been ordered becuase they had been bodged onto the original tailgate and Lee couldn't get them off without damaging them.

I shudder to think what job the bodyshop would have made of swapping the tailgates over. Lee explained the tricky parts of the job including getting the alignment right by continual rounds of adjusting and checking. Suffice to say the major cost of the job is not buying the tailgate from eBay, not by a long chalk.

Lee thought it is better for my wallet that I do the transferring of the lettering over, especially as every letter apart from "3.3" is separate.

Many happy hours of measuring and applying masking tape await me at the weekend.

[Toasey]

So, not to totally hijack the thread, but to help woolley11 make an informed decision, here is the old tailgate.

[Toasey]

And the new one on. I quite like the Q car look.

[Bob]

Toasey, you know ALPINA will share the measurements for correct placement of the badges if you email them, so you can take some of the guess work out of it.

Totally off topic, but your crud catcher is on upside down.

[Toasey]

Nope, I did not know I could email Alpina. Thanks for the info.

And yes, that crud catcher is on upside down. But that's the wife's bike and she never gets it muddy. But now you've pointed it out I'm going to have to fix it tomorrow.

[Bob]

Axel sent me details for my B3

a.rimpler@alpina.de

[woolley11]

Thanks for the update Toasey - been away too.

Glad you got your battery fixed and that’s all it was.

I’ve had a chat with the body shop near me. He reckons tailgate salvageable without removing it - as you say a second tailgate not too expensive but fitting/lining up and painting is where the cost is.

The only thing not working on my tailgate is the switch for the power tailgate to close it. Somewhere within the loom is a broken wire I guess but I’m not going there - quite happy using muscle power to close tailgate.

I also need some paint on the wheel arches doing so I’ll see what he can do.

This is mine now - see pics