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BMW E46 Arch Rust

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rust
4K views 10 replies 4 participants last post by  Jonna 
#1 ·
Hi,


As said i just got a BMW E46 318 5 Door...And im very pleased with the car, its very nice drive and just a pleasure to own...bar the lil problems it has!

Just a quick question.

Front wheel arches have rust...or severe paint bubbling,

whats the best thing to do about getting rid of this?

New Wings?

Or Bodyshop?

Or any other ways?

Sorry not very good at this lol.
 
#3 ·
Immo has the same issue - pretty much everywhere suggests new wings.

It's caused by the plastic liner in the wheel arches rubbing against the inside of the wing, dirt getting in there, acting like sand paper and rubbing through from the inside. - If they're badly bubbled it's probably rusted right through the metal!

Quotes i've had so far for new wings, painted and finished...

BMW Bodyshop - £890
3rd party bodyshop (pattern parts) - £500

The guys at the bodyshop did say this though: "If BMW wings are rusting through, pattern parts will too" - and it's common opinion that pattern parts likely won't be quite a perfect fit.

Think the preferential option right now is to go for second hand wings from a scrapped car as they will be genuine parts but not so pricy and have them resprayed.

I'm personally going to wait till either a) It gets so bad I can't stand it anymore, or b) till a big chunk of spare money appears in my lap and then try to find some wings from a scrappy.

It's a bummer eh. :mad
 
#7 ·
I think your best bet would be to have your arches repaired. The bubbling on mine was quite bad, he stripped them down, sealed them and re-sprayed, still perfect after 3-4 months.

It was a favour done by a family friend, although i don't think youd be looking at more than £300 for the same job!
 
#11 ·
Good evening,

I got one topaz (matches) and one pattern for my 1999 coupe at the cost of about 140 .. it's a bit harder to get pre-facelift coupe wings I've found. Getting the bonnet and wings sprayed; got quoted 350 by the Sytner garage just down the road from my work (convenient). I've found they are consistently cheaper than Quarry Motors and by quite a bit.

From reading about on the forums and else where the general consensus is to get new wings rather than repair bubbling ones. Of course new wings will eventually rust but you can only take preventative steps to stop this.
 
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