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1999 E46 316i - rust on rear door sill

4K views 15 replies 4 participants last post by  Dev 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi guys, I have two rust spots on my passenger side rear door sill (there is usually a cover here) now that its turning abit warmer I wanted to have a go at sorting these out myself; as there's a cover over this area I'm ok with the job not being too professional lol. Can anyone give me some advice/steps on how I need to respray this area? and preferably some info about which products I will need (hopefully from halfords). The car is black btw.

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
Hello mate,

You'll need to remove / grind back as much of the rust as possible initially. Then, once you satisfied you've removed as much as possible, apply a rust treatment such as Kurust to the exposed area. Once this dries, a few coats of primer then paint will do the job - rattle cans out of Halfords will do nicely. Follow the instructions on the paint - wait a sufficient time between each coat. As the areas covered you may not want to skim it with filler before painting as then you'll need to faff about smoothing it all off most likely (surfact rust can leave a pitted / dimpled effect which you can see through paint).
 
#4 ·
hi mate thanks for the reply. will i need the rust treatment if i sand all of the rust back? and how many coats of primer and paint are we talking? will i need gloss? and lastly, do u know what colour it is? will halfords match the colour?
 
#3 ·
if you can't see it, sand back to bare metal and simply paint with hammerite smooth (in black of course), i wouldn't worry to much about spraying it etc if it's hidden

*edit* are you talking about the footplate as you get in the car that has the plastic sill cover on top of it? if so thats were mine was bubbling, i popped the cover off (buy some more clips before hand as they will break), sanded down the affected area, masked it off and painted 3 coats of hammerite smooth in red over the area, the patch slightly comes further then the trim covers, but i'm more then happy knowing that the rust won't be festering away unseen under the trim
 
#5 ·
Hi jon, thanks for the reply. yep i'm talking about underneath the footplate. do u know where i can get the clips from because mines are already broken, and how much will they be? I'm not too clued up about painting, so what difference does hammerite make lol? I thought cars needed special paint? :confused
 
#7 ·
Folk are suggesting that as the rusty area is covered, there's no need for the cost of mixed paint to match - as you can't see it. Hammerite is tougher than 'normal' paint but also cheaper. Even if you sand/grind the rust off there will almost certainly be some left on the metal, hence the suggestion to use KuRust (be careful, it's fairly potent stuff and will burn flesh!!). The clips will be a few pennie but from your local BMW dealer probably, but check on the WWW if they are sold after-market (someone will post soon and confirm)............
 
#8 ·
cheers afcneal. So how many coats of rust treatment and hammerite do you reckon will do the job? and how much does kurust usually cost? Also I cannot seem to get the front passenger door trim (silver/aluminium strip) back on, will I need to buy new clips for this too?
 
#9 ·
clips are peanuts from a bm dealer, hammerite is a rust treatment, but the smooth has a better finish. you have 2 choices, sand/grind, kurust & rattle cans, or sand/grind and paint with hammerite. As mine is/was covered i went for b as it was cheaper and less messy with masking off etc. I will post up pics at some point.
 
#12 ·
Cheers for the replies guys! Ok so I think I will forget the rust treatment completely and just sand back the rust and then spray over with hammerite rattle cans, are rattle cans Ok or should I brush it on? you reckon 3 coats of spray will do?

And another question, what process of sanding should I go through? As in do I have to go from higher grit paper to lower then change to wet/dry? Could someone tell me exactly which would be the best?
 
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