Let's diacuss rust, where it appears, how to fix it and if f

[Blue Shadow]

This is a chance for the MN group to lead another discussion.

Well I was looking at an E28 the other day and was wondering where to look for rust on these things.
If you know about it, please post.
If you have tried to eliminate rust, how did you and did it work?
If you did not do anything about it how long until the car had to have work because of the rust?

Contained in the thread are: (capitalization for clarity evne though it is improper)
Floor pan replacement
Front seat base attaching bolt holes
Rear license plate light area
Front lower edge of front doors
Front fender in front of wheel well and behind wheel well
Rear bumper shock mounts
Rear shock mount where it attaches to the spare tire well
Sunroof panel
Hood air intakes
Front footwell area, probably where the wheel well ends and under body begins, which are close to the jack points
Trunk surface
[Edit by Blue Shadow on [TIME]1107909832[/TIME]]

[Edit by Blue Shadow on [TIME]1107919319[/TIME]]


[Edit by Blue Shadow on [TIME]1108079439[/TIME]]

[Uri in Charleston]

I am about to take on my floorboard rust. The foam under the carpet was wet and under closer inspection i found rust at the far corners of each footwell. It was bad enough to be letting water in, not huge holes, but holes none the less. I pulled the entire interior out, checked the sunroof drains, rear trunkseal & firewall to rule out any other sources of the water. Thankfully everything else checked out.

So my plan of attack it to cut out the rust and weld in floor board pieces from a doner E28, then paint with POR 15. I am also going to replace the foam under the carpet.Ii would like to use a good sound deadenning material, but not break the bank with Dynamat. Any suggestions

This doesn't really answer any questions, but hopefully it will help get the ball rolling.

Uri

[stuartinmn]

In the trunk lip around the licence plate lights (my 325iX is rusting in the same place, I think it's a common spot - water and dirt can collect in there.)

My car is starting to get some bubbling in the front lower corners of both front doors. Water gets inside the seam there behind the outer door skin.

When I bought my car (about six years ago) there was a spot just breaking through in the passenger side front fender, in front of the wheel well. I had that fixed.

Another spot that's hard to see is on the hood - on the bottom edge of the air intakes, where those rubber scoop things duct fresh air into the interior of the car, moisture gets in between the rubber and the steel and rusts things. I replaced the rubber parts a couple years ago and was surprised at how much rust was in there where you can't see it otherwise.

They can also rust around the front two mounting bolts of the front seats, to the point where they'll pull out of the floor and you'll find yourself sitting in a rocking chair.

[Damon in STL]

In addition to the areas listed above, here are a couple of rust areas that I found recently; the under side of the sunroof panel and inside the passenger side front wheel well foot area (? for Shawn D. - appropriate use of semi-colon?). I used the three part Por-15 on both areas. The area in the foot well is about 2" x 2" and requires a patch. After the patch is installed, I'll apply some rubberized under coating.

Damon in STL

[Tammer in Philly]

For Damon,

I'm not Shawn, but I am a grammar nerd. A semicolon is used between two complete sentences which, while separate, are related; one should not be used to precede a list. A colon serves that purpose and would have been appropriate in your post.

For the rust issue: Nearly every E28 I've seen has a spot of rust on the lower right corner of the rear valance, underneath the bumper. Rust around the bumper shocks is common as well. My sunroof panel is starting to form some bubbles, but since it's not contiguous with the other metal I'm not really stressed about it at the moment.

-tammer <--one dirty, dirty E28 in front of my house ... MarkJ, I'm coming over soon!

[Threeshifter]

Being grammar conscience I have fallen into the semicolon/colon conundrum. Does one use capital letters to punctuate the beginning a list following a colon: First item, second item, third item. (period)

Rust:
I am concerned about the front inner fender aft. There is a plastic panel that screws in there, to divert water; like a mud flap that is higher than the wheel centerline. Mine is cracked. I am worried about it and want to replace it.

Driver side rear door hinges are creaky. Not sure if the sunroof drain is leaking or it the hinges need lube. I did lube the hinges but that might have been a symptom and not the root cause. Creaky ness has gone away and I am looking at the sunroof drains.

[Blue Shadow]

Pull the panel out of the car, clean the area and evaluate the quality of the panel, maybe you can tape it back together or get one from one of the parts cars on the board. This panel covers the fender mounting flange that attaches to the inner fender, you don't want rust there.

[itruns]

I'm not sure if I should chime in with all of these english majors proof reading the posts, but I guess I'll risk it.

Has anyone looked at Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator? They have a link on thier site to an independent review of POR15 and R.E. and as you would guess it does a comparision that turns out favoring R.E. over POR15.

535 #3 looks nice but it has quite a bit of rust to fix.

[RobbieR]

The jacking slots located at the rocker panels seem to be a common culprit for rust.

[Mike in Louisville]

I have rust in a few minor places. The worst of it are the holes directly behind the front wheels. On the driver's side, I cleaned, applied bondo, primered, and sprayed with rubberized undercoating. The passenger's side has another hole, and there is also rust in the driver's side rear corner of the trunk and around the bumper shock mount in the same area.

Threeshifter, I have the same issue with my rear driver's side door, but I haven't done much with it yet since I only use the driver's door. By the way, it is not proper to capitalize after a colon or semi-colon unless the word is a proper noun (Kentucky, Jack Daniels, BMW, etc.).

[BayMW_John]

I had some rust scale in the trunk over a large surface area from a leaky trunk. Also had the rust buildup around the licence plate lights.

I removed the debris and went with the POR15 treatment - marine clean, the etching, and then the por15, followed by primer and body color paint. The POR15 stuff is amazing, and I've seen no hint of any problems coming back. My rust really was a light scale, though, if that makes any difference.


[Edit by BayMW_John on [TIME]1108078853[/TIME]]

[Marcus in San Diego]

itruns, you spelled "their" wrong. :p That's ok I always misspell "definitely" and "calendar". I'm also slightly dislexic (sp?) so I may write like yoda from time to time.

Rust sucks. I sold my '73 2002 because I didn't want to deal with repairing the cancer. I hope my M5 never gets rusty.

[Velocewest]

[QUOTE="itruns"]Has anyone looked at Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator? [/QUOTE]

As a long time Alfa and BMW owner, I have used Eastwood's product extensively. It rocks. And it comes in spray cans, and it doesn't have to be discarded after one use like POR-15.

One good product to have in your bag is Rust Mort. It is a good "rust converter", but like all caustics you must clean the area well after application and before topcoating.

Bondo should be called "Rust Incubator". I never put Bondo on bare metal, I always put etching primer on first. It gives the panel a fighting chance.

The best rust repair tools are a Sawzall and a wire feed welder. The best way to get rid of rust is to get rid of rust.



[Edit by Velocewest on [TIME]1108079591[/TIME]]

[Threeshifter]

I have heard of many older BMWs that have rust on the floor of the trunk behind the rear seat and on the rear strut towers. Strut tower rust can be so extensive that the towers need to the welded back into existence. Pull the carpet up and have a look.

I think that is a result of trunk seal failures and a nearly level trunk that will catch water.

[Shawn D.]

[QUOTE="itruns"]Bondo should be called "Rust Incubator". I never put Bondo on bare metal, I always put etching primer on first. It gives the panel a fighting chance.[/QUOTE]
Well, Bondo is supposed to be applied to bare metal, not on top of primer or paint -- adhesion will be affected. Bondo was never intended to be waterproof, and it must be topcoated by non-porous paint. If used as intended, plastic body filler (i.e. Bondo) is excellent. The problems with its reputation are caused by improper mixing, application over primer or paint, thick application (ideally less than 1/16", although the 1/4" thick creased area on my '57 Chevy has held up fine for 20+ years), improper working when curing or when hardened, or not topcoating properly.

[Blue Shadow]

This link has a nice view of a very light M635Csi being reborn. Lots of pics of rusted areas and pics of repairs.

http://people.freenet.de/wokke/wokke.htm

This makes our porblems seem miniscule.

[Velocewest]

[QUOTE="Shawn D."]Well, Bondo is supposed to be applied to bare metal, not on top of primer or paint -- adhesion will be affected. Bondo was never intended to be waterproof, and it must be topcoated by non-porous paint. If used as intended, plastic body filler (i.e. Bondo) is excellent. The problems with its reputation are caused by improper mixing, application over primer or paint, thick application (ideally less than 1/16", although the 1/4" thick creased area on my '57 Chevy has held up fine for 20+ years), improper working when curing or when hardened, or not topcoating properly.[/QUOTE]

To each their own. I'll stand by my practice until I see rust or cracks. Etching primer makes for good grab, the filler is going nowhere.

Here's some rustoration. No bolt on parts here. Click on '72 CS restoration'.
http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dl ... 6D92E82BAC