Ive got all the panels i think i need to repair the shell, namely the rear wheel arch parts and drivers floor. To start with the near side rear wheel arch.
These are the parts involved, the grey wheel arch outer and the black inner reinforcement. The inner panel is genuine BMW and looks very well made.
Unfortunately the wheel arch isn't the panel is made of two parts spot welded together. It also has many ripples in the panel. The seams will need seam welding and the ripples gently smoothed out. The yellow line is probably what i am going to cut off the repair panel.
The hole is open and the panel was plated over pity whoever did that didn't remove the rust before they hid it. so good job the panel is out as it would have been dangerous.
Bump stop mount to cut off clean and weld back on. I might tweak it to allow for full suspension travel when the car is lowered. Further investigation shows this one buggered and the other side stop is crushed. These parts are not available so i will have to make them from new.
The shock mount need also to be cut off cleaned and refitted.
This underside view shows the two new panels and a repair panel that sits behind the rear seat. It's all held together with self tapping screws.
This shot show the upper side. The welding sequence is remove the three panels still screwed together and weld the two wheel arch panels. Then remove the reinforcement panel and drill a spotweld hole every inch along the edge. the holes are plug welded and ground flat. Last of all all the edges will be seam welded on the inside and the outside of the panel so that i know the panel is strong and lock out moisture that will get into the panel gap and cause more rust.
All that left is to do the whole thing again on the other side. This repair has taken about 20 hours to complete.
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