need an expert opinion....

Uwe,

That is quite horrible and a reminder to us all of how things might really be under the carpets.

Do you have any racing wellies for track work?
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Kevin

SHEPSM3 wrote: Its quite shocking, as Brian said, when you start stripping off the underseal and sealer......its suprising how big holes like that appear from what looked like no problems there.

when I "persuaded" some of the new metal with a hammer from the inside of the car, a whole section of the strenghtener (that y-shaped thing under the fender) just fell out!! And there was no indication before that i was rotten. Like Brian said, just the underseal was holding it in place

I don't believe it will be done with a panel here and there. The whole filewall looks like a Swiss cheese. holes everywhere.
This time it has to be done quite radical to stop it for a few years.

Lancastrian wrote: Uwe, Your signature says ".........bought a welder now" but I guess you have used one before. That is a really neat job. Just for info.... The inner panel that goes from the door aperture to the wheel arch (includes the loudspeaker aperture) is available and costs less than £20 IIRC. I decided that it was easier to use a part of that panel to get the right shape for the wheel arch, than to make up repair pieces.

thanks, but it looks nicer on photo than reality.
I haven't really checked what panels are available to improve the quality of the repair. Intentionally I didn't wanted to go that far at the moment. It just happend...... (I am not goint to touch the other side right now)

Toby informed me that a new firewall is NLA

update. After scratching the underseal off, there was not much left and I decided to cut the rotten metal out as good as possible. I didn't really wanted a full blown repair as the car will be stripped anyway but it was just too bad to be left alone.



welded.


all I have to do is to slam some seam sealer on as there are some tiny pin holes in the top corner I was unable to weld watertight. If you can't get the metal really clean there is no chance for a proper weld.

After a few days in the rain I can report that there is no more leaking. On this side
With the carpet now out I found the drivers side to be leaking as well
Some very careful poking with a screw driver revealed almost the same as on the passenger side..........
But I have decided to stop for now. It's really an dashboard and engine out job to fix that somehow.
Let's wait and see what the future brings

Saw THIS and thought of you

Steve

Nice,

form memory i had that factory option on two of my e30's seems to be a common feature although i never managed to find it on the bm option list............

The Limited Edition E30 M3 'Flintstone'

Looks like you have the special factory light weight model

Steve