I realize I’m going a bit out of order here but,
Before I set to doing the fender flare modification, I had to fix a bit bunch of rocker panel rust and Bond-O. I don’t have any before pictures at this time, but don’t worry. The driver side remains to be fixed and I’ll take more detailed pictures for a post at a later date. This is the tale of the passenger side.
The previous owner (PO) had attempted to cover the rust with the B-word and that fix predictably cracked like a dry lake bed. After grinding out the filler and finding where the rust more or less stopped, I set to cutting. Here is a general pictorial description of what I everything looks like under there, with helpful arrows. As always click the thumbnail for a larger pic:
Luckily it cleaned up fairly well leaving me with enough metal to weld a new skin. I picked up a set of 3 NOS OEM rocker skins from an 02 feller. I only needed a section about 1.5″ long to fix the area in question. The patch piece was cut to the correct length with a bit of overlap on the front-facing edge and a nice tight, flush fit at the posterior. Before I got to the weldin’, I primered the ever-loving schnitzel out of the inside of the remaining, unrusted rocker still on the car and the back of the new patch. (I can’t divulge the details of my highly effective inner rocker primering technique but I can tell you that it involved a can of primer, a meter stick, zip ties and a used sponge.) Then I tack welded in the patch, re-welded and ground down the excess.
The bottom edge of the patch piece was a bit too long and hung past the bottom of the inner rocker. I ended up cutting down the patch so that I could lap weld the lower edge of the skin to the inner rocker. BMW’s factory solution was to spot weld the original outer rocker skin to the inner, which is why I have rust. My new patch has a solid bead. I had to use a bit of filler to smooth the transition from original metal to new patch but after some sanding and a coat of primer and spray-on bed liner, it’s more or less impossible to see the patch.
Looks quite good, I think. The driver side is just as badly Bond-O’d, if not worse. The next time around will go much faster. Let’s look at that passenger side one more time for inspiration.
