Advice on rusty sills

[Dunc72]

Hi

I’ve just bought a Z3 3.0, it’s in pretty decent condition however I can see rust around the sills and the wheel arches. Any advice on best course of action.It doesn’t seem too bad, just wondering whether it’s worth getting it repaired or whether to look at replacements. I’m not handy so self repair not really an option. Pics attached below

Cheers

Dunc

 

[andyglym]

Hi mate. First port of call would be to take the outer sills off to check out the structural sills. A repair may be possible with the outers, however, you can pick up new ones for circa £150 a side, less paint.

 

[colb]

We have seen worse than yours, best take the outer sill covers off and see what the inners look like, take the jacking point plastics out and treat the rust under them as well, paint and waxoyl them, either attend to the cover sills rust, treat, paint, waxoyl the inside face or get a replacement pair if yours are too far gone. Don't forget to get some new plastic sill trim clips for the top threshold covers and a bag of replacement screws for the underside. Consider sourcing some stainless steel ones.

 

[petecossie]

We have seen worse than yours, best take the outer sill covers off and see what the inners look like, take the jacking point plastics out and treat the rust under them as well, paint and waxoyl them, either attend to the cover sills rust, treat, paint, waxoyl the inside face or get a replacement pair if yours are too far gone. Don't forget to get some new plastic sill trim clips for the top threshold covers and a bag of replacement screws for the underside. Consider sourcing some stainless steel ones.

This is exactly the project I have just completed on my M Coupe, the sill end flanges looked just the same as yours. The drivers side had a rust patch on in but although it look solid it fell into two pieces on removal. The passenger side really wasn't saveable either so it was new sills for me.
I did exactly the same as above, the jacking pads (take out two torx screws out of each pad and lever out with big flat blade screwdriver) are a major area of rust collection. It looked worst than it seemed, after rust treatment which I left on overnight and used a composite abrasive dish (Tool Station or Screwfix) in my drill really prepared the surface well. Two coats of primer and 2 or 3 coats of top coat followed by getting my paint guy to inject Waxoyl in the cavities. I took Fr & Rr wings off and got the small rust areas grit blasted, paint guy did repairs, painted and Waxoyl protected them. Jobs a good un for another 20 years!!
Good luck. Oh yes get some spare clips and screws also some of those plastic trim removal tools from eBay, they make the job a lot easier.

 

[Peter1450]

The sills on my wife’s are going to need replacing soon,are the genuine sills readily available and if so do the main dealers vary in price?

 

[colb]

Main dealers all Same price however Sopers of Lincoln will give you Forum discount but you will have to collect they won't ship sills

 

[Peter1450]

Thanks for the quick response,have to have a ring around even Lovetts would be cheaper than a round trip to Lincoln!

 

[colb]

See if your local dealer will discount, I recently asked Synters Newport when I needed parts quicker than Sopers could mail them and got 5% not as much as Sopers

 

[petecossie]

See if your local dealer will discount, I recently asked Synters Newport when I needed parts quicker than Sopers could mail them and got 5% not as much as Sopers

That's the sort of discount I was able to get from my local Vertu BMW dealer (5%), previous Coopers ran the dealership and they used to give me 10%.
Sills were readily available (2 days delivery), I ordered a multitude of clips, screws, trim pieces, bolts, covers etc some bits had to come from Germany which took a week.
Spent quite a bit of time in the spares dept converting my long parts list (part numbers taken from Real OEM parts catalogue) into an order list. Well worth the time taken to get the parts I wanted.

 

[137699]

Whatever the sill covers look like on the outside, they will be worse on the inside. While you could salvage them, the time/effort/cost of doing so makes it pretty uneconomical - cheaper/easier & longer lasting to just buy a brand new pair from the dealers - waxoyl them before fitting & forget about them for the next 10-15 years.

As others have said, the sills themselves need inspecting but IME they're usually not to bad and clean up pretty well.

 

[Peter1450]

Just a quick update,ordered a pair from Cotswold in Cheltenham as had good service previously,decent price @£280 and can visit my lad when I collect them!

 

[abh29]

I find Cotswold (Hereford) very good. I bought cills last year and they had them delivered to mates garage in a couple of days I get around 10% discount via BMWLand when I ordered a new door handle for Z3 they even came back checked it was chrome (they had vin)

 

[Peter1450]

I've dealt with Mark in the spares department who was very patient as lots of small brake brackets and screws for the sills were required,one sill in stock ,the other from Germany within 5 days.
For a company with showrooms that wouldn't look out of place in a Bond movie it's very refreshing to find guys that are knowledgeable about a 20 yo car and go above and beyond to help us keep them on the road!