Small patch of rot around jacking point

[emmaitch]

Hi, hope this image loads.
My '92 318i cabriolet is in very good condition overall (50k mileage, garaged, 2 owners, hardly any rust) except for a tiny patch on sill by rear wheelarch passenger side... and this patch around the rear jacking point, driver's side. Any suggestions for the best way to deal with this?

[Grrrmachine]

Solution:



From this cutaway, you can see the cause of the rust; it's the supporting pillar inside the sill. Water getting into the sill causes the base of that pillar to rot, spreading upwards, and no chemical applied to the outside of the sill will fix that. If you don't cut it out, it will spread out to the subframe support bolts (on the left side of your pic) and then you'll be in real trouble.

Find a local welder, before winter kicks in.

[emmaitch]

Arrghh... not great news but thanks for the info.

[TPS]

That section was starting to go on my old cab., common problem I think. Also where the plastic sill trim sits, rust develops there as well, quite alot of cabs., I've seen suffer there.

[emmaitch]

More evidence

http://imageshack.us/a/img267/9964/rotcloseup.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img259/2656/rotcloseup2.jpg

[emmaitch]

While I'm on this is the other patch; how to deal with this?

As a 'newbie' to the scene, appreciate the valuable help form you zoners. Love the car so far, after 6ish weeks ownership, invested in hardtop, (unfortunately it can't be garaged). Had the most top down fun time while the sun was out, but now winter beckons....

http://imageshack.us/a/img88/8545/archrot.jpg

[Grrrmachine]

put [img]and[/img] at each end of your photos, and they'll show up.

The sill rot definitely needs cutting out. For the arch, you need to remove the wheel and check the other side of the lip to see if the rust has penetrated. Again, it needs to be dealt with quickly but you might just be able to wire-bush it back, apply an anti-rust treatment and then paint over... but again, the best thing to do is to cut out and weld in fresh steel.

If the seam sealer and stone chip is flaking off inside the wheelarch, you must anticipate rust, and a lengthy repair bill.