body panel

[Le_max]

me again,

I'm planning a paint job next month if everything goes well.
I'm currently replacing those body panel:

*front fenders (2) (stock after market)
*hood (stock after market)
*rocker panel (2) (custom made)

the rear valence is completly rusted and full of "gravel guard" so I sure wont be sanding this baby. The trunk is in bad shape and so is the lower inside part of all 4 doors.

What other body panel are available? any online site I can browse to see what is available? (online catalogue)

bavarian autosport only has the fender and hood.
What do you suggest for the rear valence?

thanks.

[BimmerKris]

I just got the rear wheel arches for my car, mine are pretty rusted, they were like 70 bucks a peice. I just called a local panel shop cause i had a hard time finding anything on the net too

[schneider252]

Originally posted by BimmerKris@May 4 2004, 06:01 PM
I just got the rear wheel arches for my car, mine are pretty rusted, they were like 70 bucks a peice. I just called a local panel shop cause i had a hard time finding anything on the net too

any pics?

[broketiltuesday]

So you can actually replace the rear wheel arches? I thought they were like welded onto the chassis or something.

[Le_max]

what are the rear wheel arches?

is it the piece sheet metal on top of the rear wheels? It is a pretty large piece of metal?
You replace the older one with the new one or you soldered it on top of the old one?

what about the rear valence? anybody has a solution?

[broketiltuesday]

The RWA are, yeah, the rear quarters of the car. The panels with cutouts for the wheels. They'll be different shapes for 2-door and 4-door E30s.

The problem with replacing them is that I think they're spot welded onto the chassis or something. So if you're in a breakers yard you'll have to unweld the old ones, get 'em resprayed and finished, THEN unweld the ones off of your current car and spot weld the new resprayed ones back on. Which is a lot of work.
It'd be easier just to get some kind of a cover which you can put onto the rusty ones or even just treat the rust, repaint and see how it looked. I thought the rear p/side wheel arch on mine was bad, but a bit of K-Rust and some new paint has made them look like new. Unless you look pretty hard .

I've not seen such covers but apparently you can get them?

No idea about the rear valence.

[BimmerKris]

All you do with the wheel arches is cut out the the old one and weld in the new one. You take a big chunk out of the rear guarter but, thats what you have to do when the whole back end is one peice. I can get some pis when i it it up tomorrow, My car should be in the shop next week. Can't wait, it will look like new

[Le_max]

so horizontally, it goes from the door to the rear bumper
and vertically, it goes from the top of the wheel to the top of the car?
is that it?

[Bmw1990]

Noticed your question about body parts/panels-What are you choosing for your hood? I need to replace the hood on my 1990 325i and wondering about aftermarket products. Any sources you have or know about please let me know-Thanks-DLB

[Le_max]

I will go with an aftermarket,...
I saw your post by the way. I would not worry with the fitting of the hood like
somebody told you. (although I have no way to verifie)
A place in montreal gives me a very good price .... 185$ canadian.
What is even better is that is sell my old one for 80$

By the way, this place is crazy for prices, I baught lots of parts for my sentra and my BMW,

price exemples:

Control arm with ball joint, 100$ canadian each
Control arm bushing, 12.75 canadian each
about to buy fenders for 59$ canadian each
drive axle (rebuilt) for sentra 80$ canadian each

they ship everywhere in Quebec, it is called SupraZ2000 if someby is interes

[BimmerKris]

damn i need control arm bushings nice