Once dried, we went onto our 2nd layer which was High Build Primer. We then installed the Boot Floor front piece (that we cut out earlier) and aligned it perfectly and fully welded that in, as well as creating 6 new plug weld points for the new tube (internally fitted) to be plug welded to the thin Boot Floor panel.Īfter drying with infra-red lamps, we protected these corroded areas further by painting them with POR-15 Rust Preventative Paint.Īfter dusting, vacuuming, and panel-wiping the inside of the vehicle and the underside of the vehicle, we applied our first layer of protection which was Etch Primer. Then finished additional strengthening by adding a tube which was also stitch welded to the Rear Cavity 'box section' central area and the RACP itself, whilst spreading the load into the newly created Chassis Leg attachments.
We also connected the Rear Cavity 'box section' to the Chassis Legs via reinforcement plates. Then back to the Internal welding (inside the vehicle), we installed customer reinforcement plates to stabilise the rear pair of threaded receivers by removing the inferior stamped 't' piece sheet metal. Then re-installed (welding & shaping) pre-treated brackets from our exchange programme (additional cost) which means all the corrosion on the RACP, Spring Perch, Shock Turret, Battery Box, Boot Floor, Handbrake Console, and a small section of the Seat Panel has been treated and neutralised with POR-15 Metal Prep. Then temporarily removed 2x Brake Pipe and 2x Fuel Tank Strap Brackets to treat the corrosion behind those brackets. We removed 3 redundant Battery Box brackets completely. This customer also requested our Corrosion Treatment Process (additional cost) to remove the majority of heavy corrosion and loose rust from the RACP and localised working areas.
Then we went inside the vehicle to start the Internal repair & reinforcement work on the RACP after protection (or removing) most of the rear-half of the vehicle's interior.īack underneath the RACP we reinforced the 4x mounting points with the Redish Motorsport E46 V2 Rear Subframe Reinforcement Plate Kit We thoroughly degreased the working area and surrounding panels, then set about repairing the crack(s) and spot weld damage(s) to the mounting points on the underside of the RACP. The fact is that now-a-days in 2017 this is a fairly normal occurrence, and many of the E46's which come to us don't just have underside cracks, but also internal cracks too. This BMW E46 M3 Coupe was a 2003 with 84,000 miles came to us at Redish Motorsport for it's Rear Axle Carrier Panel (aka subframe panel) repair & reinforcement process.Īfter checking the Underside of the RACP and then the Internal sections of the RACP we found more cracks & spot weld failures than what most people typical think of an E46 M3 having.