Rust in the rocker panel, best way to fix?

My newly bought '90 BMW E34 failed the safety inspection because of,
among other things, a rusted rocker panel. What's the easiest and
cheapest way to get it to pass? I'm thinking about cutting a metal piece
and welding it over the holes, but I'm not sure that will be enough. I
have a stick weld and sheet metal about 1 mm thick that I can use.

Ideas are welcome. :-)

http://i4.tinypic.com/25ui0z8.jpg

Thanks,

Ulf

Ulf > wrote in article
>...
> My newly bought '90 BMW E34 failed the safety inspection because of,
> among other things, a rusted rocker panel. What's the easiest and
> cheapest way to get it to pass? I'm thinking about cutting a metal piece
> and welding it over the holes, but I'm not sure that will be enough. I
> have a stick weld and sheet metal about 1 mm thick that I can use.
>
> Ideas are welcome. :-)
>
> http://i4.tinypic.com/25ui0z8.jpg
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ulf
>


I cannot speak to what your inspector will require as an adequate repair,
but I can tell you that there are 1/16" stick welding rods available for
such work.

Some are AWS 6013 rated while others just specify " For sheet metal work" ,
and do not have an AWS rating.

I've used both on race car and street rod sheet metal with success prior to
buying a MIG.

"Ulf" > wrote in message
...
> My newly bought '90 BMW E34 failed the safety inspection because of,
> among other things, a rusted rocker panel. What's the easiest and
> cheapest way to get it to pass? I'm thinking about cutting a metal piece
> and welding it over the holes, but I'm not sure that will be enough. I
> have a stick weld and sheet metal about 1 mm thick that I can use.
>
> Ideas are welcome. :-)

Apparently you are either in Norway or Sweden. I would echo the premise of
the other
poster that the aptness of the repair is likely to depend upon the
instructor.

In the UK, they used to require you to cut out the old 'sills', and weld in
new ones, not
just patch them over. The structural integrity of the repair is important,
not just the
appearance.

Some unibody cars turn into wrecks when you have weakened components.

I would suggest you counsel with the inspector, and do the job that will not
only pass,
but will also save your life.

wrote:
> "Ulf" > wrote in message
> ...
>> My newly bought '90 BMW E34 failed the safety inspection because of,
>> among other things, a rusted rocker panel. What's the easiest and
>> cheapest way to get it to pass? I'm thinking about cutting a metal piece
>> and welding it over the holes, but I'm not sure that will be enough. I
>> have a stick weld and sheet metal about 1 mm thick that I can use.
>>
>> Ideas are welcome. :-)
>
> Apparently you are either in Norway or Sweden. I would echo the premise of
> the other
> poster that the aptness of the repair is likely to depend upon the
> instructor.

Yup, and I'll be taking the car to another station the next time. The
inspection guy was in a ****ty mood when I inspected the car, so he was
obviously going to find something to fail it for.

>
> In the UK, they used to require you to cut out the old 'sills', and weld in
> new ones, not
> just patch them over. The structural integrity of the repair is important,
> not just the
> appearance.

I found a page which describes the procedure, doesn't look that
difficult. After cutting out the old piece I can use it as a reference.
And if I spray the whole rocker panel with undercoating it should be
close to impossible to see exactly where it was fixed.

http://www.hrps.demon.nl/jwbus/rocker.htm

>
> Some unibody cars turn into wrecks when you have weakened components.
>
> I would suggest you counsel with the inspector, and do the job that will not
> only pass,
> but will also save your life.

Yes, but I don't intend to keep the car. I already have two cars and a
motorcycle, that's enough. :-)



>
>
Ulf

Ulf Wrote:
> wrote:
> > "Ulf" > wrote in message
> > ...
> >> My newly bought '90 BMW E34 failed the safety inspection because of,
> >> among other things, a rusted rocker panel. What's the easiest and
> >> cheapest way to get it to pass? I'm thinking about cutting a metal
> piece
> >> and welding it over the holes, but I'm not sure that will be enough.
> I
> >> have a stick weld and sheet metal about 1 mm thick that I can use.
> >>
> >> Ideas are welcome. :-)
> >
> > Apparently you are either in Norway or Sweden. I would echo the
> premise of
> > the other
> > poster that the aptness of the repair is likely to depend upon the
> > instructor.
>
> Yup, and I'll be taking the car to another station the next time. The
> inspection guy was in a ****ty mood when I inspected the car, so he was
> obviously going to find something to fail it for.
>
> >
> > In the UK, they used to require you to cut out the old 'sills', and
> weld in
> > new ones, not
> > just patch them over. The structural integrity of the repair is
> important,
> > not just the
> > appearance.
>
> I found a page which describes the procedure, doesn't look that
> difficult. After cutting out the old piece I can use it as a reference.
> And if I spray the whole rocker panel with undercoating it should be
> close to impossible to see exactly where it was fixed.
>
> http://www.hrps.demon.nl/jwbus/rocker.htm
>
> >
> > Some unibody cars turn into wrecks when you have weakened components.
> >
> > I would suggest you counsel with the inspector, and do the job that
> will not
> > only pass,
> > but will also save your life.
>
> Yes, but I don't intend to keep the car. I already have two cars and a
> motorcycle, that's enough. :-)
>
>
>
> >
> >
> Ulf

Reading this with interest as I was a vehicle safety/emissions
inspector for 12 years, but going by the letter of the rules here, you
can't fail a car for rusted components unles you can demonstrate some
kind of disallowed wheel movement or something like that, just the fact
that it's ate up and would disintegrate in a wreck is not good enough...

I found this out with much frustration after having a customer bring me
a Toyota pickup truck with frame rails so rotted, that when I tried to
lift it, the rear section of the truck began to try to pitch rearward
and fall off the lift, and the gap between the bed and the cab widened
to about 6 inches at the top before I could get the lift to stop
raising...

Obviously the truck was extremely dangerous and had no business on the
road, but there was no listed rejection for that in the criteria for
rejection...so I called the State Patrol (who implements the inspection
program) and the Trooper in charge of the program told me that unless I
could show wheel movement or unsafe handling characteristics due to it,
(which I couldn't) I can't fail it...oh well....:shakehead


--
jeffcoslacker
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jeffcoslacker > wrote in article
>...
>
>
> Reading this with interest as I was a vehicle safety/emissions
> inspector for 12 years, but going by the letter of the rules here, you
> can't fail a car for rusted components unles you can demonstrate some
> kind of disallowed wheel movement or something like that, just the fact
> that it's ate up and would disintegrate in a wreck is not good enough...
>
> I found this out with much frustration after having a customer bring me
> a Toyota pickup truck with frame rails so rotted, that when I tried to
> lift it, the rear section of the truck began to try to pitch rearward
> and fall off the lift, and the gap between the bed and the cab widened
> to about 6 inches at the top before I could get the lift to stop
> raising...
>
> Obviously the truck was extremely dangerous and had no business on the
> road, but there was no listed rejection for that in the criteria for
> rejection...so I called the State Patrol (who implements the inspection
> program) and the Trooper in charge of the program told me that unless I
> could show wheel movement or unsafe handling characteristics due to it,
> (which I couldn't) I can't fail it...oh well....:shakehead
>
>
> --


And people wonder why more and more states are discontinuing their Periodic
Mandatory Vehicle Inspection (PMVI) programs!!

According to an article in the July 31, 2006 edition of Tire Business, at
the peak of popularity, 45 states had a PMVI program. Statistics came from
American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators AAMVA).

Today, only 18 states and the District of Columbia have PMVI programs.

Of the remaining 18 states, 15 run de-centralized programs - with
inspections being done by private shops and garages.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) DOES NOT support
PMVI programs.

A number of years ago, several states dropped their PMVI programs when the
Feds mandated that any state conducting PMVI would have to also conduct
emission control inspections - which would have required a large investment
in testing equipment.

Some states then rationalized that if they did NOT have a PMVI program,
then they did NOT have to gear up to do emission control policing for the
Feds, so they simply dropped the programs.

The unfortunate thing is that, in most of the states still requiring
inspections, shop owners sit on advisory boards, and perpetuate these
obsolete programs as a means of driving business in their shops by
mandating certain repairs in order to "pass" an inspection.

They, apparently, cannot survive without the assistance of state law
sending business their way by forcing people to do repairs that the shops
say must be done before issuing that all-important sticker - even though
their counterparts in the other 32 states manage to stay in business
without PMVI.

What a scam!

There are, of course, some vehicles that should not be on the road, but as
the previous poster pointed out, even those vehicles often manage to get
past a mandated inspection process clouded by bureaucracy.

Some states - especially in the Northeast - are more critical of rust
problems. Much of this came about a few decades back when a five-year-old
girl was killed in Massachusetts after falling through the rear floor of a
car that was driving down the road.

New inspection law required the inspector to physically get in the car and
jump on the floor. I heard stories of a couple of "stocky" inspectors
falling through customer floors.

New laws requiring children to be buckled into a seat would preclude a
child standing on the rear floor - thus preclude the possibility of such an
accident happening again.

Interestingly, there are no skews of equipment-related accidents or
injuries in states that do not require inspections versus those that do.

jeffcoslacker wrote:
> Ulf Wrote:
> > wrote:
> > > "Ulf" > wrote in message
> > > ...
> > >> My newly bought '90 BMW E34 failed the safety inspection because of,
> > >> among other things, a rusted rocker panel. What's the easiest and
> > >> cheapest way to get it to pass? I'm thinking about cutting a metal
> > piece
> > >> and welding it over the holes, but I'm not sure that will be enough.
> > I
> > >> have a stick weld and sheet metal about 1 mm thick that I can use.
> > >>
> > >> Ideas are welcome. :-)
> > >
> > > Apparently you are either in Norway or Sweden. I would echo the
> > premise of
> > > the other
> > > poster that the aptness of the repair is likely to depend upon the
> > > instructor.
> >
> > Yup, and I'll be taking the car to another station the next time. The
> > inspection guy was in a ****ty mood when I inspected the car, so he was
> > obviously going to find something to fail it for.
> >
> > >
> > > In the UK, they used to require you to cut out the old 'sills', and
> > weld in
> > > new ones, not
> > > just patch them over. The structural integrity of the repair is
> > important,
> > > not just the
> > > appearance.
> >
> > I found a page which describes the procedure, doesn't look that
> > difficult. After cutting out the old piece I can use it as a reference.
> > And if I spray the whole rocker panel with undercoating it should be
> > close to impossible to see exactly where it was fixed.
> >
> > http://www.hrps.demon.nl/jwbus/rocker.htm
> >
> > >
> > > Some unibody cars turn into wrecks when you have weakened components.
> > >
> > > I would suggest you counsel with the inspector, and do the job that
> > will not
> > > only pass,
> > > but will also save your life.
> >
> > Yes, but I don't intend to keep the car. I already have two cars and a
> > motorcycle, that's enough. :-)
> >
> >
> >
> > >
> > >
> > Ulf
>
> Reading this with interest as I was a vehicle safety/emissions
> inspector for 12 years, but going by the letter of the rules here, you
> can't fail a car for rusted components unles you can demonstrate some
> kind of disallowed wheel movement or something like that, just the fact
> that it's ate up and would disintegrate in a wreck is not good enough...
>
> I found this out with much frustration after having a customer bring me
> a Toyota pickup truck with frame rails so rotted, that when I tried to
> lift it, the rear section of the truck began to try to pitch rearward
> and fall off the lift, and the gap between the bed and the cab widened
> to about 6 inches at the top before I could get the lift to stop
> raising...
>
> Obviously the truck was extremely dangerous and had no business on the
> road, but there was no listed rejection for that in the criteria for
> rejection...so I called the State Patrol (who implements the inspection
> program) and the Trooper in charge of the program told me that unless I
> could show wheel movement or unsafe handling characteristics due to it,
> (which I couldn't) I can't fail it...oh well....:shakehead
>


I guess that shows how far behind the U.S. is in auto safety
inspections...sigh




>
> --
> jeffcoslacker
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> jeffcoslacker's Profile: http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...?userid=219638
> View this thread: http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=613561
>
> http://www.automotiveforums.com

John S. > wrote in article
.com>...
>
> jeffcoslacker wrote:
>
> > I found this out with much frustration after having a customer bring me
> > a Toyota pickup truck with frame rails so rotted, that when I tried to
> > lift it, the rear section of the truck began to try to pitch rearward
> > and fall off the lift, and the gap between the bed and the cab widened
> > to about 6 inches at the top before I could get the lift to stop
> > raising...
> >
> > Obviously the truck was extremely dangerous and had no business on the
> > road, but there was no listed rejection for that in the criteria for
> > rejection...so I called the State Patrol (who implements the inspection
> > program) and the Trooper in charge of the program told me that unless I
> > could show wheel movement or unsafe handling characteristics due to it,
> > (which I couldn't) I can't fail it...oh well....:shakehead
> >
>
>
> I guess that shows how far behind the U.S. is in auto safety
> inspections...sigh
>
>
>

Actually, it is inconsistencies such as this - coupled with costs driven by
local politics and Federal pressures - that cause inspection programs to
close.

And, the majority of states in the US (32) that DO NOT have inspection
programs show no more equipment-related accidents than the minority of
states (18) that DO have PMVI programs......

......making PMVI a gross waste of taxpayer dollars and governmental
resources.