TIMM'S BMW E38
CURING THE RUSTY BOOT SYNDROME
I was a bit disappointed
to see that my boot lip was starting to rust, not a great deal but still a good
indication that it was going to turn ugly at some point. The first thing I did
was park the car facing North so the boot caught the sun during the day. That
stopped it spreading for a few months but I reckoned I ought to do something
about it pretty soon.
The problem is that I'm rubbish with cosmetic repairs that involve paint. Still,
I couldn't afford a re-spray and with the Mora Metallic paintwork it would be
sure to end up the wrong colour! So, armed with my secret weapon, some
wet-and-dry and some rust stopper off I went for certain disappointment:
I went for some Loctite rust remedy, they make lots of good products and I only
want to do this once. I started by masking off the boot lip above the rust and
also under the lip where the number-plate lights are. I gave the lip a good
rubbing using water to disperse the paint and rust as I went:
Below where the rust bubbles were, the boot lip has separated from the inner
skin. This is a photo of a place where separation has occurred. I'm poking a
syringe in there which has the rust remedy in it so that I can get the fluid
between the lip and inner skin:
Anyway, that photo is out of sequence, first I painted the rust remedy on the
outer surface of the lid. Where the remedy hits metal it turns black, it stays a
parchment colour on the paint. I have removed the masking tape here:
I then painted the stuff under the lip of the boot, the masking tape protects
the painted areas:
I used a syringe filled with the rust remedy to get between the two skins:
And then it rained!
Still, it gave me time to prepare my secret weapon......a chrome trim that would
be painted matt black:
I'm sure the paint will come off the bath mat eventually!
After removing the masking tape I sprayed some paint into a container and
painted the very lip of the boot lid black using a small paintbrush so that the
rust remedy was covered and then fixed on the trim:
Back to V8 loveliness again! I have some doubts about the paints' ability to
adhere to the chrome trim for any length of time. If the paint comes off I will
buy another trim and keep it chrome this time. I used wet-and-dry to key the
surface of the trim so I can't just remove the black paint.
I'll see how it goes, if I need to remove the trim I will use nylon fishing-line
and petrol for lubrication.
Here is a list of parts that were used for this repair:
Syringe from Farnell
Syringe needle from Farnell
Chrome trim from a very nice Ebayer, it comes with
adhesive backing
Loctite Rust Remedy from Ebay
Update February
2012 - 3 years
later - No further problems with rust on the boot, car always parked
facing North!
All done, time for a cup of tea