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