DIY 1/4 Panel Replacement....

[MrAdams]

Hey 1ers,
At my shop we recently replaced the 1/4 panel on a 2009 BMW 135i. I had a feeling the 1 series crowd would like to take a look at this.

OK OK So not exactly a DIY project, but thought I'd share anyways...

Customer was shopping around for the best shop to repair his car (smart man, not shopping for estimates, but shopping shops)

Customer brought us this,






So lets see whats going on under there...


Step 1 strip it down...
Before we start chopping off the damaged 1/4 panel we have to set the car up on our CARBENCH Jigs... (In order to mount the car to Jigs we must loosen/drop/suspend/remove suspension, exhaust, fuel tank as well as misc. under covers etc...)








The Jigs get the car back to factory specs and tolerances up to 2mm (Per BMW)






Once we have it bolted up to the Frame Machine we can remove the glass and begin the sectioning of the 1/4 panel.





Here is our new 1/4 panel (Caged animal )





These are the adhesive kits that get used for bonding the 1/4 panel to the car. Keep in mind, BMW recommends weld bonding their replacement panels rather than the conventional "weld it back together method"

The reason BMW recommends this, not only the corrosion protection it provides, but also this keeps the factory crumple zones and the car will act the same way in future accidents *knock on wood*

I know what you're thinking... GLUE????? but this is structural panel bonding adhesive that has holding properties equal to or greater than welding. By no means is this a cheaper / easier fix. If anything it's more expensive requiring special materials and more time for this procedure...


So here's what we got...

Metal Filler/Puddy
- This is in place of your traditional BONDO
- THIS IS NOT A REGULAR BODY FILLER, this is a metal filler that bonds to the panel producing a stronger bond and a longer lasting bond



Back Glass Adhesive
- Since the windshield and back glass are structural components in our cars, BMW recommends the use of their glass adhesive to maintain factory structural properties.



Glass kit also comes with Primer
- the glass adhesive must be applied to the correct type of primer or else the adhesive could fail or come out with the cheap primer altogether.




1/4 section Back Plates
-these go behind the section areas to create not only a perfect alignment, but also during bonding it becomes another structural component in the 1/4 panel.




Bodywork Adhesive
- this is the expensive stuff that becomes your bonding agent

There is a process involving these glues to get them to bond





Structural Foam
- reduces sound & vibration and also acts as a structural component once dried




Cavity Wax
- This is the same stuff that you see dripping between all your door jambs from the facory.
- once primed and sprayed over by the cavity wax, it creates a corrosion protection barrier.



Unfortunately my tech Toretto pre-fit the 1/4 panel and cut it before I had chance to take my photos. so the test fit photo you'll have to use your imagination.

Black E-Coated 1/4 panel being cut at the factory recommended cut locations...

Once in place with the glue we need to let it sit for 18-24 hours to dry, at the same time my tech is spot welding the flanges to create the "Weld Bond"
once dry and in place we can apply the metal puddy and shape the bonded area to prep it for paint.






Once it's all smooth and pretty, we get it prepped for paint

This is not the booth we paint in, we just left it in the bumper booth over night to prevent moisture




Once the paint is dry we get all the seats back in and the glass and shoot it over to detail where we color sand and buff the painted panels

... and here we spot Turbomike's widebody 335i getting ready & detailed for the track after we just painted the bumper... lol





I appologize that I may have skipped a lot of steps, but I'm doing an F12 now and I plan on taking more photos...

Here's the final product... like it never happened







Come by and check us out if you are in the Los Angeles are and need some work done.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/collision-co...nt-los-angeles

Feel free to contact me directly if you yourself are in a situation and need some body work in So*Cal
Or just swing by and check out the shop if you are in the are and talk cars with us nerds in the office. As a shop we plan on doing more and more Auto X events and future clinics.

We are located @

2627 La Cienega Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90034



~Adam

Shop: 310.280.6000

Cell: 310.977.6411
Call/Text

adam@collisionbodyshop.com

www.collisionbodyshop.com

[Gray_Panther]

What an awesome and informative read this should get posted in the DIY section. Lol at glue for holding it together.

Great job. Looks brand new!

[Dackelone]

Thanks for taking the time to post these pics. Always interesting seeing how the pro's repair a car the proper way. Also I bet those BMW glues are not cheap! Props for using the proper glues and repair process. And for using OE parts and not some cheap-er OEM part,

[b1aze]

Now there is a man who should take pride in his work.

[ilikebmxbikes]

Great work - awesome to see Turb0mikes car in there too.

[uberschnell]

What do you normally charge for replacing a quarter panel?

[MrAdams]

Originally Posted by Gray_Panther

What an awesome and informative read this should get posted in the DIY section. Lol at glue for holding it together.

Great job. Looks brand new!

Thank you!!

Originally Posted by Dackelone

Thanks for taking the time to post these pics. Always interesting seeing how the pro's repair a car the proper way. Also I bet those BMW glues are not cheap! Props for using the proper glues and repair process. And for using OE parts and not some cheap-er OEM part,

Thank you! no, those glues are not cheap by any means... and anything you have left over must be discarded and not saved

whatever it takes to do it the right way!!

Originally Posted by b1aze

Now there is a man who should take pride in his work.

Much appreciated my brotha.

Originally Posted by ilikebmxbikes

Great work - awesome to see Turb0mikes car in there too.

Thanks.
Ya I love hearing it's exhaust randomly from my office

Originally Posted by uberschnell

What do you normally charge for replacing a quarter panel?

It varies per car and what all gets replaced... if the rear body or inner 1/4 panel are damaged it could increase significantly.

this particular repair was roughly +/- $10,000

[jzmundy]

Wow...incredible work!

[P1]

Thanks for posting this, very informative.

[MrAdams]

I have been getting a lot of hits from here, but no replies, so I thought I would bump incase anyone is in need of help / repairs...