[D_o_S]

Hi,

my friend was at the shop with his E92 for an alignment. The guys couldn't get the alignment pin out (stripped the hex), so apparently, they took a dremel and tried to cut a slot in the pin... unfortunately, the dremel slipped and now my friend has two 3 cm x 1 mm scratches on the strut tower, that are quite deep. Shiny metal can be seen...

He's not satisfied with the work, so he'd like to get it fixed properly... His questions:

1) How soon before it rusts? Given the fact that its in the engine bay, and it is summer (so no salt on the roads, etc) and also given the fact that modern cars are quite corrosion resistant, I'm guessing this could take a while...

2) Do you think the rust will be self-limiting, i.e. limited to the scratch? Or will it spread further onto the tower, until the tower rusts completely?

3) I suggested he could just repaint it himself, just put a dab of clearcoat over it (from the paint touch-up set)... What is the proper procedure? Sand down the area, then primer, then paint?

I told him he's not in a rush to get it fixed, so tell me if I'm wrong and should tell him to get it fixed ASAP... He said he'd leave it till the summer and get it fixed in Germany when he's there for business.

Thanks

[avocet]

any corrosion protection measures are stripped away when you have something like that happen.

bare metal will rust very quickly if exposed and untreated. if the rust is able to start, it will get under the paint in surrounding areas and spread.

I would approach the shop and ask them to pay for any and all repairs related to the mishap.

[D_o_S]

It's very difficult to get shops to pay for anything here... they say they will fix it for him, but he doesn't want to do that given his previous experience...

Given the cars that are running around that are like 10, 15 years old, they tend to have spots of rust, but it's not like they're falling apart because they're a rust bucket. Also, the rust they seem to have (any brand) seems to be localized, i.e. above the rear fender for example, but you don't see it reaching up to the gas filler door or anything...

So do you think he'll be fine if he leaves it for another 3 to 4 months as is?

[07lilredwagon]

Just get some rust preventive primer, spray some onto a q-tip, dab it on, let it dry (10 minutes) do it again until it hides the shiny metal, then do the same with paint that matches the surrounding area.

If the area is painted black, get black primer and black top coat...that will stop the rust...

If you want to get fancy...you can clean the area with alcohol or denatured alcohol first....

JP