Twinz said:
Interesting. :thumbs:
Are panels 3 seperate from part 2...And does it get welded...or is the "two" actually one panel from the factory?
Yes, panel 2 and 3 are separate. Panel 1 is "panel 2 and 3 as a single panel".
If I bought 2 and 3, they would be wielded together.
I managed to get BMW SA to exchange Panel 3 with Panel 1. The price difference is R2k..... If I had kept Panel 3 and bought Panel 2 it would have cost R6k... I'm saving 4k with the exchanging of the 2 panels (Panel 3 for panel 1).
BMW dealerships don't normally do exchange/refunds, they had to ask BMW SA head office for approval.
moranor said:
its better that way i think looks like they would otherwise have to weld 1&2 together... with replacing the whole panel it will be how it came from the factory...
i think its worth the wait
It is a lot better to have 1 panel, than 2 wielded together. The single panel will help them a lot with accurately re-aligning the roof, bonnet, tailgate, headlight, taillight, front fender and bumpers correctly.
They don't want to end up having bigger gaps between the panels on the left compared to the ones on the right hand side.
zaleonardz@DentDoctor said:
1 is of course a lot more difficualt, as you loose the structural integrety of the roof, Looks like your guys have the right tools and looks like they know what they are doing...
Sucks that the part has to come from germany, trust me there are no second hand in jhb... i tried
These guys do have the right tools etc. They've been in the industry for 30 years.
Yeah, it is a pity that it has to come from Germany. I didn't bother looking for a second hand one cos you dont wanna take any risks if it was slightly damaged. Its 1 of the main structural panels.
herr bmw said:
dont they weld it in?and cant they carry on with the front end ?
They've done what they can in the front but cant carry on cos they need the side panel to help realign the chassis arm (Item No.2 in diagram below) into its accurate correct position. They've pulled it a lot into position.
If any part/panel is 1mm outta line it will mess up all the other panels alignment/s with each other.
Its worth the wait, to have the job done properly. Any other avg panel beater would have kept quiet about the crack (if they saw it) which could cause problems in the years to come.
If they didn't strip the interior out, they wouldn't have seen the crack
Btw, I'm back to deciding on the 2 colours. Blue still being my 1st choice... I see the orange is an option on the new 1 Series, in its brochure. This makes the orange not being an "///M individual" colour.... The "Monte Carlo Blue" is only available on the ///M range.