e46 front wings

[rc944]

for those that had to have them sorted what did you do:

- leave them and sell the car
- fit new OE and then front end respray/full respray
- fit pre painted pattern and hope for the best
- cut out and piece in new metal and paint wings and blend door and hope for the best
- anything else?

need to plan for mine so keen to hear from those with direct experience

[Charles]

Two new OEM wings (so they fit properly) and front end respray ( because the leading edge of the bonnet and front spoiler will have rash).I also made sure that they sealed the inner rim fully which is where the originals started to go.

10 years and almost 200k miles later and the top of the arches are still sound (where they started rusting previously) but am seeing the start of corrosion on the trailing bottom corner on both wings.

This is a known body weakness on the E46

[rc944]

thanks
what should i budget for the paint? ive had a quote of 2k which feels toppish

[ali]

£2k does seem a lot given the wings bolt on and bolt off.
I'm in the same position as you and will buy 2 x oem wings from BMW
My issue is deciding how much of the car to paint as I've had it 12 years now and most panels have a mark here or there but full respray costs are £6k plus which is mental

[rc944]

yes thats about middling for a full respray which makes 2k for the front end look sensible
best price on the wings so far is 274 each for the coupe

[rc944]

just get these bad boys
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133547411816

[AG]

its easier for both mine as these are both a std BMW colour (Oxford green and Orient blue) so I took my time and found used ones with no rust (yes took a while but they do come up). Once bought its quite a simple but time consuming job.

I did both wings and bonnet on the Oxford green car (superb colour) as they were bad but the rest of the car was really good. Cost me something like £250 for the 2 wings and the bonnet delivered. The orient blue is due to have the pass wing changed and I've just sourced that, I did the drivers side last year, so maybe do that this coming weekend.

Bonus on this being the paint age matches the age of my car so should be a really good match, for example the green car, you'd be hard pressed to see any differences.

[JohnW]

There would be a huge market for plastic or carbon fibre E46 pattern wings. Once fitted then done for life. I’m quite happy the E92s are plastic although they tend to rattle/vibrate at high speeds.

I would always go genuine, there were many E36 pattern wings that I’ve seen over the years that never quite looked right.

Spray the entire front and blend it back into the doors. That takes away any minor colour mis-matches too.

I made the mistake going cheap with my back bumper and will have to have it redone and blended back to the boot at least.

[ali]

just get these bad boys
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133547411816

I'll be interested to see how you got on with these non oem wings.
These guys are 5 miles from me and weren't exactly conducive on me dropping in for a quote for my B3

[ali]

just get these bad boys
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133547411816

How did you get on?
Are they any good, how is the fitment and colour match ?

[rc944]

not done yet

[rc944]

just get these bad boys
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133547411816

I'll be interested to see how you got on with these non oem wings.
These guys are 5 miles from me and weren't exactly conducive on me dropping in for a quote for my B3

what do you mean? what happened?

[ali]

I messaged them a few times though ebay about the wings and mentioned if they were prepared to paint wings would they entertain painting the whole car. They just did everything to avoid commiting to an appointment for me to pop out and see them .
I know where the unit is and have driven past it a few times and it is a sizeable building Easily fit half a dozen cars in it for painting.

[rc944]

did you try calling them?

[rc944]

update on this

sourced some non rusty (unicorn) wings from another e46 same vintage same colour
rust prevention prepped with por15 then dinitrol
now fitted and very satisfied with the colour match and panel gaps
should keep me going until i get the whole car glass out repainted to concours standard
was going to get the car underbody treated but reddish (who did an inspection 1 year ago) want about 15-20k plus 12 month lead time and 1k deposit