Removing z3 sills

jayson f · Post by **jayson f** » Mon 24 Jan, 2011 12:51

Hi has anybody taken a sill of they look bolt on, i caught a hi curb and damaged drives side any advise welcome.

peterandjenny · Post by **peterandjenny** » Mon 24 Jan, 2011 13:03

Zbd 2 getting a new sill fitted due to a dent in it also m mirrors and hardtop respray.
you could fit the wide aero sills £180 each I think, yaldens car has them on
Purchased sill second hand as it was cheaper than removing the dent.

yalden · Post by **yalden** » Mon 24 Jan, 2011 14:02

The sills are a straight forward removal. Iirc you remove the inner plastic door shut trim which says 'Roadster', this reveals a few bolts. The remaining two are located behind the front and rear arch liners.

Titan · Post by **Titan** » Mon 24 Jan, 2011 14:58

I think you my have to remove the quarter panel (below the gills) that houses the side repeaters as well.
It's only a few more bolts though

jayson f · Post by **jayson f** » Mon 24 Jan, 2011 18:45

cheers guys , will try and get it of at the weekend.

SpaceMonkey · Post by **SpaceMonkey** » Tue 05 Apr, 2011 12:27

Did anyone get round to doing a write up or how to with this?
I washed & polished mine yesterday & although it looks very very clean underneath I wouldn't mind taking my sills off & giving them a good going over tbh. I'm thinking cleaning them properly & layering up a couple of good coats of polish & wax to keep them in check.

hornel Z3M · Post by **hornel Z3M** » Tue 05 Apr, 2011 18:23

Ohhh for a pit

bowei001 · Post by **bowei001** » Tue 05 Apr, 2011 18:42

Do a search for "body panel removal" and you will find a write-up I did on 13 April, 2009. Hope it helps.
Ian

SpaceMonkey · Post by **SpaceMonkey** » Tue 05 Apr, 2011 19:55

Thank you Ian

Greg Allan · Post by **Greg Allan** » Thu 07 Apr, 2011 07:35

Two weekends ago I removed all three driver side panels to rust proof and respray them.

The bottom panel is made of steel and takes a lot of abuse from the road and you will notice when you get a closer look that it has been sprayed with a liberal coating of a rubberizing product beneath the topcoat to protect the road facing side from debris impacts. It would have made more sense if BMW made it from plastic IMO.

You mention that panel is damaged slightly. Well If you are doing any respray you will have to use liberal amounts of something like Hammerite Stone Chip Sheild (or an alternative rubber spray) on BOTH SIDES to absorb the hits from debris and stones. If you just use the normal combination of primer, coulour coat and clear coat your panel will rust sooner rather than later. The process I used was, POR-15, etch primer, zinc primer, rubber spray, colour coat, clear coat - hopefully that should be enough!! You'd think so!

You dont need to do this on the side facing part of the panel, just the road facing side and behind. You will be able to clearly see the how high the rubber spray needs to go as you will be able to see differences in texture in the original factory finish.

But anyway, if you just want the bottom panel off:

Remove the front and rear wheel liners and loosen up the front and rear fender in order to access the screws behind the bottom of them. You dont need to remove them completely, just enough so you can get an 8mm wrench in behind things.

Also when removing the door entrance trim (the plastic part with the "roadster" strip metal running along the centre of it), pry directly upwards or you risk snapping the clips that hold it on. If you pull it towards you and outwards in a sideways motion away from the door then you will certainly snap the clips. The one black button style clip pops off with a screwdriver. That one comes off first by the way.

Same goes for the crescent shaped trim that runs upwards past the door lock. Dont pry at and angle - pry it straight off directly away from the surface it sits on, at 90 degrees.

It is easy enough to get replacement clips but if you are careful and pry bothe trim parts upwards using a flat head driver then you should be able to get the trim off without damaging any. Sorry if I'm labouring this but it makes the job all the more satisfying (and cheaper) if you don't break anything

I didnt have to take the jack pads off on mine, they stayed on.

Also, I found more search hits using the "rocker panel" nomenclature for this part. This might help you find more hits in google and ebay, should you want to buy a spare.

I have a link to a BMW service manual on fitting a new one. If I find it on my home computer I'll post it later tonight as it does help quite a bit.