E36 328iC Rust Repair Questions

[xDeanex]

Hi All,

First time poster looking for a few opinions on rust repair. I have already made some headway as seen in the attached images. Wondering now if I cut off all the rust within the highlighted area if it would damage the structural integrity of the frame ect. Overall the car is in pretty great shape except in the from passenger fender where there was some serious rust. Any comments/questions would be most helpful thanks.

https://ibb.co/iikExp
https://ibb.co/fQdCiU
https://ibb.co/fGJCiU
https://ibb.co/jBsGA9

[gdavid]

I'm struggling with the perspective of the pictures, it looks like the front of the driver's side rocker panel so I must be looking at it wrong. The inner and outer layers of the rocker panel along with the cross supports provide the majority of the structural support of these cars and will need to be replaced. That is a lot of layers of metal that will need to be peeled back cut out and replaced with the joints offset from each other, it looks like an incredible amount of labor, I hope you have a friend who is a very good body man or you are prepared to learn a lot about sheet metal repair. The convertibles have an extra layer in there somewhere, I believe it is mated to the inner rocker panel. You will need to find a donor to cut these sections out of, the only sheet metal available in that area is the outer rocker for the sedans, no one sells new replacements for the coupe or convertibles. In the process of cutting these parts out of a donor, you will learn how it should look and where the welds are. I hate to be the first to say it, but really think you would be better served with a different chassis.

[xDeanex]

yes, what your seeing here is the front passenger side with the fender removed. I'm prepared to learn/teach myself a lot about sheet metal repair actually to get this done. Hope this car can act as a template for future projects. What I've noticed is that most of the rust is primarily on just the outer layer focused mainly at just the bottom. Let it be noted that the jacking point where you see the rocker jack pad adapter entering is completely free of rust and has been up on the jack for weeks now. I will be visiting many a junkyard in my area for possible donors but it may end up being a custom patch done by myself because I have the capabilities (cnc machine) to create my own parts.