Repairing the front wing

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Repairing the front wing

Lets take a closer look at that front wing.

Page 1: Repairing superficial rust.
Page 2: Repairing a front wing.

Removing the wing
I put the front of the car on jacks. Incidentally, the rear was also on jacks, but this was to repair the rust on the rear fenders. As you can see, the lower corner of the wing was badly rusted. If I took the wing off I expected a lot of damage underneath as well. I removed the front road wheel, like this;

In order to remove the wing, the front bumper has to be removed. I don't know about US models, but the european bumpers hold with two nuts to backets in the front, and with two bolts on the sides to the wings. It's fairly easy to remove the bumper. It is best to remove the front grille and the indicator. The latter can be removed after screwing it loose, and disconnect the electrical plug inside the engine bay.

To remove the wing itself, there are a series of nuts fixing it on the top, there is one fixture on the bottom, and there are four more nuts behind a plastic mudcover on the back of the wheelcase. Unscrew the plastic cover and reach with a wrench to the bolts. A lamp is useful here.
After that, you can take off the wing.

Repairing the rust
The main rule here is to remove as much rust as you can. The iron brush on a drill is very helpful here. Once you have a clean surface you can apply filler paste again. If you are presented with a large hole like I was on the bottom corner, it can be helpful to use a little mesh to reconstruct the rusted metal. It will support the filler paste. Here are some pictures of the reconstructed corner and my progress on the side:

Once everything has been repaired satisfactory and properly sandpapered, you can apply a coat of protective primer. There is no real need for paint because the wing will cover these areas anyway. It would be a good idea to apply silicone paste to the top of the wing before bolting it on with the nuts. This will prevent vibration and water penetration in the engine bay.

All done! Now you can enjoy a clean-looking E21!