E12 M535i bodywork and paint journey

[John project car]

Wow - fine work . I am so itching to get on my E28 IS . It is sitting outside the shop blocking the door - first thing in after the 2nd floor reno is finished. All the Furniture from the office is sitting where she should be .

Anyway I think mine is in worse shape than yous , sadly lots of rust, but it is complete so I will start by stripping it , frame out . Have a doner 735 for the big brakes, might steal the trailing arms , hoping the rear end will fit (not sure yet as some apparently do) and of course the m30B35 with a turbo added.

[2 5's and a 7]

Wow - fine work . I am so itching to get on my E28 IS . It is sitting outside the shop blocking the door - first thing in after the 2nd floor reno is finished. All the Furniture from the office is sitting where she should be .

Anyway I think mine is in worse shape than yous , sadly lots of rust, but it is complete so I will start by stripping it , frame out . Have a doner 735 for the big brakes, might steal the trailing arms , hoping the rear end will fit (not sure yet as some apparently do) and of course the m30B35 with a turbo added.

If your e28 is in worse shape than this e12......start over. E28's aren't nearly as rare or collectible. They're are still some almost rust free explames around on the cheap.......

[Adam W in MN]

Totally agree. Watch this thread for enjoyment and disbelief, but don't do what I'm doing.

[Karl Grau]

The proper wide stripes have been NLA for many years. I have one section of it, new old stock, that would go along one of the back doors (I forget which side it's for). I plan to use that as a basis for having the whole stripe kit reproduced in vinyl.

Found this site while looking for something else.
http://www.bmwclassiccar.com/detailed.p ... egory_id=2

[Adam W in MN]

Thanks for the link, I haven't seen that repro kit before. It's missing the one for the rear spoiler however.

[bkbimmer]

You could always paint the stripes on.

[Adam W in MN]

Jan 2015 update.

Floor pans: done
Driver side pedal bracket: done
Driver side jack point: done
Firewall and trans tunnel: done
misc spots/patches inside wheel wells/shock tower areas: 75%
door brake reinforcements: 25%

Upcoming areas: rockers and windshield cavity rust (windshield has to come out).

[Adam W in MN]

More progress to report. Rockers are done, front wheel wells are done, 3/4 door brake stress cracks are fixed, radiator support is mounted (he said it fit perfectly with very little work), sealant is starting to get applied to the floors.

He said there was rust in the rockers especially the passenger side where someone had done a hack job and covered it up at one point. Score one for a NEW rust area I never knew about in my 12 years of ownership!

I also talked with the paint guy today to start planning our approach. I really don't care too much what the interior paint looks like since it'll be covered by the interior and carpet, etc. Paint will be BASF Glasurit, BMW paint code 146 (Alpine White 1).

They did pull the windshield and have some rust to repair in the lower corner, passenger side. There wasn't any rust crud in the drivers side, miracle!

[Karl Grau]

Thanks for the update. This is better than Project Binky.

[wkohler]

It's coming along fantastically, Adam. Have to say that I almost don't want to finish my car after all the work you've gone through. This will be a stunner when finished!

[NAH]

Amazing project, a ton of work going into that car

[tig]

This thread is motivating me to find that real project car...

I know it sick, but I *so* want to go through all this.

Thanks for sharing!

[Adam W in MN]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone.

One more thing they fixed that I forgot to list. I commented a while back that I always thought the car sat lower on the passenger side and wondered if it was because of the shot it took to the front end/right side from a previous owner. Well it turned out the passenger side front shock tower was mushroomed up a bit like it took a really hard hit from a pothole. So they fixed that, should have an even ride height now.

Edit:

We talked paint and they gave me these samples to stare at. I'm having trouble seeing any difference among them so he labeled them for what their tint was, grey, yellow, blue, and standard. Help! What's the best method to evaluate these?

[leadphut]

awesome!

is one paint more oem than another? i can't tell the difference, but then again i'm not too diserning about such subtleties. i don't think you can go wrong with any of those choices.

[Adam W in MN]

Going with standard for the 146 paint code Alpine White.

Damn, need a sunroof panel. When it comes to rust and this car, why am I surprised? Jeez.

If anyone has leads on a new panel (see my wanted to buy thread in the parts for sale section) please pm me!

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=131654

[Adam W in MN]

Went by today to deliver the power antenna so they can make the hole ( ) in the right rear quarter panel. They had undercoated the car and were working on the doors and trunklid in other areas of the shop.

Unfortunately the doors needed a bit of work that I wasn't expecting. Despite storing them in what I thought were good environments over the years, the lower edges had developed some surface rust that was just starting to penetrate slightly, mostly on the back doors. And the front doors even had some rust starting from the insides and working its way to the outer skins!! Jeez. They took care of it and said it was good timing to catch it, no worries using them on the car though. Also they were able to fix the driver door which looked like the top window frame area had been smashed in Bavarian Autosports warehouse at some point. They did some hammer and dolly work to get it back into the right position.

The roof drip rails came off perfectly, no kinks or bends. The vin plaques are removed for paint and will be re-riveted on toward the end (driver door jamb and passenger side shock tower area). They are going to make a small bracket in the floor for me to mount the reproduction Alpina dead pedal (which will go in after carpet).

[CSBM5]

Wow, what an amazing car this is going to be when done!!

[wkohler]

Agreed.

I should probably unwrap my doors from BavAuto after reading that. I apparently bought your driver door since they never took it out of the clearance section. I'm still looking for a good driver door.

I am looking forward to more updates!

[Jelmer538i]

So nice! Please take the wiring harness out before paint.

[wkohler]

That would be a huge undertaking. I looked at what it would take to remove mine and when everything is together, it's virtually one piece.

[dsmith]

I removed a complete harness from an e28 last year. Took about an hour, but was very tedious. I'm sure getting it back in would be difficult. I would remove it too at this point, paint the interior and possibly re-wrap the harness. How nice would that look against the new paint?

[Adam W in MN]

We talked about the harness and they are going to bag it up and paint around it. They can paint the inside of the car with it in the engine bay, and then lay it inside the car and do the engine bay. The fuel injector harness on the passenger side may come out though because that grommet under the windshield will need to come out.

[davintosh]

Holy. Carp. It's been I while since I last visited this thread, and it's impressive all that they are doing with it.
Looks like some quality work. Well done!

[m-racer]

That would be a huge undertaking. I looked at what it would take to remove mine and when everything is together, it's virtually one piece.

True that. I would not remove it, unless you plan on replacing it anyway. Adam, you are my hero with this one. No small thing, this undertaking. Hope to see it when it is finished.

[Adam W in MN]

Sorry for the poor pictures, the body shop guy took these for me to save the trip over today. All of the panels were fitted and now removed. The great news is that the panel work and rust repair is all done! Antenna hole was done for the right rear quarter, the front fenders were rolled for my 8" wide BBS front wheels, and other misc things they had to finish up. The car is now in the paint guy's hands.

The donor sunroof panel from Greg's E23 parts car looks good and the body shop will take care of stripping the California sun baked paint to bare metal which they said is no big deal.

[wkohler]

Badass!

[Adam W in MN]

They're well along with paint. That's Karl toward the back who is doing the paintwork, Mike is the closer guy and is the bodyshop manager and overall point of contact for my project.

[Tammer in Philly]

Man, that must feel SO good to see.

[leadphut]

[Adam W in MN]

I'm both excited and intimidated to put it all back together. But I am very pleased and I'll also enjoy saying the car is 100% rust-free.

I think one of the things I have the most excitement and anticipation over is the first drive to feel how solid the car feels, even going over bumps or backing out of my driveway over the curb. I drove it on and off for 12 years with a swiss cheese body structure, what will it feel like when it's 100% solid and stiff?