Getting my car painted. 10-22-10 update: DONE!!!!

[stuartinmn]

did you leave the gutter trim on?? i cant really tell but it looks like it

They're probably going to stay on the car. I tried to buy new ones but they're NLA, and trying to remove them and put them back on without damaging them is pretty hard. The shop reckoned they could mask them off and still get a decent paint job.

[Bill in MN]

Stuart

Are you going to replace the jacking points? I had to do the same repair job you are doing and didn't mess with them

Looking nice

[Adam W in MN]

HQ my friend. great for motivation!

Please don't quote all the pictures in his post.

Hey Stuart, thought of one more thing. Are you sure you want them doing all the work with your nice wheels on there? I have some E28 bottlecaps you can borrow with shit tires so if they get overspray or ding them, you won't care. Let me know.

[stuartinmn]

I told them to leave the jacking points off, as far as I'm concerned all they do is provide a place for dirt and mud to collect. I don't use them for lifting the car anyway.

After I dropped off the car it occured to me I should swapped on my set of TRX's, but I'm not worried about the wheels - they're doing a good job of masking things off when painting. They'll need a good clean when it's all done, but that's no big deal.

[legolas120]

Car is looking great Stuart! I always loved your ride. Glad I took a couple shots of those wheels when we were up that year. I love those wheels!

Good luck with the rest of the project.

[stuartinmn]

I stopped down to the body shop today, the body work is done and the car is in primer. They're going to let it sit out in the sun for another week or two, to make sure the primer is fully cured, then it will go through a couple rounds of block sanding before the color starts going back on.





This is interesting...when this car was Federalized back in 1986, here's how they reinforced the bumpers:



These are two great big pieces of strap iron, bent and welded to roughly follow the shape of the bumpers. They weigh a ton, and look like something off a piece of farm equipment.

They were installed in place of the normal rubber trim on euro bumpers, with the Mtech bumper covers over the top. They're not going back on the car.

[stuartinmn]

Here's a series of photos showing the rust in the lower left corner of the rear window channel, and how it was repaired. The interesting thing here is that before the paint was stripped off, all that was visible was one small bubble that was maybe 3/16" in diameter. It turned out to be a little bigger than that...











There were similar rust spots by the left taillight, as well as in the trunk lip. Both those spots were repaired in a similar manner.

[cddallara]

That is similar to my 533's back window, but my car is so shot, it just got a gob of silicone Neat to see how it's actually repaired though!

[5280 JB]

You are wise to rid your car of those hideous pieces of iron installed inside the bumper covers during federalization. Its amazing how different the various shops performed that "strengthening" process.

I discovered mine on the inside of the rear bumper cover recently when I had it off for paint - it also weighed a ton.

Thanks for the updates on your car's progress. It's going to look great!

Jim

[alijonny]

HQ my friend. great for motivation!

Please don't quote all the pictures in his post.

Hey Stuart, thought of one more thing. Are you sure you want them doing all the work with your nice wheels on there? I have some E28 bottlecaps you can borrow with shit tires so if they get overspray or ding them, you won't care. Let me know.

fixed
lol, sorry. I was extremely excited to see all this rust work being done, I didn't realize there were so many pictures joining the quote...
It won't happen again

[Adam W in MN]

fixed
lol, sorry. I was extremely excited to see all this rust work being done, I didn't realize there were so many pictures joining the quote...
It won't happen again

thanks! This thread is full of win.

[stuartinmn]

Its amazing how different the various shops performed that "strengthening" process.

Jim

I've examined a number of euro cars over the years, and wondered about the same thing. You'd think they would have come up with a standardized process.

In most respects I think this particular car was less buggered than others I've seen - for instance, somehow they got away with not putting big ugly trailer lights on the fenders to meet US spec for side marker illumination.

[5280 JB]

Regarding the different methods used to federalize the grey market cars in the 80's, I just saw another local M535i Thursday night and its charcoal air canister (under the hood) is a completely unit than what I've seen. A long, rectangular black box that was used on Mercedes cars! Mine's about the size and shape of a classic oil filter.

Musta' been nice to run one of the shops. "Hmmm, it says here we need to install side marker lights. Hey Bob - go pull those ones off that there Toyota and fix 'er up."

[stuartinmn]

I just saw another local M535i Thursday night and its charcoal air canister (under the hood) is a completely unit than what I've seen. A long, rectangular black box that was used on Mercedes cars! Mine's about the size and shape of a classic oil filter.

The charcoal canister on my car is a big round AC Delco thing, about the size of a 2lb. coffee can. It really gets in the way.

[stuartinmn]

Getting closer...the block sanding is done, and the final primer coat went on today. Another week for the primer to cure, and then it's time to start squirting on some color.

[JoshInAtlanta]

Nice!

[5280 JB]

Oh ya baby!

[FABEL]

wow!

I've been glued to every photo!

& INTENTLY read every word all of you wrote.

seems so intense.

seems so awesome.

seems so admirable to follow through with.

seems like dedication!

seems so right!

[Slaytanic-666]

SO WICKED!! I'm loving the progression, what a great shop they really look like the love their job! That is a bonus!

[wkohler]

Stuart, it's great to see. Worth the wait.

[Dan_Wright]

This is the attention all E28s deserve, even the etas.. well maybe not, but its awesome to see such a nice resto done on an E28. Can't wait to see final product.

[warezdog]

I can't wait to see the final coat, you've obvioulsy have found a top notch painter!

[Slaytanic-666]

This is the attention all E28s deserve, even the etas.. well maybe not, but its awesome to see such a nice resto done on an E28. Can't wait to see final product.

why the eta hate? it's still an e28? Does not make sense....

[mogie]

I love threads like this... so cool watching cars get bodywork and brand new paint jobs. Makes me wish i had the time and $$ for it

[bmwm3n528]

I love threads like this... so cool watching cars get bodywork and brand new paint jobs. Makes me wish i had the time and $$ for it

No joke!

Very impressive Stu...I really can't wait to see the outcome.

[Moose]

Nice!

[stuartinmn]

They're starting to paint things! They haven't rolled the car itself into the booth yet (although that may happen today) but there's finally some color going on the various bits and pieces.

[shagrath]

This is the attention all E28s deserve, even the etas.. well maybe not, but its awesome to see such a nice resto done on an E28. Can't wait to see final product.

Eta's are worth it too. They are the workhorse of the e28 world and have been responsible for saving lives. My son Richard's survival is due to 2 eta's that have never failed in the line of medical service... and the wife's rusty 82 project has done a great service while the 88 super e was down... so now it's time for it to take a break and let the Honda see more action. The 82 is getting restored and painted. At more than 450k, it's worth keeping up with.

[wkohler]

That's great, Stuart. Very exciting.

[Eta power]

Wow, that looks amazing! Can't wait to see more.