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

warezdog · Post by **warezdog** » Sep 09, 2010 2:26 PM

Eta power wrote: Wow, that looks amazing! Can't wait to see more.

NO KIDDING!~
Its going to look SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET, hope they roll in in the booth today!

JeepJockey · Post by **JeepJockey** » Sep 09, 2010 2:35 PM

What an exciting time! Looks great.

stuartinmn · Post by **stuartinmn** » Sep 16, 2010 1:36 PM

Slowly it's coming together...here's the front bumper cover, just about ready to go. It's mostly buffed out but they will work on it a little more after it's bolted onto the car. There's a couple of the fender flares on the right side of the photo as well.

I have new turn signal and foglight lenses on order from The Parts Department, so don't worry about that cracked one in the pic.

I'm stopping by the shop on Saturday afternoon (they're having their annual open house) so will probably have a few more photos this weekend.

warezdog · Post by **warezdog** » Sep 16, 2010 3:37 PM

I can't wait to it finished, any word on when you'll be sporting around in it?

Kyle in NO · Post by **Kyle in NO** » Sep 16, 2010 11:41 PM

stuartinmn wrote:

I'm worried about their professionalism if they just masked off that license plate!

Blue Shadow · Post by **Blue Shadow** » Sep 17, 2010 7:33 AM

stuartinmn wrote:Getting my car painted. 9-16-11 update - more PAINT!

Looking into the Future!! I sure hope that car is rolling sweet by 9-16-11!!

Looks great so far but a year of buffing might not leave much paint on the car.

stuartinmn · Post by **stuartinmn** » Sep 17, 2010 9:02 AM

Kyle in NO wrote:I'm worried about their professionalism if they just masked off that license plate!

No worries.

warezdog · Post by **warezdog** » Sep 17, 2010 2:16 PM

Love that color and dying to see it finished!!

stuartinmn · Post by **stuartinmn** » Sep 18, 2010 9:35 PM

Just a couple more photos.

The car itself isn't in the paint booth yet; they have one more round of block sanding and then it should go in this coming week.

These are pictures of the sunroof, which has been painted, wet sanded and buffed. The second photo shows the nice straight reflections of the building in the background.

Kyle in NO · Post by **Kyle in NO** » Sep 18, 2010 9:48 PM

Jeez that is going to be a NICE paint job.

warezdog · Post by **warezdog** » Sep 18, 2010 9:52 PM

It will definately be worth the time you waited on getting it done!

5280 JB · Post by **5280 JB** » Sep 19, 2010 11:48 AM

It just keeps getting better and better............this thread is kinda like a weekly TV series where you just can't wait to see what happens next!

wkohler · Post by **wkohler** » Sep 19, 2010 12:10 PM

Its really coming together, Stuart. I can't wait to see the finished product.

ElGuappo · Post by **ElGuappo** » Sep 23, 2010 4:51 PM

Kyle in NO wrote:Jeez that is going to be a NICE paint job.

+32.

DAMN NICE.

stuartinmn · Post by **stuartinmn** » Sep 25, 2010 9:55 AM

Well, no paint yet but this week for sure.

They've removed the doors, hood and trunk in preparation for the color. They'll first paint the door jambs and back sides of the removed pieces, then reassemble the car and paint the exterior, then remove everything once more to apply the clear coat. Then, it will be time to color sand and buff everything before final assembly.

This will be the last photo of the car in primer.

mogie · Post by **mogie** » Sep 25, 2010 11:06 AM

Why didn't they remove the rear seats, or why didn't you? What was the reason for removing the fronts but not the rears?

stuartinmn · Post by **stuartinmn** » Sep 25, 2010 11:14 AM

The front seats were removed so the carpet could be pulled out, so they could patch the rust in the floor pan. There wasn't any reason to remove the back seats, other than to keep them clean (in retrospective that probably would have been a good idea, but they're just dusty so it's not a big deal.)

skip535i · Post by **skip535i** » Sep 25, 2010 11:22 AM

Looks phenominal, Stuart! Pretty crazy to see how much work goes into a top-notch paint job!

stuartinmn · Post by **stuartinmn** » Sep 27, 2010 8:19 PM

The car went into the paint booth today. I haven't received photos of the painted body yet, but I do have a couple of the doors and hood.

They first put one coat of color on the doors, hood and trunk, then one coat on the body, then the doors, hood and trunk get put back on the body and everything gets a couple more coats of color. After that, they blow it apart one more time and clear everything separately. The color should have been completed today, with the clear coat going on tomorrow morning.

The doors and hood look dull in these photos, but that's because it's just the base coat on there - once the clear coat is applied they'll be nice and shiny.

Here's the body, all masked and ready to go. The door jambs didn't get stripped back to bare metal like the rest of the car was - since they had no rust and no damage, they were simply scuffed and wet sanded in preparation for the new paint.

warezdog · Post by **warezdog** » Sep 27, 2010 9:49 PM

Suspense is killing me!

Fox · Post by **Fox** » Sep 27, 2010 11:48 PM

This is so cool, that color looks brilliant when it's perfect!

Nanajoth · Post by **Nanajoth** » Sep 28, 2010 1:14 PM

This shop really knows how to paint well, I am excited to see the final product!

stuartinmn · Post by **stuartinmn** » Sep 28, 2010 7:13 PM

Here are the pics.

Base coat applied:

Clear coat:

They first put on one coat of base with the doors, hood and trunk removed. Then they were reinstalled and two more coats of base were applied. Then, it was blown apart again to clear coat everything separately.

After the paint cures, it's time for color sanding and final buffing, and then final assembly.

rlomba8204 · Post by **rlomba8204** » Sep 28, 2010 7:25 PM

This is a great thread. It shows people what is involved in properly repainting these cars, or any car for that matter. I know that finances can be personal, but for those of us that toy with the idea of eventually going through this process, would you be willing to share the total cost of this project? Ballpark would be fine. And in this case, we have a "benchmark" so to speak of what a quality respray, and some relatively normal associated rust repair, will cost.

Eta power · Post by **Eta power** » Sep 28, 2010 7:29 PM

Sweet!

EuroShark · Post by **EuroShark** » Sep 28, 2010 7:32 PM

Gorgeous!! This is very exciting.

stuartinmn · Post by **stuartinmn** » Sep 28, 2010 7:44 PM

I don't like to talk money about these sorts of things, but I will say that from a financial standpoint it makes totally no sense to paint an e28 like this.

My initial intention was to basically bring it back to OEM quality, but then it sort of mushroomed...there was a lot more rust than I expected (besides a lot of patches in the floors plus various other spot repairs here and there, I've replaced both front doors, the hood and one fender); we decided to go for a much higher level of preparation (there's a ton of block sanding in this thing) and I'm replacing virtually all of the exterior trim and weatherstrip.

Even with a pretty reasonable shop rate of $55/hr, in the end it's going to cost a lot more than the car is worth. A LOT. I'll probably have to drive it for the rest of my life to get my money's worth, but it's my car, I can afford to do it, and I'm happy with how it's coming out.

wkohler · Post by **wkohler** » Sep 28, 2010 8:05 PM

Stuart, it's looking excellent. I know you must be excited. Congratulations.

-Chris

Bill in MN · Post by **Bill in MN** » Sep 28, 2010 8:38 PM

Looks nice Stuart.

Kyle in NO · Post by **Kyle in NO** » Sep 28, 2010 8:58 PM

Great results Stuart! Will they be installing the stick-on port holes after the final cut and buff?

MyE28.com

MyE28.com

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