The 5 Year Restoration - E30 M3 Reborn

[CurrusDei]

Quick litigious society disclaimer (not targeting you Brad, this is just for the general record). I mean it when I said this stuff burns skin - this is just a record of what I did, so if anyone uses it as a guide, do so at your own risk. Also, it looks like the chemical process works by removing Bromine, a fire retardant initially baked into the plastic, and which oxidizes into a brown color. So the plastic pieces may not be as flame retardant after this process, so again, proceed at your own risk.

Here's an article that touches on the chemistry.

http://www.tested.com/tech/2505-why-your-old-super-nintendo-looks-super-yellow/

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[bradnic]

absolutely. side by side on your pics - a little after/before motivation for all of us..

[CurrusDei]

Yes!

buying some hair product soon?

[bradnic]

Yes!

[CurrusDei]

2.5 Years In... M3 Build Thread...PAINT COMPLETE!

Final result from my hydrogen peroxide experiment...

I switched over from ziplock bags to plastic wrap. That let me lay down the wrap first, then place the parts and apply the hydrogen peroxide cream more precisely than the bag did. Then I put another layer of plastic wrap on overtop to keep it from drying out. After 73 more hours...







Very satisfied! It may take a long time, but it works.

In other news, I have finally finished plating all my boxes of hardware. I'll have some stragglers I find as I go through I'm sure (like the rear fuel pump components), but all the heavy lifting is done. I took step by step pics of my last run, will post instructions and observations separately soon - I got a LOT better at this as I went on.


Results of last major run:





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[CurrusDei]

2.5 Years In... M3 Build Thread...PAINT COMPLETE!

Ha, thanks! A lot of this work happens at night - good way to wind down.

Tonight's unwinding - driver door handle installed...

Reminder pic from the disassembly, How all this goes back together...



Shiny shiny



Going back in!










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[Roadrunner]

Google search, and....



New sticker is in process!

Burning the midnight oil (and your phone's battery) to research a fuse box label... that is some serious dedication to the project!

Absolutely incredible work! :up:

[CurrusDei]

Well, it works. Very slowly, but it does work. This is after 3 days...




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[CurrusDei]

The missing link!!! The tips of my throttle and cruise cables look so sad.

If you order from BMW the new ones come in black.

If you go this route, wear gloves. This stuff burns worse than the acid I'm using. I cant believe people put this in on their head. I checked this morning (without gloves) and the tips of my fingers were white from the peroxide

The pieces were whiter, but still yellow. Reset it and am letting it sit all day. Some of the electronics videos I saw took multiple days for solid results.

My work bench for plating already looks like a meth lab. Now it looks like I'm growing weed in my garage closet. Pair that with both my E30 and E90 having LSDs and you've got quite the party going on in the garage.

[bradnic]

The missing link!!! The tips of my throttle and cruise cables look so sad.

[CurrusDei]

Great! Glad they're helpful.

Love this before and after








So the new brake line holders I got for the firewall came in black. Not a big deal, but I'd rather keep the original white. Did some research and some thinking on how to fix my yellowed white plastic fasteners and came up with an interesting solution.

First, clean the obvious gunk off.

Then I used my espresso machine's steam wand to blast off the stuff I couldn't get with the brushes and towels.



Then we're left with just the yellowing.

There are a lot of hobbyist videos on youtube, particularly people who restore old electronics and computers, who use this hair care product to reverse yellowing on white and gray plastics.



Its cheap, available at Sally Beauty supply, and is a ready made 40% hydrogen peroxide cream. The hydrogen peroxide is the key. And it's form as a cream makes it easy to spread over all kids of parts.

You put it on the parts, in a zip lock bag, then place under a blacklight for a few hours



We shall see how it works. Definitely the most unique set of tools I've used...espresso machine, hair product, blacklight



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[BMG]

Amazing attention to detail. The pics are proving very helpful for my own M3 rebuild.

[CurrusDei]

2.5 Years In... M3 Build Thread...PAINT COMPLETE!

New trunk trim and rivets!





Bought the tire tote (in the bag in the tire well) to keep my spare in, keep it from marring the paint job

Door handle mechanisms

Raw




Plated




Chromated








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[euroshark]

I'm blown away at the attention to detail and the quality of this restoration. Can't wait for more!

[jhaurimn]

I can't find the words. This is so divine.