Well, it's been spring cleaning/maintanence on my E30 and I have been getting a lot of things done. Yesterday, I refinished my tail lights and painted my door pulls black.
For those of you that painted tails never fade/oxidize, just look at the before picture of my tails! That is less than year old paint. I sanded all the old paint off, and resprayed them with Testors Transparent Candy Apple red this time. I usually use Transparent Ruby Red Metal Flake, but the Candy Apple turned out to be a MUCH better color match. I did 2 coats of red, followed by 2 coats of Testors Gloss Coat. Man, this is like the 5 times I have painted my tails and its by far the best job so far. Honestly, its pretty hard to tell they are painted from 5 feet away.
Next up, I painted the door pulls and map pockets with Duplicolor Vinyl & Fabric Color. The paint is great, with a nice spray pattern and it dries to a perfect OEM looking satin-black finish. I think the handles look great, and they match the black seats in my car good. My map pockets had also faded to a strange color, and I hate how they didn't match anymore.
I also did an oil change, and while I was at it I replaced my valve cover gasket. Low and behold, one of the studs for the valve cover gasket snapped so I spent the rest of the afternoon salvaging and replacing it. What a bastard that was! On to the pics.
Tail light before;

Tails after;



Door pulls before;

Door pulls after;


Head;
For those of you that painted tails never fade/oxidize, just look at the before picture of my tails! That is less than year old paint. I sanded all the old paint off, and resprayed them with Testors Transparent Candy Apple red this time. I usually use Transparent Ruby Red Metal Flake, but the Candy Apple turned out to be a MUCH better color match. I did 2 coats of red, followed by 2 coats of Testors Gloss Coat. Man, this is like the 5 times I have painted my tails and its by far the best job so far. Honestly, its pretty hard to tell they are painted from 5 feet away.
Next up, I painted the door pulls and map pockets with Duplicolor Vinyl & Fabric Color. The paint is great, with a nice spray pattern and it dries to a perfect OEM looking satin-black finish. I think the handles look great, and they match the black seats in my car good. My map pockets had also faded to a strange color, and I hate how they didn't match anymore.
I also did an oil change, and while I was at it I replaced my valve cover gasket. Low and behold, one of the studs for the valve cover gasket snapped so I spent the rest of the afternoon salvaging and replacing it. What a bastard that was! On to the pics.
Tail light before;

Tails after;



Door pulls before;

Door pulls after;


Head;

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