For the Old Man

[fatye30ti]

Got this for the father-in-law for a Christmas present. Purchased from a friend of a friend. 1991 i, needs some body work, but the motor was recently rebuilt. Motor sounds really smooth. Interior is good. Going to keep it very stock for now. After the 1990i is out of the garage, then I see about doing a full strip down restoration.

[Wh33lhop]

Nice. Great color. Needs a drop and an is lip.

[Mfever]

car looks great! needs more low!

[AwakenNoMore]

Well . . . hey its got a crack free dash!

[fatye30ti]

Think the first 2 saw the photo of the black "i" as I was trying to get the photo script correct.
Got some paint on order. Need to find a hood. Anyone want to trade the primered fenders for some brillantrot ones? Got a rad support, going to weld some tabs on so I can bolt it in.

[fatye30ti]

Finally got the front fenders painted and clear coated. Need to Wet sand to get rid of the orange peel. Turned out good for a first timer. Huge thanks to my friend Kurt for all the painting tips. He paints motorcycle helmets.



Need to clean up the basketweaves, put some new tires to replace the bottle caps for this car.

Inside hammer out and painted. Need to remove the rad core support later to really straighten everything out. Plan on doing a bolt in rad support


Next, the hood and door. Have to wait 'til summer for the rear quarter panels.

[JuanDiaz]

Looks nice!

[KIRIEIW]

Nice man looks the the bumper shocks saved the frame?

[fatye30ti]

Thanks for the positive comments. This is my first paint job. It's not perfect, but very happy how is looking so far,
Mostly crinkled sheet metal. No creases found on the unibody. Interior is very clean, except the drive seat has the normal tear. The old man's birthday is coming up soon. The car won't quite be ready, but he'll be very surprised and really happy.

[Oats]

Dat dash.

Also, What was your method for painting the fender? I would like to try my hand at it, but I'm afraid of ruining things.

[fatye30ti]

Yeah! Dat Dash. Even worse than it looks. Wires spliced together, tape, factory wires cut, extra wires from an old alarm. Got most of it out and cleaned up.

Lots of prep work! Removed the red primer from both fenders. The passenger was an aftermarket replacement. Scuffed it, sanded down any chips and tapped out a couple dents. The driver came off a tan car E30, so a lot more sanding but no dents. Primed both fenders with gray, sanded, srayed, repeated until any pits, scratches, and chips were gone. Since it is my first paint job, I went inexpensive and used the DuPont Nason matched to the 91 Brilliantrot. It sprayed on real nice and smooth, only a couple spots I had to sand some orange peel. I need a lot more experience adjusting the spray gun and mixing adjusting the paint with reducer. After that sprayed with the clearcoat, next time I'll step up to a better clearcoat so I can reduce it, should spray on better. That didn't come out as nice, believe I was too hesitant to spray it heavy. More orange peel and sanding. But after wet sanding and some buffing, the fenders are looking very nice. They're far from perfect, but much better than I thought they would turn out. Again, a ton of thanks to my friend Kurt for all his advice.
Check out a lot of you-tube videos, forums, ask anyone who has sprayed. Get a spare fender or some metal panels to practice on. And I can't say enough about prep work and a clean environment to paint in. I spent a few days sanding and cleaning and then one day spraying. I've got another E30 that'll be evolving into a track car. A complete paint job on that one will be coming and a whole new learning curve.
Good luck!

[fatye30ti]

Wednesday, the old man came over. We had the radio faceplate and key for the car wrapped up. Upon opening the package, he had a look of bewilderment for a few minutes. We explain the radio was for his car, even more confused. Then he held the key and we told him it was for his Red BMW out front. I could tell he was holding the tears back. The car's not ready yet, but he is very, very excited! He talked about the car the whole way home. I can't wait to get the car finished for him.

[Dakotademon7]

Very nice project. I see it has an auto trans.

[fresh_TD]

Very cool

Sent from my Samsung Note 3

[fatye30ti]

Yes, it's an auto. He can't drive a manual. Surprised at how hard it was to find an automatic for sale.
More of a project than I thought it would be. But it's coming along. got some red on the hood. A couple more coats,sand, then clearcoat. Hopefully the drivers door this weekend along with finishing the stereo and alarm install.