2018 UPDATE
Sorry for all of the missing images, but the Imageshack debacle from a few years ago caused me to lose the majority of the images. Luckily, I found some stored on an old hard drive, so I am uploading what I have.
Not even sure how to start the story on this project, but here goes:
Back in August of this year I was browsing Craigslist one day, and ran across an ad for a 1987 325iS down in Baton Rouge, LA (about 3 hours from where I am located). Delphin/Black, 150k miles, 5 speed California car that had been purchased by the seller in 2006 while he was in school in San Diego. Seller was moving overseas in a few days and the car had to be sold before he left. I drove down a couple of days later to check it out. Here are a few pics the seller sent me.
In person, the car looked much rougher than these pictures show. It had all original paint, and the clearcoat was peeling and faded on all horizontal body panels-plus the paint was very 'dead' on the vertical panels also. It had 21 years of parking lot dings and blemishes, plus the right front fender was dented in where it met the front bumper. Only rust was a tiny spot on the left corner at the edge of the taillight, so that was a plus. Interior was not so great-drivers seat was torn and the backrest was broken, rear seat was splitting in places, rear deck carpet faded, etc.
The car had seen some track duty, and had a rollbar that was already removed. Springs were H&R sports with Bilstein sport shocks, adjustable sway bars, front and rear strut braces, THR control arm bushings-all the normal things you do to an E30 if it is going to see some track use. Also, a Turner chip was installed.
I was about to walk away from the car, deciding it was really more than I wanted to get involved with. However, I decided to drive it...and that is all it took. It has the smoothest running M20 I have yet to experience, the transmission and clutch (both replaced 5000 miles earlier) were just perfect, and the B&M short shifter was honestly one of the best I had ever felt. The car just felt great, even though I knew I would be taking off some things such as the THR cabs since this would be a daily driver from now on. So, I decided it was coming home with me. I offered $1400 for it since it ran so well, which was about $800 less than what he was asking. He accepted, and the project begins.
Got it home, and over the course of the first month or so replaced some items. I installed a used OEM cat converter section with a new Bosal OEM muffler, replaced the control arms, tie rod assemblies, and installed E36 standard control arm bushings. Also bought used OE sway bars and bushings and installed those. Motor mounts were also shot, so new ones went in. Replaced a couple of A/C lines, expansion valve, receiver/dryer, installed a used condensor (old one was leaking) and put new o-rings in the system. I haven't got around to charging the system yet, but it now holds a vacuum so I know it will be good to go when warmer weather gets here.
I knew all along this car would be getting a full respray. A good friend of mine has done body and paintwork for years now, and is pretty damn good at what he does. And basically, I pay for the materials, help him do the work, and I just tip him what I feel like is fair on top of that. It's really a win-win situation for both of us, although honestly I am really getting the better end of the deal!
I also knew that the diving board bumpers just had to go...sorry members of the DB Division here on R3V....I had to do it. In the end, a member here-td325ic-absolutely hooked me up with a complete bumper swap for this car. When I say complete, I mean COMPLETE! Every single bolt, nut, harness-everything. He even modified the rear plastic bumper to fit as well as the rear bumper trim, sanded all the trim down (front bumper trim included) and painted them with SEM trim paint. He clearcoated and wetsanded the foglights so that they looked absolutely brand new. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that the work Todd did in getting all of this together and modifying the bumper and painting the trim saved us many hours of labor in the end. If you ever want to do a plastic bumper swap, get in touch with td325ic and send him money-you will be glad you did it. Plus, the guy's attention to detail goes down to the box he builds to ship everything in...here is a pic after it arrived.
I also knew that I wanted a set of Ronal ACT-LS' as my wheels..I am old school when it comes to these cars, and for me only a set of Ronals would do. Luckily, I found a guy on E30tech that had a set brand new in the box so I snapped those up. Ain't they purty?
So finally in October, my friend that does the body and paintwork (Ken) set aside some time for us to get started on the car. All body and prep work was done in my carport, and us renting a paint booth at a local body shop to spray the car. Here are some pics of the first couple of days work, after I had pulled most of the parts off of the car. All glass besides the door glass was removed, door handles, lock cylinders, body moldings, etc-all gone. No color change here, so a full teardown wasn't deemed necessary.
This is Ken finding all sorts of dents in the hood caused by using an aftermarket hood shock and repairing them. Use only a hood shock from the dealer or this will happen to you!
As you can see, a lot of Evercoat body putty was used to fill many, many dings and dents all over the car. The car was blocksanded with 180 grit initially, and then the dents were filled. Then, another blocksanding with 180 grit of all filled areas.
After all of that was smooth, when then sprayed 3 coats of Evercoat Fiberfill polyester primer. This stuff is basically sprayable body filler, and from what I understand is generally only used on higher end paint jobs or restorations. At over $100 a gallon it's not cheap, but makes a huge difference in the finish when all is said and done. After it was sprayed, it was blocksanded two more times with 180 and then 320 grit to make sure it was smooth and straight.
Next up were 3 coats of DuPont Chromabase 2K urethane primer. This was followed by blocksanding with 320 grit, and once it was determined there were absolutely no dings remaining (we only missed ONE of the many that were on the car!) it got a final 600 grit wetsanding. The wetsanding was done at night in below 30 degree weather, so that was a ton of fun.
Ken made a black spray paint 'flame' as a guide coat on the hood during the wetsanding....
Oh, almost forgot..earlier in the day before we wetsanded, a package arrive a day early....
That is a M Tech 2 replica rear valence from Eurostop. Obviously it's molded to fit a standard, non-shortened rear plastic bumper, so some work was in order. Good thing Ken knows a thing or two about fiberglass. We set the apron onto the rear bumper, positioned it as closely as possible, clamped it down and measured how much would need to be removed...then cut out a section on each side.
We then got the length correct, and pulled out the fiberglass kit we purchased at Autozone.
The cut sections were then filled in with body putty and sanded down till smooth. We then primered it as well as the plastic bumpers, valence, rear lip spoiler, and probably some other items I am forgetting. They were then blocksanded with 320 grit, and then wetsanded with 600 grit.
More to come...
Sorry for all of the missing images, but the Imageshack debacle from a few years ago caused me to lose the majority of the images. Luckily, I found some stored on an old hard drive, so I am uploading what I have.
Not even sure how to start the story on this project, but here goes:
Back in August of this year I was browsing Craigslist one day, and ran across an ad for a 1987 325iS down in Baton Rouge, LA (about 3 hours from where I am located). Delphin/Black, 150k miles, 5 speed California car that had been purchased by the seller in 2006 while he was in school in San Diego. Seller was moving overseas in a few days and the car had to be sold before he left. I drove down a couple of days later to check it out. Here are a few pics the seller sent me.
In person, the car looked much rougher than these pictures show. It had all original paint, and the clearcoat was peeling and faded on all horizontal body panels-plus the paint was very 'dead' on the vertical panels also. It had 21 years of parking lot dings and blemishes, plus the right front fender was dented in where it met the front bumper. Only rust was a tiny spot on the left corner at the edge of the taillight, so that was a plus. Interior was not so great-drivers seat was torn and the backrest was broken, rear seat was splitting in places, rear deck carpet faded, etc.
The car had seen some track duty, and had a rollbar that was already removed. Springs were H&R sports with Bilstein sport shocks, adjustable sway bars, front and rear strut braces, THR control arm bushings-all the normal things you do to an E30 if it is going to see some track use. Also, a Turner chip was installed.
I was about to walk away from the car, deciding it was really more than I wanted to get involved with. However, I decided to drive it...and that is all it took. It has the smoothest running M20 I have yet to experience, the transmission and clutch (both replaced 5000 miles earlier) were just perfect, and the B&M short shifter was honestly one of the best I had ever felt. The car just felt great, even though I knew I would be taking off some things such as the THR cabs since this would be a daily driver from now on. So, I decided it was coming home with me. I offered $1400 for it since it ran so well, which was about $800 less than what he was asking. He accepted, and the project begins.
Got it home, and over the course of the first month or so replaced some items. I installed a used OEM cat converter section with a new Bosal OEM muffler, replaced the control arms, tie rod assemblies, and installed E36 standard control arm bushings. Also bought used OE sway bars and bushings and installed those. Motor mounts were also shot, so new ones went in. Replaced a couple of A/C lines, expansion valve, receiver/dryer, installed a used condensor (old one was leaking) and put new o-rings in the system. I haven't got around to charging the system yet, but it now holds a vacuum so I know it will be good to go when warmer weather gets here.
I knew all along this car would be getting a full respray. A good friend of mine has done body and paintwork for years now, and is pretty damn good at what he does. And basically, I pay for the materials, help him do the work, and I just tip him what I feel like is fair on top of that. It's really a win-win situation for both of us, although honestly I am really getting the better end of the deal!
I also knew that the diving board bumpers just had to go...sorry members of the DB Division here on R3V....I had to do it. In the end, a member here-td325ic-absolutely hooked me up with a complete bumper swap for this car. When I say complete, I mean COMPLETE! Every single bolt, nut, harness-everything. He even modified the rear plastic bumper to fit as well as the rear bumper trim, sanded all the trim down (front bumper trim included) and painted them with SEM trim paint. He clearcoated and wetsanded the foglights so that they looked absolutely brand new. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that the work Todd did in getting all of this together and modifying the bumper and painting the trim saved us many hours of labor in the end. If you ever want to do a plastic bumper swap, get in touch with td325ic and send him money-you will be glad you did it. Plus, the guy's attention to detail goes down to the box he builds to ship everything in...here is a pic after it arrived.
I also knew that I wanted a set of Ronal ACT-LS' as my wheels..I am old school when it comes to these cars, and for me only a set of Ronals would do. Luckily, I found a guy on E30tech that had a set brand new in the box so I snapped those up. Ain't they purty?
So finally in October, my friend that does the body and paintwork (Ken) set aside some time for us to get started on the car. All body and prep work was done in my carport, and us renting a paint booth at a local body shop to spray the car. Here are some pics of the first couple of days work, after I had pulled most of the parts off of the car. All glass besides the door glass was removed, door handles, lock cylinders, body moldings, etc-all gone. No color change here, so a full teardown wasn't deemed necessary.
This is Ken finding all sorts of dents in the hood caused by using an aftermarket hood shock and repairing them. Use only a hood shock from the dealer or this will happen to you!
As you can see, a lot of Evercoat body putty was used to fill many, many dings and dents all over the car. The car was blocksanded with 180 grit initially, and then the dents were filled. Then, another blocksanding with 180 grit of all filled areas.
After all of that was smooth, when then sprayed 3 coats of Evercoat Fiberfill polyester primer. This stuff is basically sprayable body filler, and from what I understand is generally only used on higher end paint jobs or restorations. At over $100 a gallon it's not cheap, but makes a huge difference in the finish when all is said and done. After it was sprayed, it was blocksanded two more times with 180 and then 320 grit to make sure it was smooth and straight.
Next up were 3 coats of DuPont Chromabase 2K urethane primer. This was followed by blocksanding with 320 grit, and once it was determined there were absolutely no dings remaining (we only missed ONE of the many that were on the car!) it got a final 600 grit wetsanding. The wetsanding was done at night in below 30 degree weather, so that was a ton of fun.
Ken made a black spray paint 'flame' as a guide coat on the hood during the wetsanding....
Oh, almost forgot..earlier in the day before we wetsanded, a package arrive a day early....
That is a M Tech 2 replica rear valence from Eurostop. Obviously it's molded to fit a standard, non-shortened rear plastic bumper, so some work was in order. Good thing Ken knows a thing or two about fiberglass. We set the apron onto the rear bumper, positioned it as closely as possible, clamped it down and measured how much would need to be removed...then cut out a section on each side.
We then got the length correct, and pulled out the fiberglass kit we purchased at Autozone.
The cut sections were then filled in with body putty and sanded down till smooth. We then primered it as well as the plastic bumpers, valence, rear lip spoiler, and probably some other items I am forgetting. They were then blocksanded with 320 grit, and then wetsanded with 600 grit.
More to come...
DREWLIENTE
Comment