So, would you like to see what I have been working on the past few months?

[alpinaclone]

Very nice, car looks great.

Now, come paint my car.

[Kruzen]

absolutely gorgeous, good work!

[TrentW]

State of the art E30 Eric. That's exactly how I want my 89 325is to look when it's done--only in Zinno Red/Natural. I prefer the "Modified Stock" look and you nailed it brother.

Did I mention how jealous I am that you have a friend that's skilled in bodywork and paint! Good God Man.

[Eric Giles]

It's been almost a year since I posted this thread, so I thought I would update it with what little progress has been made during that time.

One of the first things I did was replace the timing belt/tensioner/water pump/thermostat/coolant hoses/dist. cap and rotor/camshaft seal, etc.-the typical things you should do to an E30 after you take ownership and don't have proof that it has been done recently. i knew it was time to replace the timing belt as the previous owner had already told me it was a few thousand miles past due-now normally I would have gone ahead and done that first before the paint and bodywork, but due to the fact I was able to get started on the bodywork so soon after purchase I let it ride for a while. Once I had the covers off and could see the timing belt, I realized how lucky I got-the belt was shredding and badly cracked, plus it had a lot of slack. It could have snapped at anytime, and thankfully it held on until I was able to replace it. So it bears repeating-change your timing belt on time!

Next up were the interior and audio upgrades. I purchased a 10" sub box from Luke (SUPERB construction, design, and sound quality), an elemental Designs 10" woofer, a pair of PPI/ads 355CS 5.25" components, paired it all with an Alpine CDA-9835 head unit and my trusty old a/d/s/ PH15 6 channel amplifier. But before this was installed, I lined the entire floorpan in Second Skin's Damplifier Pro sound deadening material. This made a very nice difference in road noise and overall noise level-the car is a good deal quieter on the road.

I also sourced a mint used dark gray carpet (thanks td325ic) to replace mine that had holes in it from the previous owners rollbar install. Before I installed it, I ran the factory wiring for heated seats-td325ic has been working on a pair of leather heated sport seats for me for a few months and should be finishing them up soon. Once those are in, my interior should be basically complete.

Which all brings me to the latest update-back during the original bodywork, we had to do a lot of work on the hood in order to remove some dents. Some areas were ground to bare metal, and instead of leaving them open to the air overnight, I sprayed self etching primer on these spots for protection. When work proceeded the next day, this would be sanded off and then primer sprayed.

However, a few months after the respray, a bubble started appearing on the middle of the hood along the left side crease. It slowly got worse until almost all of the paint along the crease bubbled, cracked, and then started flaking off. A couple of other bubbles also started forming by this time. After scraping off some of the flaking paint, we realized that the only areas that were failing were the ones where we sprayed self etching primer. Although we 'thought' we removed all of it, we obviously didn't-and Evercoat polyster primer will not stick to self etching primer...

So this weekend Ken and I finally got around to repairing the damage. First was a sanding off all damaged areas with 180 grit sandpaper, feathering the edges into the existing paint that wasn't lifting. Then Evercoat fiberfill polyster primer was once again sprayed in the damaged areas, and this was then block sanded with 180 grit again. Next was a coat of Dupont 2K primer over the same areas, followed by a 320 grit blocksanding.

Last step was a 600 grit wetsanding of the entire hood in preparation for paint. Ok so enough for words-here are a few subpar iPhone pics:







This is one example where it looks better in person than these pictures show. Yes, there is a few bits of trash here and there but nothing that cannot be wetsanded out-which will be done in a few days after the clear has had plenty of chance to dry/cure.

Overall, the job came out very well considering we weren't using a nice paint booth. We still have not wetsanded/buffed the entire car-we are actually considering pulling off all trim, wetsanding the entire car with 800 grit, and respraying clear. It doesn't have to be done, but the original job was so rushed that we know it can be a bit better.

Up next is finishing the suspension overhaul-all that is left is new subframe, trailing arm and diff bushings as well as replacing the rear brakes. Also the A/C system I thought I had repaired last year still has a tiny leak, and I think the compressor is a bit weak-so I will have to tackle that job again.

[StereoInstaller1]

Damn...talk about taking your time....gorgeous, though, Mr. Giles.

Thanks for the props on the box. Got pics of that part too?

Luke

[george graves]

Love it.

[E30FourLife]

very nice work

[stevofthahill]

So clean and subtle. I love cars like this.

[TexasTerp]

awesome paint job! do y'all normally do this type of work? I'm trying to decide if I want to pay someone to do it for me or if I should take my time and do it myself. The car looks great!

[FREE30]

You are my hero.....the car is amazing!:up:

[pureaudio]

Looks great, the perfect DD right there.

[miles318]

that car looks awesome, nice bumpers!

[downernsp]

Thanks for sharing sweet turn out congrats..

[e30_lover_CT]

beautiful car! wow... that's how I want my paint to be...

[Eric Giles]

awesome paint job! do y'all normally do this type of work? I'm trying to decide if I want to pay someone to do it for me or if I should take my time and do it myself. The car looks great!

Well Ken has been in the paint/body business for around 10 years now and worked in a couple of high end/restoration shops for a time. I knew absolutely zilch about this type of work but have learned a few things from him over the past year or two. I have had him repair/repaint a few things on my other BMW's, but this car was the most in-depth and extensive job that I have been involved in, but he has done these before.

We are in the process of doing the exact same job to member Alecs MacDonald's '87 325-plastic bumper swap, iS sideskirts, same Delphin Gray paint, etc. It was started months ago but Ken hasn't been able to find the time to finish it as of yet-but we should start back working on it by this week hopefully.

If you have never done anything like this before, then you will probably be getting in way over your head to be honest. I knew 'restoring' a car in this manner would be a lot of work, but you don't realize how much freaking work it is until you get into it. I always wondered why body shops charged so much for repairs and full resprays-now I see why. There is so much time and labor involved in the prep stage to get everything right.

We would be glad to offer this service to other members that are in the area, but the total cost won't be cheap. Just the materials cost alone is $1000 (polyester primer, 2K primer, base coat, clear coat, sandpaper, tape, etc) plus all the hours spent removing ALL the trim, glass, bodywork, spraying the different primers, paint, and then wetsanding and reinstalling all the trim...you can say on average that you would have around 80 hours of labor involved. You can now see why you are looking at a minimum of $5000 for a job like this, and most places will charge much more. But if anyone is seriously interested in maybe having this done let me know.

And thanks everyone for all the compliments-I really appreciate it.