My 325iC Body/Paint Project

[Garageaholic]

Wow. I thought I spent alot of time painting my car with a roller!

I am very impressed!

[ShowStopper]

Looks good. Nice work. Now you need to lower it.

[bimmerboy12]

UPDATE September 16:
Got the lamin-x on the new fogs and installed, and the IS lip installed. All the wheel well and undercladding is back in. HID's installed. Pretty happy with the results so far...












Check out the sunset reflection in that paint!

[bimmerboy12]

nice!! Want to paint my zinno cabrio next? hehe

seriously, I don't think I will ever do this again... unless it's a motorcycle or something. Takes too long.

[colombacho]

jelous.

[e30rapidic]

nice!! Want to paint my zinno cabrio next? hehe

[bimmerboy12]

I don't think you can get much better than a plastic bumpered, early taillight cabrio. Any plans for suspension?

Yep! I want Eibach pro sport or H&R springs. Haven't thought about shocks/struts yet... The Monroes I put on there are about 3 years old.

[stevofthahill]

I don't think you can get much better than a plastic bumpered, early taillight cabrio. Any plans for suspension?

[bimmerboy12]

Quick update September 9: installed an OEM E36 cabrio antenna assembly.. looks great!







Also did another cool mod... since I bought a coupe trunk lid I now had two trunk lights... if you look inside your lid there are two cut-outs for lights .. its symmetrical. So I took the spare one, spliced in the wires and snapped it in. Twice the light! Also put in my new tool set.. old ones were rusty from leaking 3rd brake light... part of the reason I got rid of it with the coupe trunk lid.



Also got the taillights, emblem, latches, etc. installed. Taillights utilize the factory fog space as extras for reverse.



More updates to come. This whole thing is painfully slow but hey, working full time and get about 3 weeknights a week...

[bimmerboy12]

That looks prety amazing. I'm jealous. I'm working on getting my car done in the winter, I'd do it myself but I have dents, and they would be tough to do myself.

I had a dent magic guy come out and pop out all the dents in my wife's car for $200. He also got a couple bad ones out of this car, dents that I was skeptical bondo would fix. I filled a couple and they came out good.

[bimmerboy12]

Looks great! how many times have you painted a car before? how much practice do I need before I attempt it?

I painted two other cars but one was in high school like 12 years ago and the other was a single stage enamel 5 years ago. To tell you the truth, if you're good with rattle cans, you'll be good with a sprayer. Maybe practice with those doing multiple coats and a final "drop coat" to avoid "corn rows". If you put enough layers on (both color and clear) you can work out noob mistakes and end up with a great looking coat.
Also, watch lots of YouTube videos. They taught me how to buff polish and it worked out great.

[SamE30e]

That looks prety amazing. I'm jealous. I'm working on getting my car done in the winter, I'd do it myself but I have dents, and they would be tough to do myself.

[Vrbovan]

Looks great! how many times have you painted a car before? how much practice do I need before I attempt it?

[bimmerboy12]

You're doing a really good job... exactly the route I see myself taking in the future. I'm going to read the whole thing again haha



edit: read it again, got more motivation, thanks

No problem! Good luck.

Update Sept. 7: did nothing this whole holiday weekend on the lake... but did score a set of fogs on eBay for 66 bucks shipped. Will do a urethane clear coat treatment then Lamin-X. Those + the iS lip and install the HID's and the front is finished.

[hi its me alec]

You're doing a really good job... exactly the route I see myself taking in the future. I'm going to read the whole thing again haha



edit: read it again, got more motivation, thanks