The complete repair, rebuild, repaint, and v8 swap of my early model sedan

[JGood]

Picked up the paint! Was going to go with Glasurit, as the base coat isn't THAT much more expensive then Diamont, but the Glasurit clear was outrageously expensive ($600/gallon). So, I went with Diamont for everything.




Got the filters and fans installed on the booth. There are 4 box fans pulling air into the booth, with 4 furnace filters in front of them, then 6 much larger furnace filters on the other side of the booth to filter the exiting air.








I'll be putting the plastic sheeting up tonight. I may need to install some lighting inside the booth, as the 3 mil stuff doesn't appear to let much light through it.

[MR 325]

I am loving this.

Your neighbors probably think you're setting up a pot farm. ;)

[JGood]

I am. This whole thread is just my alibi in case I get caught.

;)

[bmwmech1]

Swap your fans around and have them pull the air out, rather than push the dirty air in. The idea is to use them as an exhaust for the airborne paint and dust, rather than push that stuff around inside the booth and all over your fresh paint.;-) Killer booth, should work out great!

Garey

[JGood]

Swap your fans around and have them pull the air out, rather than push the dirty air in. The idea is to use them as an exhaust for the airborne paint and dust, rather than push that stuff around inside the booth and all over your fresh paint.;-) Killer booth, should work out great!

Garey

I did a little research on this, the problem is they are not explosion-proof fans (those are $$$), so using them to draw flammable fumes out creates a hazard (how big of a deal that is, I don't know, but I read of multiple warnings against it). I have filters attached and sealed to the fans on the intake side, so the air they are pulling into the booth will be clean. And the filters on the opoosite side of the booth have about twice the surface area of the intake filters, so the air should evacuate decently. The opinions on negative and positive pressure booths seemed about 50/50, but it basically seems to come down to whatever works in your situation with what materials/space you have available.

If things go very wrong when we spray the primer, we'll make changes before the base and clear.

[JGood]

Booth is finished!






I hired The Stig to do the painting:

[JGood]

Alright, progress.

Got my buddy to bring his 1400lb DC stick welder down and weld up my block. Overkill? Yes. Neither of us have ever done any aluminum stick welding, so it was a learning experience.







This was the main problem:




All fixed!






This was the other problem, part of the block broke off, leaving a gap for debris to get into the bellhousing.




The fix: Weld a piece of an old cracked cast aluminum oil pan to the block. I'll bolt up the transmission, mark the extra material and cut it off so it should look and work pretty good.








On to the body stuff. I had the car 100% ready to be taped off and sprayed, when out of the corner of my eye, I see MY ROOF IS CRACKED. Right at the A-pillar. WTF?! With no time to spare, I pulled out the wire wheel, ground it down to metal, threw a bead of weld on it, grinded it down, hit with 80 grit then 320 grit, sprayed some self etching on it, and pulled it back in the booth. 15 minutes flat!










And, primer! Finally. All parts are primed, just needs wet sanded, cleaned, then it's time for base and clear.








The primer sprayed flawlessly. The booth worked great, no dust or dirt at all in the primer. The base and clear have a much longer flash time, so that may be a different story. We'll see.

[OoPEZoO]

Looks great Justin.

I did have to chuckle about that roof crack though.......After looking back at the amount of patch and repair work you have done, you do realize how close was that car to just falling to pieces while driving down the road?

A couple more months and it might have been beyond repair.

[JGood]

Looks great Justin.

I did have to chuckle about that roof crack though.......After looking back at the amount of patch and repair work you have done, you do realize how close was that car to just falling to pieces while driving down the road?

A couple more months and it might have been beyond repair.

Oh I know, I can't believe the whole car didn't just blow apart. It was probably only a few potholes away from happening, haha.

[JGood]

Sprayed some color last night :)

[dirty30]

Dude... what color is that! Looks awesome!

[euroshark]

Marrakesh brown? Awesome. Now show us moar!

[Jean]

Damn! Are you sure your e30 wasn't abducted by someone in Norway or Finland?!

[JGood]

Thanks guys! Yup, Marrakesh Brown Metallic. Pictures don't do it justice. It's a dark brown color, until light hits it, then the gold flake stands out like crazy. I took probably 50 pics, not a single one shows the true color range and depth. I love it!


Slightly better pic:

[freeride53]

sooo nice