Project Facelift

[E30_pilot]

Josh car is goin to look hawt! Cant wait for more pics. Are you goin with regular plastic bumper swap,than mtech 2 in the future?

If I wasnt swappin my m50,I'll would have also be doing this. ;)

[Axxe]

I hope you primed that valence right away, or it will start surface rusting wherever you touched it with your hands.

[Jand3rson]

I hope you primed that valence right away, or it will start surface rusting wherever you touched it with your hands.

Nope, we wiped it down with acetone, never touching it with our hands. If it DOES develop any, it will be very minor surface rust, and it will grind right off again with the wire wheel.

Josh car is goin to look hawt! Cant wait for more pics. Are you goin with regular plastic bumper swap,than mtech 2 in the future?

I will be using standard plastic bumpers. Who knows what could come in the future? In a few years, if I've got the money, I plan to have the whole car resprayed in Imola Red, but I'm not sure if I'll stick with standard plastics and aprons, or if I'll go with another setup, it's not really something I'm thinking about right now.


Update on the paint: Got a quote for the paint, $24 for a quart of single-stage 086 Schwarz, plus $20 for the catalyst, and $6 for the acrylic binder.

The bumpers will be here tomorrow, and this weekend, Andy and I will do the chop on the rear bumper, and probably get at least the front bumper prepped and primed, possibly the rear also, if the fiberglass and whatever else we use for the rear has proper time to cure.

[ZinRot325i]

I'm kinda interested to see how this turns out.

I'm not partial to either type of taillight, but I think the smaller ones look more euro, plus the M3 had them all the way through.

Imola Red would look HOTTTT especially if you got a euro filler for the license plate.

But one thing at a time.
I want to make my airdam smooth too, so this has been helpful.

[Jand3rson]

I'm kinda interested to see how this turns out.

I'm not partial to either type of taillight, but I think the smaller ones look more euro, plus the M3 had them all the way through.

That's half of the reason I like them so much, they give the rear of the car that little bit of the M3 look.

Imola Red would look HOTTTT especially if you got a euro filler for the license plate.

Imola Red looks SICK on an E30. This is Ted Anthony's old E30, it's the car that made me decide on Imola.

[Mike325]

Looking real good:up: How are you going to make the rear bumper line up? You going to cut it like I did mine?

[Jand3rson]

Looking real good:up: How are you going to make the rear bumper line up? You going to cut it like I did mine?

We'll be doing it using Jordan's procedure:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/Tech/bumper2.htm

When the bumpers get here tomorrow, I'll be removing the trim and probably painting it, along with my new euro grilles and my wiper arm grilles. I'll also probably primer the front valence, and maybe the rear apron.

[xLibelle]

btw, ive found that a good way to strip the rubber coat is to use a chisel.
just hand-push and it plows right through

[MR 325]

Looking good Josh! Going with some Euro bumper trim?

[C ///M]

Glad to see another person finally taking that stupid gravel guard crap off the front.

3 years later my front valence only has 1 tiny rock chip. My old gravel guard'ed front end got more rock chips by the second. Smooth finish with fresh paint with some flex agent in it is stronger than that shit could ever be.

You're going to love it. But of course you already knew that.

[Jand3rson]

Flex agent sounds like a good plan, but I'm going one step further than that, and having 3M Clear Bra installed on the valence after it's painted.

Matt, I may go euro trim later, but I'm not going to buy it new. If I can find it used at some point, I'll get it that way. But for the time being, I like my all-red sidemarkers, they go with my red tails.

[smonkbmw]

noob alert. what is euro trim? that the pieces that eliminate the marker lights?

[Jand3rson]

noob alert. what is euro trim? that the pieces that eliminate the marker lights?

Yep. It looks exactly the same as US plastic bumper trim, it just doesn't have sidemarkers or holes for them, it's just solid.

[Jand3rson]

Well well well...

What are these two very oddly-shaped boxes that FedEx just dropped off?

LET'S FIND OUT, SHALL WE???





Now the real fun begins...

[Tvan]

Now the real fun begins...

woooooo!