Big Al's Revenge: an OEM+, MTech1 325e restoration

[LateFan]

You're all set for virus protection.......just need goggles.

[Albie325]

Got some things knocked out today:

Have been meaning to get an alignment done on the car, after all the suspension work I figured it was off a bit but felt great driving so I've been putting it off. I've put almost 1000 miles on the car since the manual swap and started to notice the front tires wearing unevenly, the numbers don't lie:



Took it to Bimmer Performance Center in Raleigh, was really happy with their service. Their rep Jason seemed really impressed with the car, it was definitely the most senior example of BMW on the lot. Haven't seen quite that variety of ///M cars in one place probably ever so I think I went to the right place. As good as the car felt before, it felt so much better afterwards, glad I got it done.

Also got the first batch of MTech parts in paint! Figured I'd start with the sideskirts and spoiler insert since they were relatively small and flat and I could hone in my gun settings.

My makeshift paint booth:



Got the whole garage wrapped in plastic and installed some 10000 lumen flood lights, ended up working as well as could be expected for garage painting.

Wet sanded down to expose the badging as best I could:





Sprayed in sealer:





First coat of base:





Ended up fucking up the spoiler insert by trying to tack rag a piece of dust out too soon, will have to sand it again and respray. Live and learn, I chose these parts because if I messed up early on they would be easy enough to redo.

Continued on with the sideskirts, first coat of clear:



All done:






Definitely some dust nibs in there but overall came out pretty good. Was able to get used to the different paints and gun settings for the larger, more detailed parts. Depending on how things look tomorrow morning after curing overnight, I may wet sand and spray another coat of clear, or just wet sand and buff. Other than dust nibs I didn't see any runs or fish eyes so fingers crossed!

I hope to get the front and rear valance done over the next few days, then I'll (finally) start breaking down the car.

[Melon]

Look at this guy learning from my mistakes!

[Albie325]

Ha trying to anyway, only the tip of the iceberg so far

[gnmzl]

Looks impressive to me!
Good work, excited to see the car painted by yourself

[mike.bmw]

Wow, this is awesome. Can't wait to see it all done! And now that The Vintage is rescheduled until later in the year, you'll have it completed by then! :)

[Albie325]

Looks impressive to me!
Good work, excited to see the car painted by yourself

Thanks, me too! It will certainly be a long, interesting process. Learning new things as I go, as you'll see...

Wow, this is awesome. Can't wait to see it all done! And now that The Vintage is rescheduled until later in the year, you'll have it completed by then! :)

I know, was bummed to see it pushed back but may be a blessing in disguise, no way I'd have been ready for May.

Got off work early yesterday and knocked out a few more parts:

Fabbed up a painting rack for the front air dam:





Ended up working out pretty well!

Got the spoiler insert resealed:



Along with the front:





Base:




All done in clear:






The front came out AWESOME except for a couple small runs:








Was absolutely pumped with how everything came out.


Building on last night's success, today I (of course) got a little overzealous and tried sanding out the 1-2 runs I had in the front before I got ready to paint the rear. I should have given the paint more time to cure beforehand but I was on a mission get things done, made an OOPS:



I tried using a razor to shave down the run but the clear was still a little too soft. The razor hung up in the run and pulled the paint up, ugh. This is a learning process after all, and it's not the end of the world.. Spent the next few hours wet sanding the whole thing down in 1000 grit and feathering my mistake into it. Plan to recolor the spot and reclear the whole thing, should come out looking great. Will do that along with the rear apron tomorrow, updates to follow

[gnmzl]

Looking good, that's a small spot and should be easy to cover up.
A tip : don't do my mistake and install the fog lights onto the apron while it's off the car.. Take out the retaining clip for the adjustment screw and take your time installing the fog light with the screw unscrewed to the point the thread isn't showing. Then screw it into it's location on the apron itself. Should be easy doing it off car, I did it with the apron installed and hate myself for scratching it up because of that.

[Albie325]

gnmzl good point, thanks for the advice!

Ended up fixing my boo boo yesterday. I think it actually came out better the second time around as I'm starting to get the hang of using the spray gun.





And got the rear done too:



All in base:



And done:










I'll let everything cure for a bit (WON'T be making that mistake again) then start the work of polishing out the dust nibs. Now I need to wash the car down well and start breaking it down, wish me luck!

[2mAn]

Best thread on r3v right now!

[luckybk]

gonna look so mean

[Slybeanx]

Quick update: been doing a few small projects to button everything up as I prepare for the full interior tear-down.

It's officially pollen season in NC. If you ain't from 'round these parts, here's what your car could look like after spending an hour or so outside:



Not my car but you get the idea, for that reason I've kept the toys garaged for the most part. I remember when I first moved down here from CT I was APPALLED with the pollen, you can see plumes of yellow "smoke" when cars drive by. I decided it a better time than ever to replace the air filter and decided to go with a K&N:



Anyway, once the pollen season is over (or at least less extreme) I'll do a nice little photo shoot, in the meantime I wanted to finish sprucing up the trim:

I used Eastwood plastic resurfacer for a few items including the battery cover, front grilles, kidneys, and license plate frame:





Tough to capture in the pic, but they were definitely chalky, a few shades off from the newly refinished bumper trim



They came out looking brand new, made such a huge difference when installed:



I cleaned all the trunk carpeting and was really pleased with the lack of rust including none to the battery tray. The plastic tray was still there and protected the metal nicely:



The trunk tools weren't so unscathed and I'll be repainting them soon.

I also finally got around to refinishing the door mouldings. At some point someone (OK fine it was me I admit it) got some wax on them and went over them with a buffer and it impregnated the wax into the plastic. Forgot to take a before pic, but they looked bad. I refinished using SEM trim black and they came out great:



I ended up buying brand new mouldings (aside from the driver door which is backordered) which I plan to replace along with a few other exterior trim once I get the car painted. Here's the finished SEM painted piece (above) next to the new OEM finish (below)



Slightly darker and shinier, but honestly it looked fantastic once mounted up. I may even prefer the darker painted color:



Now I just need to paint the rocker panels which I hopefully plan to do this weekend.

In preparation for the 5-speed swap, I decided to clean up the g260 that has been sitting in the garage covered in filth:





A few cans of engine degreaser, a dremmel, and some wire brushes later and it came out looking pretty spiffy:









Lighting in the garage isn't the most photogenic (as I'm sure you can tell by now), but it was nice and shiny.

Been driving around to and from work a lot, and at 80mph the tach is right around 2600rpm with the new 3.25lsd. Might be a little higher with the 5 speed based on the gearing but overall not bad. It isn't too loud or high up on the rev range to totally kill my MPG and will be a ton more fun.



Last thing I've been putting off is fixing my passenger door handle, I thought removing the door card was gonna be a way bigger hassle than it was but the job was done in 10 mins, super easy.



Every time I take my fiancee out in the car, it gives me the opportunity to walk around and open the door for her and APPEAR gentlemanly. Major points scored either way.

The handle pretty much disintegrated in my hands:



I was also pleased with how intact the weatherproofing was underneath:



Luckily I had a nice spare:



Replaced the bung and we were done:





Now when I decide to open the door for her I'll actually BE a gentleman. I guess it'll just depend on how date night goes...

Last news for this post: I ordered my seat reupholstery kit. I had initially intended on going with LSeat.com as their price is absurdly cheap for leather. My hangup with them was that their colors are not 100% OEM matching. After reviewing various DIY's/builds and speaking with a few members (namely Pootis) I decided to go with Autoberry as his seats come out exceptionally. I did end up opting for leather over vinyl. Once I get the kit in and mounted up I'll post up a writeup/review.

Driving the car around lately has been a blast, but I keep getting the itch to just go ahead and get the manual swap done. May end up being a little sooner rather than later...

I cant believe ive been on this forum for this long and never saw this FANTASTIC thread. I strive to have your level of detail.

[Albie325]

Thanks guys,hope to keep the updates coming. Got the car washed today and will be tearing it down once I have a free minute

[Melon]

Paint is looking excellent! Well done sir!

[Albie325]

Paint is looking excellent! Well done sir!

Thanks brother, long way to go...


Anyway, I got the car all nice and clean, probably the last time for a while it will be a complete car. Over the weekend I went from this:






To this:






Went over the car and took some pics of the more glaring issues with the current paint:

The hood, which was hit by a baseball at one point in its life and was repainted, wasn't prepped well and aside from being a shade or two off from the rest of the car was starting to chip:




Took the hideous bubble off the sunroof for the first time, well, ever:



Underneath, the sunroof panel has a few small spots of (hopefully) surface rust:




The roof, sunroof panel, and the tail panel are the only sections with original paint left on the car. The remainder was blended in and the clear is starting to peel on the C-pillar:



And unfortunately, the poorly prepped paint theme continues throughout the rest of the car, should make sanding it off a little easier at least.

Under the side mouldings:





All along the door jambs (ran the whole length of the side and bottom):



Looks like they basically just painted base/clear right over the original single stage without sanding it, it just chips right off and is still glossy underneath.

Realized that when they painted the trunk, they never removed the spoiler and basically painted up to the spoiler and left the rear section where the emblem is original:




Rust spot under the diver fender:



And a crushed pinch weld:




The good news is that aside from some small dings/dents here and there the body panels are very straight and overall devoid of rust. I'll need to look someone up to weld a patch in the driver fender, if anyone knows anyone local to Raleigh let me know, I have no idea what type of shop would waste their time on such a small piece.

Ended up also getting all the chrome trim off (thankfully) without destroying anything:



And test fit the 772 euro valance, wanted to make sure I didn't need to bend/tweak anything before getting it painted. It ended up fitting perfectly, no adjustment needed:



The only bummer of the whole weekend was getting under the car and seeing this:



The diff bushing was starting to separate. Ugh, I had foregone this when I did the suspension overhaul because it looked to be in great shape. Now I'll have to drain the diff and remove the cover again. At least I have a new bushing and paper gasket on hand, I sealed it with RTV high-temp and I'm not 100% happy with it, it leaks albeit very slowly. Will get to that this week hopefully as I want this done before the car is prepped and there's sanding dust everywhere