JackBenny's 1991 318is Project

[dude8383]

Thats what I call determination right there. I would have probably gone bonkers if that would have happened to me.

Love the 318is badge, I need to mount mine back on!!!

[silence]

Looking good. Let me know if you need a ps delete to fix your puddling issue ;)

[jackbenny]

Thanks guys. The driver fender came out pretty good and I started on the passenger door yesterday. It seems to be going well. I'll try and get some pictures posted tonight.

[ahriley91]

That sucks. But this is still one of the best e30's of all time.

[TrentW]

Hang in there man. I feel your pain.

[Simon S]

Ouch on the paint work man..

Well - you're hell-bent on perfection - that's fer true.

318 huh? Nice sleeper ya got there.

[White325is]

Damn man, I feel your pain on the paint. I've been through it and dealing with it right now.
I hope it turns out in the end for you.

[jackbenny]

the hood...

At this point, I thought I would try the hood.



same procedure, different panel.

I started with the sanding.



Got it nice and dull and flat





I'm going to fast forward through some agony. The result of this polishing episode was the following:



Still not good enough. Something was wrong with my technique. Just too many scratches.



The panel was pretty flat though so I was doing something right.



My parents came to visit their grandchild and I immediately grabbed my father and threw him to work. He had done the wetsanding and polishing on his white 911 so I was ready for some advice. We pulled the car outside to take a look in the sunlight.



same result though, too many scratches.



the tape was to break the car down into sections. I needed to find the right combination of pad and media for the polishing. I resanded the hood once more but I had help this time and it went a bit faster.



I did get a rotary buffer. This and the combination of my drill for tight spots yielded the following results...







Since I was pleased with the result, I started on the driver's side fender.



Initially I was pleased with the results...



but the next day I went out and saw a lot of swirls. Dejected, I went to the passenger fender to start work and this happened...





I didn't take a picture of the bubbled paint because I was too busy throwing crap around in my garage. I cleaned it up with some sandpaper but I think this might have been the lowest of the lows on this project. It's fixable, I know it is but damn it sucks.

After a couple of nights off, I went back to the drivers side fender and started to redo it. I'm almost finished but it looks the way I was expecting. I'll post the results later on.

I did take my dad out for a spin in the car. It's fast and he had a big smile on his face. Upon my return, there was a pretty big puddle under the car. Power steering fluid. It looks like my high pressure power steering line split and ruptured. They were used though.

When it rains it pours, right?

[jackbenny]

The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated

Note to self: Children hinder car projects.

The troof, this man speaks it!

When things are going well, updates are pretty easy to make. When things aren't going so well, you just don't want to share misery. And right now I'm in the 2 steps forward, 1 step back mode of the project.

The focus of this past month has been wet sanding and polishing the paint on the car. I employed the PPG Deltron system when the car was painted over a year ago. It should come as no surprise that the clear coat was freakin' hard, it's had a year to dry! Regardless, I wanted that pristine, shiny look so I took to it. The one important detail to note is that while the body work I did came out pretty nice, I have no experience wet sanding and using a high speed buffing system. And no amount of reading on the internet can really prepare you when you actually go out there and do it.

As i initially had a free weekend with the wife and kid out of town, I elected to start on the trunk lid, which was the flattest surface I could think of.



I was careful and taped the edges to prevent damaging the thinner paint located there. I started sanding to level out the paint.



The sanding started with 1500 grit. After everything I've gone through, I would have to say this was a mistake. Once I started using 2000 grit initially and using 1500 only when necessary, I started getting better results.



You'll note in this extreme closeup, there were some flaws in the paint. I expected this as we didn't use a booth and little flecks of dust would invariably find their way into the paint. These would just require a bit more attention.

That unfortunately would become my downfall...



What looked to be a piece of grass...something was ultimately a deep, deep scratch. Eventually I sanded through the clear, through the paint and to the primer. As you might imagine, once the grey was seen, there was an intense session of swearing, followed by the random throwing of objects within arms reach and concluding with a soft muffled whimpering.



I managed to get another spot on the back of the trunk lid but wasn't as upset because it would be covered by the Mtech I replica wing.



nice huh?

I continued to press on with the polishing. If the panel needed to be repainted, might as well practice the polishing right?



I believe I took this picture after using my fine cut.



The polisher I used was a variable speed, two head cyclo unit. The thought behind this was that it wouldn't get the surface too hot and reduce the risk of the paint burning through. The unit is pretty cool and the design really hasn't changed from the 50's except for the variable speed. The construction is something you don't see a lot these days. This is a great polisher but the lack of heat would not enable some scratches to be removed and require a different approach.



For the less mature audience, I will say it for you.... Boobies. That is all.

The result of the polishing was this...



The picture does look nice but what it doesn't show is all the tiny scratches left behind. At this point, I needed a pick me up.



Looks like a car again!

I thought, why stop there so I added some identification too.







tee hee, I'm lying. <shifty>

[theryp]

i wanna be you

[ahriley91]

Note to self: Children hinder car projects.

Benefits of being a college student is that I don't have to worry about that. haha

[Simon S]

Note to self: Children hinder car projects.

[ahriley91]

Updates? I gotta know. haha

[jackbenny]

I just saw how my E30 is going to look like. I was going to get those wheels in the same color and I have an 89 325i in Alpineweiss II as well. That license plate filler is exactly what i have as well.

Although your seats look better. I just have the comfort seats but the leather on it is in great shape. No cracks or rips.

Your car looks nice and clean. Exactly how I like mine. Just thinking of smoke ellipsoids, smoke turn signal lights so I can continue the whole black and white theme outside.

<sigh> I miss my S4 avant :(

Thanks for the compliments!

[jackbenny]

Josh,

I'm referring to this:

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...84&hg=51&fg=10

P/N # 1 - 51321904781

I'm getting a bunch of wind noise at highway speeds from my left door and slowly starting to drive me nuts.

Ah. To be honest, I did not remove the seal completely so I don't know about the attachments at the base of the window but it was pretty easy to remove the rest. I plan on replacing them eventually so I guess I'll find out just how difficult it is.