JackBenny's 1991 318is Project

[e30s50dan]

buffing can be a pita...dont you just love where the compound goes...

[Danny]

Good god you are a madman.

[jackbenny]

buffing can be a pita...dont you just love where the compound goes...

Ugh, I have little specs of that crap EVERYWHERE!!!

Good god you are a madman.

I wish Danny. Progress is moving so slow. I really want to get it finished and drive it regularly.

[TrentW]

How goes the struggle? I just re-read the last few pages because I'm at the point where I'm ready to get my fresh zinno paint wet-sanded/buffed and wanted to come back and get some pointers. Like you, I have other responsibilities (I'm also restoring a 1918 Chicago bungalow) and therefore up until a few days ago, it's been 7 months since I've even started my car, but really, doing a total respray on an E30 ends up being a LOT more work than initially realized--at least if you're into the details. Once you get the car painted, you want everything else to look as good as the fresh, shiny paint.

I've decided that I'm gonna have a body shop get the finish looking smooth and took the car to a local shop that does some custom hot rod work as well as the obligatory insurance jobs. Unlike yourself, I just can't bring myself to bring even 2000 grit paper in contact with the the new paint. Anyway, the owner told me that wet-sanding is practically old school, as it removes too much clearcoat in the process. They do a dry sanding with a DA sander, as it supposedly gives a glossier finish. Do you have an opinion on this method?

[jackbenny]

How goes the struggle? I just re-read the last few pages because I'm at the point where I'm ready to get my fresh zinno paint wet-sanded/buffed and wanted to come back and get some pointers. Like you, I have other responsibilities (I'm also restoring a 1918 Chicago bungalow) and therefore up until a few days ago, it's been 7 months since I've even started my car, but really, doing a total respray on an E30 ends up being a LOT more work than initially realized--at least if you're into the details. Once you get the car painted, you want everything else to look as good as the fresh, shiny paint.

I've decided that I'm gonna have a body shop get the finish looking smooth and took the car to a local shop that does some custom hot rod work as well as the obligatory insurance jobs. Unlike yourself, I just can't bring myself to bring even 2000 grit paper in contact with the the new paint. Anyway, the owner told me that wet-sanding is practically old school, as it removes too much clearcoat in the process. They do a dry sanding with a DA sander, as it supposedly gives a glossier finish. Do you have an opinion on this method?

Hindsight is always 20/20 but recent developments have brought it closer to 20/15 or 20/10. If I were to do the paint job over again, I think I would have someone else do it. Mistakes and frustration aside, the quality would still be there without the duress.

If I were to do it myself again, I would change my tools. I would employ a DA sander with 3M or Mequires pads and "damp sand" Not really wet but not completely dry. This would be so much faster and eliminate some of the problems experienced with hand sanding. The biggest problem I have with the hand sanding is that it doesn't take much to put scratches in the clear and ruin your previous work. I have several of these scratches on the car though you'd be hard pressed to find them. Eventually I will address them.

I would also opt out of the large rotary buffer and go for a smaller one with a 3 to 4 inch pad. Yea it will take longer to do the bigger panels but the control is so much easier, especially in complex areas like the fenders or pillars. I also think that the 3m products I used performed slightly better than the mequires. That's not to say the mequires was bad, it just required a bit more effort for similar effects.

These are just my opinions though, I'm sure improvements to my technique might change my insight.

The car is mostly polished now. I have the trunk lid and the pillars left to sand and polish. I messed up the front passenger fender again so I will just pull it off and respray it. I have the sunroof back on the car so hopefully it will cut down on the dust. I intend on finishing the remainder of the car this weekend but the kid is having his 1st birthday party so I will have to be efficient in the use of my time.

I'm beginning to think this project is going to take longer than SuperDuper's! Lets hope that's not the case. ;)

[theryp]

congrats on your child's first birthday! :-D

[Mr. Tasty]

just read all 46 pages. Crazy stuff Man. Good job

[Mr. Tasty]

buffing can be a pita...dont you just love where the compound goes...

It all depends on the product. I have been using the Pinnacle's brother products (can't remember the name). Doesn't cake up or anything.

[Mtriple]

I'm beginning to think this project is going to take longer than SuperDuper's! Lets hope that's not the case. ;)

Haha, I wouldnt worry about that. Your car has a motor in it and runs! :)

[jackbenny]

So contrary to popular belief I am still quite alive. And I really can't blame the little guy for my lack of progress either. I've been on business travel for 3 weeks of August and it kinda made it difficult to work on the car. The most recent trip was in Irvine and while I was hoping to make it to cars and coffee, my supplier didn't have his act together so we came home early. Saw a few e30s out there though and we hit the K1 Karting Center for a little racing. Right now I'm visiting my wife's family in Tampa. Yes that flight did suck for those of you wondering not just because the SNA to Houston didn't have any entertainment but the Houston to Tampa had to fly over that ridiculous tropical storm as well. Luckily, I had my camera with me and it happened to have some pictures of progress.

Those who have been following along know that I haven't been very satisfied with how things have been going regarding the polishing of the paint. Am I being anal? Yeah, probably but a lot of time was spent making my boxy bavarian iron straight that I wanted it to look awesome. The pictures I've posted look pretty good, but when you get close, you can see fine sanding scratches. A while back I posted what I would have done differently and it kept nagging at me. It was always going to bother me if I didn't try and correct it so I took the financial hit and got the right stuff. It breaks down as follows:

PorterCable 7424 sanded/polisher
This is the tool most people use. It's been around for a long time, has variable speed and good support. I still haven't figured out why I didn't start with this in the beginning.

Mequires Unigrit Sanding/Polishing Pads - 1500 grit and 3000 grit
Hand sanding sucks. it was frustrating for me and left tons of scratches that I could never polish out. These polishing pads come in 3 inch and 6 inch diameters and are used with a technique called damp sanding. It's a lot like wet sanding but with less water...duh. Your really just mist the surface and the pad and start sanding.

I stuck with my existing mequires system mainly because I had invested a good deal into it but the procedure would change up a bit.

First things first, a little reassembly.



Sunroof back on the car though it needs a little adjustment. The interior of the car is finally sealed again and should cut down on the dust and crap in the air. Still quite a bit to clean on the inside though.





The pictures don't really show it but when we repaired the trunk lid, the clear didn't blend with the existing clear. With the trunk lid sanded, you really can't tell but with it polished, there is this wavy line that is very pronounced.



I have decided to repaint the lid (and passenger front fender) and respray the clear. Let's do this right, you know. Since it was going to be redone, it would be a good place to try out the new technique.









The Porter Cable sanded the lid with both the 1500 and 3000 grit. After it was all cleaned, the polishing began. The same materials were used as before. Mequires 101 and 201 heavy and fine cut polishes with the same rotary polisher. The heavy cut used a wool pad and a slightly higher speed than I was working with (1500 rpm) and I used a yellow pad with the 201 at around 1200 - 1500 rpm.

I couldn't see the scratches anymore so I was ready to try something...larger.

Here I have the PorterCable set up with a 6 inch disc, a foam pad and the 1500 grit finish pad.



The sanding was straightforward. I wasn't trying to take off that much material but I did want the paint to be flatter. The e30 panels are so flat that distortion is very pronounced if the paint surface isn't flat and you are looking at the reflections.





My use of the 1500 grit was short and limited. It is EXTREMELY important to clean these pads when you are finished with them. They are very expensive. A 1500 grit should last the entire car and you might need 2 3000 grit to finish it out.

Here, the only difference is the switch to the 3000 grit pad.





Here, I started to use the 101 and wool pad with the rotary polisher. I read that I needed to work with a higher speed. After the front fender incident, I was gun shy but my comfort level was getting better now.







The scratches were almost entirely gone and the stone shell encasing my heart finally started to crumble. I had to catch a plane early the next morning so I wanted to see what the 201 and yellow pad would do.









I was pleased at this point.

There is still some polishing and sealing and what not but it now appears i've got the right combination of steps. I know the progress is slow but with fall approaching and my travel for the year ramping down, I should get more time in the garage. The gap between this post and my last post is just deplorable.

I'll start finishing the car again this coming weekend. Til then...

[TrentW]

Great job. Glad to hear the stone shell encasing your heart is finally crumbling. ;)

[TrentW]

Oh, and how hard was it to install the new sunroof seals?

[jackbenny]

Oh, and how hard was it to install the new sunroof seals?

well it bruised my thumbs pretty good but on the whole it went together without a hitch. When I trimmed the rear seal to fit, i cut my thumb but other than that, no issue at all.

Now installing the sunroof by yourself with the racing buckets installed, well, lets just say that requires flexibility that I did not know I had.

[jackbenny]

Hai r3v!

I really wish I could tell you mucho progress has been made but the reality of the situation is it has not.

Had to go to Sunny California for business a couple of weeks ago to visit a couple of suppliers. Both in the Lake Forest / Irvine area. Initially I was pretty stoked because we were going to stay over the weekend and save the company some air fare. That and we could go to cars and coffee. Sadly, one supplier was not ready so the trip was cut short. My team and I were highly annoyed at this point so we elected to blow of some steam at one of the local indoor carting facilities (K1 racing? whichever with Boris Said)

On the whole we had fun. Teenagers getting mad that the "old man" was faster than them, etc, etc. Except for one race.

A tool and his I can only assume girlfriend were going to race in our heat. Why do I call him a tool? He brought his driving gloves (well, the winter leather gloves for winter that don't actually keep his hands warm) but I digress. On one lap while I attempted to pass his woman (who got the blue flag for 2 laps straight) she spun in the hairpin and I elected to go to the inside because she would roll backwards. Only she didn't and kept her foot down on the gas promptly t-boning me into the barrier. Now the carts have the plastic body shells but I didn't really fit well, even the harness wouldn't be tight. It knocked the wind out of me and took me a bit to compose my self but i pressed on and promptly pushed her out of the way on the next turn. The tool and his woman left and we pushed on for 2 more heats.

We were all sore. Old age and sedentary lifestyle will do that. I attributed it all to muscle strain, took some aleve and went to bed.

Upon my return, I decided to compound and polish the car. The good news is that the entire car is now compounded.









represent?


the driver's side is complete waiting for sealant and wax. The passenger side and roof still need to be polished but I've finally started getting the results I was expecting. And some might say I was happy. :D

After a weekend of polishing, my right side really started hurting. All other muscle aches were gone but this pain still lingered and was the side that got hit. The pain became enough that I elected to see the doctor which is a pretty big step on my part since I hate going.

The diagnosis? It appears I have a broken/cracked/bruised rib. This of course sucks because they take a while to heal and polishing the car won't enable that. I can feel it constantly but can deal with it until a cough, hiccups or the worst a sneeze and then i want to ball up into the fetal position and cry.

So It looks like I have at least another 4 weeks off from the car. There are some low impact things I can do to pass the time but polishing won't be one of them. Today, I jumped the car because the battery has been dead for it sitting so long. I instantly smiled when it started and remembered what it was all about. Turned it off and hooked up to the battery tender to prevent that from happening again and had a beer.

Now if I could only figure out why the check engine light (o2 sensor) comes on randomly...

[325ix]

Damn that sucks. You should track down the tool and his woman and make them polish your car for you!