325ic Calypso Euro Conversion - Houndstooth & dbilas now, MT1 & MM 3.2 stroker coming

[stonea]

I'm definitely going to have to try that Duplicolor Vinyl Paint. I'm piecing together a tan interior and its driving me insane that nothing matches.

[bradnic]

MARCH 2017. FU DROPBOX
They got rid of the Public folder on dropbox accounts overnight, so I have to now alter every single shared pic URL in every post I've made to get them back. Looking into options

Had to upgrade. fair enough. but by September all my pic links will go dead.

[bradnic]

Mtech1 news - pics coming soon

Well it's happening. for reals.

body color euro-bumpers

full mtech1 body kit in body color, including a pristine mtech1 rear spoiler

trunk lid with the IS spoiler holes and without the 3rd brake light wart.

shadow line body trim, most new, rest sanded and painted multiple times until they were just right. New replacement chrome trim in storage so I can revert the car to current state if I want to.

all mtech1 parts and deck lid are at the body shop. stripped the paint off the mtech front spoiler myself before taking to the shop. 4 hours for 1 part.

I used Leatherique dye on the natur carpet and floor mats. It looks just about new now!

i've also successfully color matched all the natur interior trim pieces including arm rests, map pockets, quarter trim and convertible boot lid vinyl cover. It took 4-5 tries but everything matches perfectly. I also had some broken tabs on the map pockets of both doors so replaced both of them with intact parts.

I still have the interior apart to work on the window mechanisms, deal with some electrical gremlins and install a euro clock. I will most likely install the electric top wiring harness i picked up from Barry (reelzimpro) about 3 years ago.

FUN!

[e30rapidic]

awesome!! can't wait to see her in May!

[N2MYE30]

I'm thinking about stripping/painting my chrome bumpers to body color soon. Let me know how it goes.

Stop thinking about it and do it!

Lovely work here as usual and I too cant wait to see the results in May. :up:

[bradnic]

Ha he'll have pics soon to check em out up close :-)

[bradnic]

No word from the body shop yet. Will post as soon as I have something I can show, hopefully next couple of days.

Had to order new euro fog lenses - both were cracked! got one season out of them. Learned my lesson and ordered some yellow lamin-x for the new lenses plus clear for the euro headlights.


Spent the weekend on disassembly and prep. Here's a pretty good pic of the natur trim and shadowline on the top lid.


Happy with the results, but at some point I'll respray with leatherique color matched dye. Also you can't see them in the pic but the map pockets are still slightly off compared to the other painted trim despite two coats. will hit them a couple more times, possibly spraying some white paint or primer first.

I have to repaint 4 of the shadowine trim parts, and 4 additional pieces I hadn't painted yet (long rocker trim pieces, step trim on top of the rockers). I didn't like how the surface finish came out on the knee height door moldings. Also need to replace some of the clips so the trim's not all ready to mount yet anyway.

This is what it looked like under the trim.. glad I cleaned it up to avoid problems later


here's the driver front fender area. does anyone know the part number of the circled clip? can't find it on realoem.


good pic of the dyed carpet and floor mats. nice to see all that dirt removed under the trim


Interesting fact: shadow line rear quarter trim for convertibles mounts differently than their black+chrome versions of the same piece. the hole near the rear wheel arch is only used with the stock trim that includes the chrome strip. I have to drill a hole on each side just ahead of that hole. I had to order new fastener hardware too. Double checked on realoem and it's true - the rear quarter shadowline trim is not convertible-specific, but the stock trim is.

will need to paint the rockers and the existing shadowline window frames. keep in mind the whole car will be stripped at some point for a bare metal respray. this is just to get things matching and presentable until I finally pull the trigger on that.

[bradnic]

forgot to post an install pic. waiting on fasteners for the quarter trim. need to paint the window trim - you can see how much it's faded by looking at the driver mirror mount area.



also just remembered the new deck lid won't have the stripes on them. buddy knows a guy so..

[bradnic]

here's the driver front fender area. does anyone know the part number of the circled clip? can't find it on realoem.

DAMN. clip is part of the trim piece, so I either get it back in or buy replacement trim. part numbers 51131932803 and 51131932804

[bradnic]

Still some surface prep to go on both MT1 front and rear parts, but should have the covers next week.

MT1 front still in prep. They did a wonderful job cutting the fog light holes! i gouged some of the urethane on the slots.. pain to deal with but the body shop is on it. Great urethane repair work, just as flexible as the original part


MT1 rear had some riveted aluminum repairs. All that was removed and properly repaired.



rest of the parts including the coupe deck lid have been sprayed and cleared but not wet sanded. They also need to hit the MT1 spoiler painted section again due to some primer issues.


I'll assemble everything and then get the car back to the shop for wet sanding.

Couldn't resist a quick trial fit of a side skirt


Keep in mind I still haven't stripped and repainted the whole car. Everything will come apart next year or the following for a full respray. Looks great for now!

[bradnic]

I'm thinking about stripping/painting my chrome bumpers to body color soon. Let me know how it goes.

Stop thinking about it and do it!

Ha he'll have pics soon to check em out up close :-)

I'll be mounting up the painted bumpers this weekend. Andre can take a look and decide then ha

[phenryiv1]

DAMN. clip is part of the trim piece, so I either get it back in or buy replacement trim. part numbers 51131932803 and 51131932804

If you can extract the clip from the insert in the body they can be reattached to the trim and reused. If you look at my build thread (and a post I made in the convertible subforum about this exact part) I came to the same unfortunate conclusions as did you.

I ended up buying new trim because the channel for the other clips got brittle and broke but those end clips can be reused. They just cannot be bought on their own.

[e30rapidic]

I'll be mounting up the painted bumpers this weekend. Andre can take a look and decide then ha

I've got my buddys shop lined up and ready to go. I'm also hunting for some mtec side skirts.....



you're a bad influence lol :devil:

[bradnic]

Ha awesome. Hit 411 (Barron) up for repro mtech1 side skirts. They're not urethane but they're very accurate fiberglass copies.. even have the part number on the ends.

Just finished prepping the 6 trim pieces I didn't buy in shadowline. After about 6 tries they're just about perfect now :-) also painting the front door window trim and leading edge of the quarter window. Using SEM 39143 Trim Black, which is great stuff but getting everything prepped and painted has taken close to 8 hours. Pics up tomorrow along with a test mount of the painted bumpers.

[bradnic]

not happy with the paint work on these but they're good enough for now.


body shop took some license and basically focused only on the tops of the bumpers, since they figured the mtech1 kit would hide the rest anyway. that's not for them to decide dammit. anyway they only prepped the top so these will have to be done again.

i want to swap between 3 setups
1) stock bright trim, chrome euro bumpers and jimmy hill, coupe deck lid no spoiler
2) same as (1) but shadowline and body color bumpers
3) full mtech1 with coupe decklid and mtech1 spoiler