What my M3 did last summer...

[Beau]

Just got some film developed that I forgot I had... the process has since been completed, but I don't have any new photos. I'll have to get on that soon. Anyway, have a look, these were taken to have record of where/how the worked look. Especially the rear panel replacement, in the event I wanted to sell it, I figured it would be important to show what was under the paint:

This fender had the most dings:
http://www.s14.net/photopost/data/505/286M3Prep01.jpg?8686
Note how much higher the rear sits with everything removed! That's my Jeep in the background...
http://www.s14.net/photopost/data/505/286M3Prep02.jpg?700
Obviously not cleaned up yet, you can see the new panel
http://www.s14.net/photopost/data/505/286M3Prep03.jpg?9972
The seam was the worst area of rust, hence replacement, it took a bit of work to get it to fit right.
http://www.s14.net/photopost/data/505/286M3Prep04.jpg?368
The new panel! No license plate mounts... hmm...
http://www.s14.net/photopost/data/505/286M3Prep05.jpg?3525
Inside view of panel, note the p/n sticker... it never got removed. oops.
http://www.s14.net/photopost/data/505/286M3Prep06.jpg?5209
Ugly rust spot that was under the sideskirt
http://www.s14.net/photopost/data/505/286M3Prep07.jpg?5378


PS Thanks to Magnus for hosting...

EDIT: damn it. how come the IMG tags aren't working? Anthony, feel free to fix my post if you can...

[Mike 91 318ic]

Wow what does it looks like now??? I'd cry if I saw my car looking like that!

M

[Beau]

It looked a lot worse when that panel wasn't there... imagine how I felt as I took a sawzall to it! Now everything is back together and things are being wetsanded. It has been a slow process because I'm a busy guy, but hopefully things will be all finished soon. It looks "normal" now to the naked eye. Those who are "in-the-know" can see little things like bumper gaskets, fender liners, and the emblems are gone. Plus there are a couple spots where the clear coat actually sagged that I may end up re-doing. Over all though, it looks so much better than the chipped and hazed paint that was on there... oh and no rust - that's a biggy.

[Beau]

BTW: This is how it looked "before"

http://www.umit.maine.edu/~robert_brigham/M3/Car%20Show%20006.jpg

EDIT: I should mention that some of the.. uh.. imperfections are from the drive down... early morning insects primarily. I had just traveled 300 miles to get there...for some reason that camera made the car look pretty bad actually!!

[motoyen]

That looks like a lot of work. Is your car painted now?

I don't know why your pics aren't showing up, maybe magnus has some sort of hotlink protection.

[Beau]

Yes, it's painted now. Still in storage though, those pictures are from July, I just happen to get the film in the camera developed. I don't have any of the car in it's current state. I still need to do all the finishing work (wet sand, buff, etc).

And yes, it was a tremendous amount of work. I think a conservative estimate of 250 man hours was put into it thus far. It was primarily myself and my father working on it and I personally spent at least 150hrs over the course of the past year. Most of that was block sanding... I can tell you a lot about the contours of an M3 now. And I can also say I have a new understanding of why paint work is so expensive when done right. Figure what 200hrs @ $40 would cost... And I've still got probably another 20 to do all the finish work.

One thing I learned: Label the damn nuts and bolts and keep them in seperate bins based on their location. You DO NOT want to guess where things go or have spares left over. I got pretty lucky and was advised to do this very early on. When you've got the car pulled apart for 6 months, it's hard to remember how it all went together. Masking tape is your friend.

Oh, and removing that long metal window trim piece is a royal PITA! And putting it back is twice as bad. If I never have to deal with those again I will be a happy man.

[E30Ty]

Wow. Can't wait to see the finished product. Diamond Black is my favorite!

Where did you and your dad acquire your skills from? Does he do body work for a living?

[Beau]

Experimentation mostly, he restored a '68 Volvo P1800 and learned the ways of the paint gun then. The M3 is the 3rd that has been painted ala our household. It's really not very hard, it's all about the equipment and spending time learning it. And as for the body work, it's not hard to sand... and bondo is like anything else; sometimes you get it right, sometimes you have to redo it. I practiced on a street rod project we have going, just to get the feel for it. It's all about time time time. Most pros are just faster because they are so well practiced and have that much better equipment...

Raw cost of the project was in the range of $1000 so not bad at all considering what it would have cost to outsource it. Interestingly, the best shop in the area actually DIDN'T want to do it because they are so busy and knew they wouldn't do as good a job as the car deserved. For them, tearing down and repainting an entire car takes a lot of room and time that would be cost prohibitive in our case.

One more curious bit, it actually takes more paint to spray all the removed bits (bumpers, hood, mirrors, etc) because of all the overspray. This was the first time we had removed so much stuff to paint (the P1800 had mostly chromed pieces). We had to get more paint than anticipated due to this. I should also mention, that in some states/countries it would be very difficult to acquire high grade automotive paint. In our state it's sort of a "who do you know" deal where they are supposed to only sell it to licensed painters, but you can get it on your own. If you couldn't source the paint, it would make the project considerably more difficult ;) like I said, it's all about the equipment...