The guidance to the first paint shop was that it be absolutely perfect. No body blemishes, no orange peel, and no over-spray.
A Dent Wizard had already fixed the low hanging fruit. The paint shop sanded the car down to bare metal and did some subtle bondo work fixing flaws that were really only visible because black shows all flaws.
Then they painted the car and applied a nice thick clearcoat, but then lost interest. The wet sanding didn't occur, nor did the trim get painted. That took >3months. Finally, tired of hearing "it will be ready Friday" over and over again, I took the car back from them and took it to a 2nd shop to finish.
The paint is pretty close to perfect. With some exceptions near sharp edges, there's no orange peel so it's a flawless mirror finish. It looks far better than any car I've ever seen on a dealer's lot. There's a Dr up my street that gets a new AMG every couple of years. His car is always spotlessly clean and someone worked hard to make his paint perfect. The e28 looks as good.
The trim all being freshly painted, to include door handles, bumpers windshield wipers, and windshield gasket, really makes the car stand out. It's not obvious from the pics, but all the above is done in "trim paint" which I guess is "satin". It's certainly not gloss.
If you click the "more pics" link you'll see a pic of the interior. I had the seats redone in red, having long admired the black on red that BMW made available for the e46 M3. The seat leather looks a little bright in the picture but in person they're Cardinal.
For the first time in my life I find myself, after walking away from the parked car, turning back and admiring it.
Some more pics http://s465.photobucket.com/user/Ranger ... 8/ShowPics
Sorry, I can't go to the blackboard teach!
