Getting my car painted. 10-22-10 update: DONE!!!!

[stuartinmn]

Back in August 2008 I stopped by a little restoration shop in southeast Minnesota to see about getting my M535i painted. This place is basically a small dad and son operation, way off the beaten path, but they have a great reputation for high end restorations - I know several guys who've had them restore their muscle cars and street rods, plus they work on a lot of classic european stuff (Rolls-Royces, E-type Jaguars, Mercedes-Benz, etc.)
Anyway, I liked what I saw there, so I put my name on their waiting list. Well, it was a pretty long list...they finally called this week to let me know it's my turn, and I'm dropping the car off next Saturday.

My car still looks pretty good, but it's picked up enough little nicks, rock chips, door dings, etc. that by the time they were all fixed individually I'd nearly have the whole thing repainted anyway. Plus, it has some rust starting in the usual places that I want to catch before it gets any worse - a few bubbles around the windshield and the rear window, and around the rear license plate lights.

In addition, both front doors have rust in the lower seams, and those air intake scoops in the hood are rusty, too. I have sourced rustfree replacements for all of those parts, which will be a lot easier (and cheaper) than fixing the rusty originals. The hood and one of the doors are even the right color so I don't have to worry about painting their backsides. The other replacement door is white, so it will require a little more work; if anyone has a spare rustfree diamondschwarz driver's door they'd like to trade, let me know.

I had been hoping they'd get me into their schedule during the winter, when my car is normally off the road anyway (it probably won't be done until August or so) but I'll manage. Mainly, I'm excited about finally getting this done.

As time goes on I'll post progress photos.

[BDK]

I could source you everybit of what you need Stuart...
from mine,
the doors are great,
the hood is excellent and the front fenders are predrilled for the Mtech kit...
trunk lid is excellent too...

just don't know how I would get to NC to ship them is the hard part...
but that many parts you should just take the entire car...
make you a helluva deal...
same color too

but congrats on getting the car painted, she is a beaut!!

[option00002]

I will be excited to see the results. Might you have a couple recent pictures of her?

[stuartinmn]

Yeah, that's the thing...by the time I paid to ship a good door in from somewhere it would probably cost more than just using the one I have (it's not that big a deal, just a little more paint.) I didn't know you still had yours, I thought you sold it a while ago.

The rest of the car (fenders, trunk, body shell) is still real solid, so I'm not expecting any big surprises. I have all new weatherstripping for the doors and windows, and I just placed an order with Blunt for a bunch of little bits (mounting hardware for the Mtech body parts, trunk gasket, sunroof gasket, etc.) I was surprised to find the shadowline beltline strips along the sides are still available new, so I ordered a new set of those too. I also ordered new metal trim for around the windows on the doors, both the bright trim around the tops and the shadowline vertical parts.

[stuartinmn]

I will be excited to see the results. Might you have a couple recent pictures of her?

Here's one that was taken at 5erFest in Chattanooga a couple years ago. It looks pretty much the same today; like I said earlier, at first glance it's still pretty good looking, but you get up close and it's showing 24 years' worth of wear and tear.

[option00002]

Thanks. You're right. At a glance it looks great. The wheels are a bit queer, but all in all a lovely example. It sounds like you have contracted a top notch paint job. Well wishes.

[stuartinmn]

Hey, I like those wheels! They're Azev type A's, which are pretty uncommon. I've only ever seen one other e28 with them and if I remember that was in a picture of a car somewhere in europe. At least I don't have to worry about meeting another car on the road with the same ones.

[option00002]

Hey, I like those wheels! They're Azev type A's, which are pretty uncommon. I've only ever seen one other e28 with them and if I remember that was in a picture of a car somewhere in europe. At least I don't have to worry about meeting another car on the road with the same ones.

To be clear I love the wheels, but they look white to me. I am now thinking that is light at play in the picture. C'mon give me a daytime pic.!

[llubahn]

i can't wait to see how they do. i can't remember the name of the place buts i know where they're located.

i'm painting my car too. but it's not a professional job, just what i can manage on a students salary. we'll have to line them up at western days and show chatfield whats up.

also, i have a door in fargo if your interested. it's black with poor tint on the window. i have the rear door as well for the drivers side and a hood.

let me know what you think. i might be able to meet you half way if it works out.

[wkohler]

I guess it's sort of a bummer that now summer is here and you can't drive it. Still, I can't wait to see how it turns out.

[stuartinmn]

The shop is Bremseth's, they're on Front St. in Wykoff.

Here's a closeup of one of the wheels:



Unfortunately I don't have a lot of photos of the car; I used to have more but lost them when my hard drive crashed a couple years ago.

[stuartinmn]

Here are some of the first photos. The bare metal looks pretty good in these, but not surprisingly there's more rust than I was aware of...it will need some patching in the rocker panels and floorboards. The hood and both front doors will be replaced (which I already had planned) and there's some rust in the driver's side rear door that was hidden underneath the weatherstrip.

[davintosh]

Are they stripping everything down to metal? Looks like a big, big job! Are the wheels gonna be ok through the process? I think I'd feel better having some old TRX's with ratty tires on it for rolling around the shop. FWIW, I think the wheels look great on the car too.

The big question; will it be done in time for 5er Fest? (or are you going?)

[stuartinmn]

Yeah, the whole thing is going back to bare metal. This place goes by the theory of it's best to start from scratch, so they 1) find anything hidden that should be repaired and 2) so they have full control over the paint. They've already found some things that would have otherwise gone unnoticed - for instance, I thought the replacement front doors I provided were totally rustfree, but when they stripped off the paint they found some rust in the seams that needs to be cut out and replaced with fresh metal. I'm not planning on 5erfest this year, the car may or may not be done by then.

I do have a set of TRX's in the garage attic but I didn't think about swapping them on until after the car had already been dropped off. Still, these guys are good, so I don't have any concerns about them damaging the wheels.

[wkohler]

This is exciting, Stuart!

[stuartinmn]

It would be even more exciting if someone else was paying for it. Oh well, you can't put a price on these cars...

[shocka]

Gorgeous car indeed. A prime example for a resto, keep the pics comin.

[bojangles]

If you are stripping down to bare metal, what are you doing to combat corrosion?
I think these cars had a powder coat primer from the factory. It is still the best (only?) way to slow down the steel from rusting.

[stuartinmn]

I believe the body was electrocoated (e-coated) at the factory, not powder coated.

At any rate, the issue is that like most cars of its age it's had a number of repairs over the years due to fender benders, etc. (for instance, I know one door was replaced in the past, the roof has been repainted and a rust spot on one fender was repaired.) As a result, there's most likely a number of areas where the e-coat has already been compromised. To make sure there's no hidden corrosion that's going to pop through, and to make sure there won't be any reaction between new paint and old paint, they take it down to bare metal and start over.

Of course, this is just an exterior repaint...It's not being gutted out to a bare shell and dipped in a vat or anything like that, so any original coatings on internal structures will remain intact. The new paint system should protect the exterior just fine. I use the car as a daily driver in the spring/fall/summer, but since it's off the road during salt and slush season I don't anticipate any problems.

[Bill in MN]

Looks nice Stuart!

[a]

I have heard several accounts of painting door insides with linseed oil to stop rust. Properly applied it forms an airtight seal that stops oxidation. Never tried it though.

[Nebraska_e28]

\subscribed

[stuartinmn]

This car was driven year round for the first eight or ten years of its life, but on the other hand it was Ziebarted when new and the original owner was pretty meticulous about its care. All things considered, even with the rust that's been found I think it's survived pretty well for a Minnesota car.

I will have to talk to the shop about their recommendations for treating the inside of the doors after the metalwork is done, as it will continue to be my daily driver as long as there isn't snow on the ground.

[Tim in N FL]

Congrats Stuart. I've always admired your car and do like those Azevs too. Look forward to seeing it at 5erFest in August and having a beer with you to hear the story in person. Will that be likely?

Tim

[stuartinmn]

Congrats Stuart. I've always admired your car and do like those Azevs too. Look forward to seeing it at 5erFest in August and having a beer with you to hear the story in person. Will that be likely?

Tim

Probably won't make it this year...I don't expect the car will be done by then.

[stuartinmn]

Here's a bunch more photos of the progress.

Funky hole in the passenger floor. This had been patched sometime before I owned the car, with a piece of tin, some Great Stuff foam and undercoating. All cut out and replaced with new metal.





Heinous holes in the driver's floor. I didn't know about the one under the gas pedal until the other day; it was invisible from underneath but when they pulled out the carpet there was no metal left there, just the undercoat. The gas pedal bracket was totally gone so they fabricated a new one to weld in.

I had had the hole on the outside edge patched a couple years ago, and I thought the shop that did that work were competent but it ended up being just held in place with a bunch of screws and then covered up with undercoat.

They're working on filling these with new metal now, they're mostly done but haven't sent photos yet.



The right front fender initially looked good, but they found the bottom edge behind the wheel was pretty rotted. This could have been fixed, but it ended up being just as cheap to buy a whole new fender.



New fender goodness.



There was a bunch of other little rust spots that have been patched in, around door seams, in the rocker panels, the doglegs behind the passenger doors, around the taillights, some bubbles around the rear window. They've been fixed with new metal.

Finally, they're about done with the repair work and the fun stuff starts: In these photos there's several coats of wash primer (an acid etch that bites into metal for good adhesion between the metal and the epoxy sealer), 2 lights coats of epoxy sealer, and several coats of sanding primer.

[Adam W in MN]

Love it Stuart! Thanks for sharing.

[alijonny]

HQ my friend. great for motivation!

[PROJECT. E28]

did you leave the gutter trim on?? i cant really tell but it looks like it

[wkohler]

I like the progress. Someday soon, I'll be doing this with my M535i, though it won't be sitting on it's wheels.