Another decrepit E30 316i coupe being revived (In colour)

[Autoglym 255]

20 hours ago, aramoana said:

Is that to say the ones I have are too short or too long? The squeak/binding only happens when I tighten it up that last little bit 

 

To long

[Autoglym 255]

Great result, it had me buggered for a while, trying to figure out what had changed!!

The simplest of things!!

[Deano1968 37]

PM sent

[aramoana 20]

The ball continues rolling. 

A new front bumper has tidied the front up nicely, but now leaves me realising that the paint is letting the team down. The wheels need repainting and so does the car. 

I went round a few panel beating shops today with the car and am having a quote from one, and then I got the classic "just sell it and get one with good paint", with 2 panel beaters saying it would be in the 6-10k range for a closed door paint. Now, knowing this is insane, I want to come to the good folks at Bimmersport and ask if anyone has some directions for who I could go to for a decent affordable paint job?

I got the wheels off the car today and gave them a bloody good cleaning. Unfortunately these wheels are the prime example of why the preparation before painting matters. The paint is bubbling and flaking off in spots, and then has adhered firmly in others. Ive managed to get most of the crud off, but Im going to say I want them blasted back to the alloy.

Does anyone know of any Bimmersport/BMW friendly or good people to take the wheels to for blasting? 

[Palazzo 477]

I just had some wheels sand blasted. Whatever you do, don’t use Master Blaster in Grafton.

I ended up using Autoblast on the North Shore, who were good.

But I think you’re in Hamilton?

[aramoana 20]

10 hours ago, Palazzo said:

I just had some wheels sand blasted. Whatever you do, don’t use Master Blaster in Grafton.

I ended up using Autoblast on the North Shore, who were good.

But I think you’re in Hamilton?

Ill keep that in mind if I'm up in Auckland, but yes, otherwise I am in Hamilton if anyone knows of a good group to take it to. 

[Olaf 3317]

I took a pair of weaves to a blasting shop recomended by my paint supplier, asked for 'fine'.  Yes they were stripped, but it will be many, many coats of primer/filler before they're ready to prime and paint.  Go for PMB (plastic media blasting) or Soda blasting or Vapour blasting, it'll save you heartache.

And if they're not that bad, do it yourself.  Get the right materials, take your time.

Edited October 20, 2021 by Olaf

[aramoana 20]

2 minutes ago, Olaf said:

I took a pair of weaves to a blasting shop recomended by my paint supplier, asked for 'fine'.  Yes they were stripped, but it will be many, many coats of primer/filler before they're ready to prime and paint.  Go for PMB (plastic media blasting) or Soda blasting or Vapour blasting, it'll save you heartache.

And if they're not that bad, do it yourself.  Get the right materials, take your time.

I've got the etch and high build primers ready to go, but the surface is just too rubbish to even contemplate trying to work with. I used 80 grit on one last night to see how it would go, but quickly realised that it needs to be blasted. There are too many spots of bubbling paint, which means stripping the entire set back to metal with just 80 grit is going to be more time than its worth. Also the corroded surface left under the bubbling paint would appreciate a nice blast. 

Once they're stripped, they'll be treated to the the primers, then a couple base coats of Honda Satin Silver (NH623M) which was recommended as a pretty good match for the BBS colour, then 2k clear on top of that. Not cheap stuff mind you, but hopefully it looks the part. 

[Deano1968 37]

I've taken my wheels to Advanced Chrome Platers in Hamilton.  George acid dips the wheels.  Cost is about $50 per wheel.  

[Palazzo 477]

52 minutes ago, Deano1968 said:

I've taken my wheels to Advanced Chrome Platers in Hamilton.  George acid dips the wheels.  Cost is about $50 per wheel.  

That’s much cheaper than blasting, factory wheels have some rubberised coating on them that is tough to remove with blasting.

[aramoana 20]

3 hours ago, Deano1968 said:

I've taken my wheels to Advanced Chrome Platers in Hamilton.  George acid dips the wheels.  Cost is about $50 per wheel.  

Just called them up and got told 85 + gst - nearly $100 per wheel to get them stripped. Must be a mates rates thing you got going there. 

[nick496 268]

Yeah, that's closer to the price I paid recently to get my wheels dipped at Advanced Chrome Platers.

They also spun up the wheels, and found 2 of them weren't quite round, and fixed that as well.

[Palazzo 477]

I paid $70+gst for the blasting, not sure they’d be keen to replicate that though.

[Deano1968 37]

Eeek, it could be.  He is my neighbour.  Didn't realise he gave me that good a deal.

[Olaf 3317]

Honda Silver?  Jack it in now, do not pass go, head straight to your Honda Fit.

[aramoana 20]

57 minutes ago, Olaf said:

Honda Silver?  Jack it in now, do not pass go, head straight to your Honda Fit.

I took someone's advice about what the best colour match was, and this was it. Hopefully it looks the part. It has a nice small metallic flake like the BBS powder coat does, so time will tell. 

[nick496 268]

1 hour ago, Olaf said:

Honda Silver?  Jack it in now, do not pass go, head straight to your Honda Fit.

Shh you
I painted my wheels a Honda colour too, NH583M, and they look ok.
They don't seem particular close to 30 year old basket weave silver, but they are indeed a silver colour. 

[aramoana 20]

13 minutes ago, nick496 said:

Shh you
I painted my wheels a Honda colour too, NH583M, and they look ok.
They don't seem particular close to 30 year old basket weave silver, but they are indeed a silver colour. 

I think that's the vogue silver colour I saw advised elsewhere, but then a couple people commented that it wasn't close so I went with the other suggested Honda colour. 

[qube 3570]

10 hours ago, Deano1968 said:

Eeek, it could be.  He is my neighbour.  Didn't realise he gave me that good a deal.

you know hes a good dude when he doesnt even point out that its mates rates!

[aramoana 20]

A few things have been trickling in. A nice collection of seals and things from Schmiedmann is in Australia currently, so the anticipation is building. I got a new truck seal installed, with this one being almost exactly an inch too long. A trim and persuasion resulted in a satsifying "thunk. Unfortunately the bottom pinch lip had a few nasty bits of rust. I've cleaned it up with a wire wheel and put metal primer onto it for the meantime, however I will address it properly when the car paint gets a bit more attention. 

The wheels I mentioned earlier are truely quite something. The paint that was on them was poor, but I soon understood why when I eventually got through the paint and realised they were powder coated underneath. Discovering this, my neighbour lent me his petrol water blaster and I've ordered a wet-sandblaster attachment that i can use with 30/60 mesh Garnet to strip the wheels back to bare alloy to give the etch something to stick to. 

Something slightly more visual, the new fog lights arrived! Because Im still stripping the wheels, the car is having a rest on the jack stands. 

Left: No fog light Right: Fog light! Much better!

I didn't have any self tappers that had a head big enough to hold the lamp in place. I was just lucky I have a second valence/bumper sitting in the shed to rob various parts off, like the plastic bits the screws thread into. 

I have since discovered what screws I need. They're the same ones as required for fixing the front fenders at least. Does anyone know how I could get my hands on a bunch in NZ? They're the ST4,8X13-ZN3 Hex head screws P/N: 07119904285. 

Edited October 26, 2021 by aramoana
for help

[Olaf 3317]

If your new trunk seal is a Genuine BMW seal, it's the exact right length from factory, nothing to trim.

P/N 07119904285 - wow that Schmeidmann price is good.

We need pics of your wheels before, during, after blasting.

[Eagle 1662]

Try Chartwell Panel and Paint. We use them for our work and they appear to have very reasonable prices for their work.

[aramoana 20]

22 hours ago, Olaf said:

If your new trunk seal is a Genuine BMW seal, it's the exact right length from factory, nothing to trim.

P/N 07119904285 - wow that Schmeidmann price is good.

We need pics of your wheels before, during, after blasting.

I'm ashamed to admit this, but it was not Genuine BMW. However, the seal I did get comes from the same production line, just without the Dealer-tax associated.

These wheels have been a major time sink. The paint covering the powder coat wasn't brilliant, but it still put up a valiant fight. It was no match for a paint scraper and some seriously toxic paint stripper though. The wet-sandblaster arrived and chewed through a 20kg bag of garnet pretty quickly, which was slightly alarming. However, it also roughed up the surface of the powder coat nicely, so at least the high build will have something to stick to. I'm currently stuck though, because there are parts of the wheel with exposed alloy, and parts still confidently covered with powder coat. Will etch primer that hits the powder coat impact on the subsequent coats? Naturally there will be overspray when I use the etch primer on the exposed alloy parts, so my approach now it to either be somewhat careful with the etch primer, or just use high build primer. I'll go to the professionals tomorrow and have a yarn, but I'm interested to hear what other peoples opinions are. The internet forums seem to return a mixed bag, with some saying they used etch over powder coat happily, and others swearing black and blue against it. 

[Olaf 3317]

you need to etch any exposed metal.

I don't know what to do about powder coat, other than chem dip the wheels.

PS - shame about your seal - if it came from the same line, it would have been the correct length.

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by Olaf
powder coat

[Palazzo 477]

An update for you that might be of interest, got my wheels powder coated for $62.50/wheel.