Back in black BMW e30

[reiernumans]

Just read the entire thread. Sucks most pics from page 5 through 7 aren't working, but this is sick man. I'm gonna follow this one.

[dillon7]

Now THAT's a shop!

Thanks! Much better than working out of the garage.

Just read the entire thread. Sucks most pics from page 5 through 7 aren't working, but this is sick man. I'm gonna follow this one.

Hopefully I can dig up some of those photos and get them fixed, but thanks!

[dillon7]

Started some of the grinding work on the car today. The most pressing issue was the roof. The paint had developed "Crows feet" so the guy painting the car suggested that I strip it down to the bare metal to completely fix the problem. Grabbed a grinder and 80 grit sand paper and got to work. It took much longer than I expected but I finally got it all off.

Perks of being on air are being able to air out to reach the roof easier...;D

BMW aired out for grinding (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

Grinding away

Me Grinding roof (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

Finished with the 80 grit

Roof Grinded (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

I still have to go back over it all with 180 grit but my arms were tired so I will get to that tomorrow. Before calling it a night I went ahead and got the pin stripe off as well.

BMW removing pinstripe (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

Plan for tomorrow is 180 grit over the roof, start body work (fixing dents), and then go from there.

Also, I'm looking for a black vinyl sport interior and early model rear valence (zender or any other kind) so if you have one for sale let me know!

[CubbyChowder]

Dang, that's a real deal shop. What kind of work do you plan on doing in there?

[dillon7]

Dang, that's a real deal shop. What kind of work do you plan on doing in there?

It's a little up in the air right now since I'm still in school away from home. We have a plan for when I'm done with college but until then it's just more of a hobby shop doing some odd jobs and parting out cars for some income.

[K-Line]

Super jealous of the new machinery, have been looking for a mill and lathe myself. If you dont mind me asking but what do you go to school for? Im assuming something to do with machining, just starting using them this past year and love it!

[dillon7]

Super jealous of the new machinery, have been looking for a mill and lathe myself. If you dont mind me asking but what do you go to school for? Im assuming something to do with machining, just starting using them this past year and love it!

Actually, I go to school for finance haha. My Dad has worked in NASCAR his entire life and built race cars for a good portion of that time so he is teaching me machining, bodywork, and pretty much everything to do with cars. So, no need to go to school for it.

[dillon7]

Worked the past two days on the car so this update will include both days.

First thing first was bondo/putty work. I don't have photos of all the places but the sunroof, roof, passenger door, and passenger rear quarter panel were the main areas.

Sunroof wet bondo (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

Roof bondo (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

Here is the area of the door I worked on and you can see the high low spots. For some reason I don't have a pic doing the bondo work but oh well.

door sanded (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

After a lot of sanding and applying more bondo/putty and then some more sanding I arrived at this point.

Sunroof bondo sanded (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

roof bondo sanded (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

Next, it was time to address all the bare metal on the roof. Mixed up some sealer and had my dad spray the roof since I suck at painting and he has a lot more experience than I do.

Dad spraying sealer (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

The sealer dried really quickly and then it was time to prime the roof. Don't have any action shots but here in the first layer.

first coat of roof primer (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

I let it dry overnight and came back today to do the second layer. Before shooting though I did some more sanding on all the places that were hard to reach such as door jams, window jams, trunk jam, etc.

window jam sanding (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

Also did the front valence.

front valence sanded (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

Finally, I moved onto the roof and passenger side of the car to do a lot more of a certain something...sanding. Sanded all the primer and prepped it for the second layer which came out like this.

final primer (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

final door primer (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

final primer right rear (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

That's as far as I got this weekend. The next good couple hours of my day were spend cleaning the shop from the awful mess I made and definitely decided to never do bodywork in there again. I had to go back to school tonight so I won't have any updates for a little bit but I plan on coming home next weekend to finish all of the prep work so that it can be painted two weeks from now. The plan for next week is to wet sand the entire car, look for anymore possible small dings, fix rust issues, and then be good to go for paint!

[244Brick]

Just Build an enclosure for body work!

[dillon7]

Just Build an enclosure for body work!

Yeah, we will probably end up doing that. Just something simple with a pvc pipe frame. We also talked about putting up another wall in the back 25 feet of the shop and making that a bodywork area but we will see.

[aegul44]

gotta love e30. Iconic car. Hope to get my hands on one of these one day. Good luck with build man. Looking good.

[dillon7]

gotta love e30. Iconic car. Hope to get my hands on one of these one day. Good luck with build man. Looking good.

thanks man!

[dillon7]

Quick update.

So I'm 95% finished with sanding, just have to go fill in a couple little dents and I'll be finished. Besides that, all I have left to do before paint is the rust work. I don't have any pics of the sanding because there really isn't much to see. I'll get a final pic right before paint.

In more exciting news, I picked up these seats for the e30. I'm going to redo the entire interior from tan to black leather with some suede accents.

Corbeau seats (1 of 1) by dillonmakar, on Flickr

[DER E30]

Those should look good in there!

[K-Line]

Looking good dude, killing it as usual!