Bringing back an E9.

[Steven_318ti]

Amazing work man and congrats on the twins, love this colour, slightly darker than my own steel blue E36

[mpower5266]

Its been a few weeks and with the new born twins, I haven't worked on the car a ton. My dad has been fairly busy though. The trunk was filthy, panels were off/loose, and the tool kit was trashed. My dad and I found a tool kit on the E9 forum and purchased it. He also did some cleaning and dye work on the panels.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

He also purchased some tools and cleaned them. We almost have all of them, just looking for the big screw driver at a reasonable price. they are bringing over $100 for clean ones.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

He also got started on the A/C install.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Since I had already sanded the drivers side, he went ahead and installed the mirror and trim.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Last week while I was off work, we took the babies over to visit Grandma and Grandpa, so I headed out to the shop and got some work done. I finished sanding and compounding the rest of the car.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Down to the 1" pads.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

And finally the car is fully wet sanded, well except for the hood. I will do the hood once we get it on the car.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

For now, my dad is going to handle most of the work. He will get the trim on and start buttoning up what he can on the car since I have the young-ins. I will still work on it with him here and there but hes going to handle most of it. Once it gets to a point where we can drive it, likely after the carpets come in and we get the interior installed, I am going to move it to my house and do the final detail before we do the bumpers and stuff. Its getting really close though, and my retired father is plugging away on it every day. I will have more updates soon, but here is a quick walk around video of the paint to hold you over. It will still get a quick compound pass with a really light compound, a polish to jewel it up, and a sealant/coating.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[mpower5266]

Kind of a boring update. Over the weekend I did a little more sanding and polishing. I knocked out the rear panel and the top edge of the rear 1/4.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

My dad also got started on the trunk. We ordered some tools to replace the missing ones from the kit, and the holder for the tools since ours was cracked. He also pulled out the panels from the trunk, cleaned it well and put some rust encapsulator paint down. Not original, and there wasnt a lot of rust but this will keep it from rusting and it will be covered.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

And one of the floor boards in the trunk was rotten so we pulled the elephant skin off and we are building a new one.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

The updates may be slow or few and far between for the next few weeks. My wife and I are having our twins this weekend, so I may not have a ton of time to work on the car. My dad will still be plugging away though.

[fitted_fit]

Absolutely stunning color combo, great work so far! sub'd

[Freddye]

Amazing job. This thing is going to look superb.

[mpower5266]

Busy weekend on the E9. I ordered a pneumatic polisher from CHY-NAH with 1,2, and 3 inch backing plates. I tried it out Saturday afternoon on some tight sections. It is garbage but it got the job done.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I also gave the underside of the hood a quick compound and polish.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Monday I woke up early intending to knock out some projects. I started by cleaning and dyeing the last leather piece on the e9.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

After that I wet sanded and polished the trunk on the e9.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

After compound.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I went ahead and polished it out since it was looking good and I wanted to see what the finished product would look like.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

There are still some light straight line scratches from sanding likely. I may go back and hit the whole car with a more aggressive compound but Im not sure. I will likely pull it out into the sun when I am done and look it over. The trunk is looking killer though.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[mpower5266]

I have small update going into a long weekend. The dash and gauge cluster are in.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

They even light up and work and stuff.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Hopefully I will get a lot done this weekend.

[mpower5266]

Like every project my dad and I work on there are usually some steps back. He was buttoning up the dash and was about to install the cluster when he noticed something. When we tried to put in the hood over over cluster it scratched the wood and the hood wouldnt fit right. Our plan was to keep moving forward and touch up the damage to the wood. Well he tried to install the cluster and we figured out why the wood was scratched, the veneer was covering a hole. So everything came out and my dad cut out the hole.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Even better news, the scratches will be covered so no need to touch up. So the dash is back out, but the wood is back in and the cluster is installed. I guess this was kind of a step to the side vs a step back?

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Hopefully we can get the dash back in soon. I was planning on working on the drivers side headrest but we had a power outage for a few hours so I took my 02 out for a cruise instead.

IMG_7976 by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[Steven_318ti]

Awesome work, and an added bonus for me the pics are all showing on my work computer :-)

[Steven_318ti]

Awesome work, and an added bonus for me the pics are showing on my work computer

[mpower5266]

Well, we got the headrest out of the seat. It was a combination of the contraption my dad made and hitting the stuck post with an air hammer to loosen up the rust. Yes, everything in these cars rusts.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I took the seat back home and got to work. I did a little more sanding to smooth out where I filled in the pealing leather.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

And applied a couple coats of dye. It doesn't look great up close but I think its passable for now.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I hauled them back to my dads shop Saturday morning and then got started on the E9's paint. I love the convenience of my wagon, I can just toss parts in it and have fun on the back roads on the way to drop them off.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I also got started on the wet sanding of the e9. I started off hitting it with 1500 by hand and then 3000 on the Porter Cable.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

No going back now. I hit it with a couple passes of Jescar correction compound and a Megs Microfiber cutting pad.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

It came out great, but it took a lot of passes with the compound. While I was working on the fender my dad sanded the roof. I don't know what he did but it would not correct out. I made a Harbor Freight run for some Megs 101, which they didnt have but I got 105. I also bought one of their sun match lights and stopped by my house to get the dewalt with the woolpad(this is the nuclear option.)

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I got the roof to about 90% perfect. There are some actual scratches in it, so I think my dad picked up some trash in the sandpaper. Its something I will only notice but, I will totally notice it. Not sure what the plan is, I am hoping the polish and coating/wax will hide them a little. I then moved on to the drivers door, with the same process of sanding and microfiber pads but using the Megs 105. It corrected out a little easier but it still took a couple of passes. This light was also making me chase every little mark and swirl, I am pretty impressed, its a nice product.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

The door, after correction.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

When working the door, there were a couple little spots were there were nubs in the clear. I sanded those spots a little harder, but when I compounded the car those spots corrected easier. I guess I am knocking the orange peal down level and this is making it easier for the compound to brighten it up. I did a small test spot on the drivers rear 1/4 and it confirmed my theory so I sanded down the panel a little harder than the rest.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

And this pretty much corrected out with 1 pass of 105. I think this will be my process on the rest of the car.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

There are a few small areas that I missed. I have a 1" and 2" pneumatic random orbital kit coming, and I am hoping its going to work for the tight areas. More to come this week.

[mpower5266]

From the "it aint stupid if it works" files, my dad came up with a way to try to break the rusted headrest loose. (Yes everything really does rust on these cars.)

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

But it technically hasnt worked yet, so its stupid. We sprayed some "panther wiz" as my dad calls it into the tube and he is letting it soak, we will try again today. While the PB blaster was doing its thing my dad put the chrome trim on the dash.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

And after that he got started on the dash.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I will probably spend some time sanding on compounding the paint this weekend. I dont know why, its just paint, but I am nervous about it.

[mpower5266]

My dad buttoned up the headliner and then started on the wood dash install on the e9.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

This came out so nice. Especially for someone that that had never really veneered anything before.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[mpower5266]

We moved the e9 to a corner of the shop where it would be out of the way, but we could still work on it. Since its not going to move for a little while I started to work on the drivers seat. Its in pretty bad shape compared to the others but I think I can fix it up. It will be passable. I did a little test spot with the brush and cleaner, pretty encouraging results.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

The cleaning alone helped a ton.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

There were some bad creases and small tears so I played with some filler I had from the kit I used on my M3 seats. Put a couple light coats of the filler on, dried it with the heat gun and sanded smooth. After that I put a few coats of dye on. I am pretty happy with the results.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

After that, I started on the seat back and the bolster damage. This is going to take a lot more filler and sanding. I am not sure that I can make this passable, but our interior guy said he could replace the panel and I could dye it to match. Since that is possible I figured Id give it a shot.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[mpower5266]

Its home.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Time to get to work.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I really need to get the wheels swapped.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr