e36 328 ownership experience

[Lee36328]

You know you are a car nut if like me, you are fascinated by the quality of the weld...

 

[insomniac]

Lol! Hahaha... and you touch the welding to test smoothness too.

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[Lee36328]

Lol! Hahaha... and you touch the welding to test smoothness too.

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Yes, and it was pleasing to the touch. Hmmm.... :smokin:

 

[Chrix]

Yes, and it was pleasing to the touch. Hmmm.... :smokin:

That sounds dirty... yeaaah.

 

[Lee36328]

He he.

Some more explicit photos...

This is what happens when you turn left too near a pedestrian walkway corner. The one at Uptown near Starbucks. Watch out for that one guys. When turning left, be mindful of the blind spot at the passenger side, especially when potentially there's anything raised nearby.

It's a tough one to fix too. Firstly, that part of the body is hard steel.

They got to weld something onto it in order to pull it out before smoothing it over.

Note the weld marks.

 

[Lee36328]

Almost there.

Note the new mounting points drilled in there. Yes, something nice will be added.

 

[Lee36328]

At last, been waiting for this, the final pre-painting prep work begins - sanding down.

The roof has been through a lot. The sun, heat, rain, not to mention maybe too much polishing, all took their toll and it was in bad shape.

That required stripping away the old paint down to the bare metal.

 

[Chrix]

Thumbs up of for this resto job

 

[Lee36328]

Thanks bro. Hopefully it will last a while.

Am carefully choosing the new color now.

 

[casper909]

Go blue bro! Rare and an eye catcher!

 

[Lee36328]

Thanks for the color suggestion, Casper. Thought of that, blue is nice and my favorite color. But am thinking of a more radical change from the present blue to something quite different.

 

[Lee36328]

Here are my palette choices, which I've narrowed down to two. Both are pearl paints, so the actual tone depends on the angle and amount of light hitting it.

And here is a rough mockup. (I've used a coupe just as a rough illustration.)

Photographs alone cannot fully render the subtle shades of the pearl paint dancing in the sunlight, but it's useful for me to roughly imagine what it would look like.

What do you guys think? Ok or not?

 

[casper909]

So you either painting to white or silver? Both are good choices bro! How much is the paint job approximately bro and where are you doing it?

 

[Lee36328]

So you either painting to white or silver? Both are good choices bro! How much is the paint job approximately bro and where are you doing it?

Call me crazy, but I don't have the costs yet, and won't know until the work is completed, going by faith and keeping my fingers crossed. The level of detail and workmanship, and much of the detailed work finished by hand, not just machine, is remarkable I must say. I put it in the good hands of my regular workshop - you guys know who I guess. It pays to have a good relationship with the provider taking care of your ride.

More progress pics to follow. The suspense is killing me, looking forward to seeing the finished result, but can't rush the meticulous process.

 

[Lee36328]

Roof polished down to raw steel, looks like marble.

 

[Lee36328]

Getting to the bottom of trouble spots is a labourious process. Strip to bare metal. Apply epoxy coating for rust-proofing and to help the primer to bind. Apply the primer to help paint to bind. Applying paint, several layers, to the primer, and finish with clear coat.

Here it is stripped to bare metal.

Epoxy/primer applied. Prior to grinding to smooth out the surface.

 

[casper909]

Can't wait for the finished product!

 

[ICEMAN 68]

wahhh lee ya still have that e36 with you ahhh ? been years since last we meet ....jom yamcha someday larr ..

 

[Lee36328]

Can't wait for the finished product!

Yeah, that makes two of us. Also includes my mom, because I borrowed her go-to-market car in the meantime.

wahhh lee ya still have that e36 with you ahhh ? been years since last we meet ....jom yamcha someday larr ..

Yeah man. Been a while. Still w the same faithful car bro. Put so much love into it already, it's a keeper. Sure, yamcha no pbm.

 

[ICEMAN 68]

looking forward to see this 36 rocking on the road again with a new skin texture ....

do change all the rubber moldings too ...if can try to remove the front and rear mirror ....

can't wait to see the final product ...