Body work / Paint on the 'ole girl

[Jamos]

**** Accidentally posted this in the E36 section, asked Mod to move it but they haven't seen it for a few hrs ****


First time trying body work on ANYTHING but I have some experience doing paint, just not on my car

So I have this "black" hammered spray can, it comes out dark grey almost charcoal, and is PERFECT for the OEM grey skirts. It looks wet in this picture, but it's just the way the clearcoat was sprayed. You can see PURPLE at the top, but that's how the paint looks without the clear on it. The clear brings out the pearl too, I looove it. The blue I got (317) is a perfect match to the car, I'm so happy the PO used factory code paint to respray! Here's the blue and "black" on the busted bumper:



I really love the colour combo! There is all kinds of crap on the blue, once I had the colour I didn't care about the quality, so I taped it up and sprayed a few coats of that hammered, you can see the streaks (didn't want to waste it all incase it WAS going to work) and the ripped up clear coat from the paint. No biggy, was just for testing.

THEN I moved on to body work once I knew I had colours down:



You can see the bulge on the rear under the light where the guard rail wire went under, and then the rusted streak where it rubbed against the corner - which actually stopped the car!

I started grinding away the rust and OH LOOK:



Turns out the PO had a bunch of body work done back here! Hmmmm... explains why the paint CRACKED and wasn't flaking, the entire part was covered in crap. I managed to remove it all, and it was just a few dents, no broken metal fortunately.

Moved over to the passenger rear fender that has been growing since day one of ownership:



So far it's looking good, nice "clean" solid metal underneath!


Oh WAIT A SECOND. Nope, turns out it's all covered in crap along the entire well, it was rebuilt and instead of a nice sharp line it's very rounded and "hand made." Hmm never noticed before. I cleaned up all the rust in the well, and found quite a bit of bubbling towards the rear of it too:




I've sprayed rust converter on all the areas I grinded down - quite a few back there - and they've all turned a nice darkened - near black - colour, ready for primer.

Long day today, went through a few grinding pads, and a couple masks. Perfect weather for it though, I'll update once I've completely ruined the car by trying to paint hahah!

I figure even if I screw it up, I can still take it to a shop and pay a guy to do it right with the right equipment and experience, but hey if I don't need to, what an experience and accomplishment it'll be!

[Jamos]

So attacked more rust today. Whoever owned this car BEFORE me, or at least whoever used BODY FILLER everywhere without CLEANING out the rust first, I can't wait to meet them in a dark alley!

Last spring the car showed no real signs of rust, nothing a usual winter doesn't throw at my cars. THIS year the car sat for a few months and I was able to see all kinds of issues.

Here's that little trim piece behind the rear door, looks like the rebuilt the fender arch and this piece with body filler. This was the result:



That's all cleaned up and looks as good as new - forgot to take a picture. Just needs paint now.

Then there was this driver's side jack point, also filled with all kinds of glue and other crap which lead to rust heaven:


Cleaned it up and sanded it level with the rest of the frame, now the plug fits in there perfectly - just like the other three now (used to sit all crooked and outward)


I'll attack the rust again tomorrow, but that took two grinding discs (on my Dremel) to get back in to shape.

Then I went around the doors and knicked off all of the rust in each corner, there were some penny-sized rust spots starting to show up on two of them, and then cleared out all of the rust in the arches. A couple more little spots, and MAYBE the front of the roof line between the roof and the windshield, and that'll be it!

I bought some rubbing compound today too, found some bonnets for my old orbital polisher and WOW the trunk lid has come alive, I couldn't stop staring!!

[Hueristic]

Rust is such a pain. I hates it!

[Jamos]

Hahahah first time I liked that guy =D

[Sobek]

Awesome man, really. I LOVE seeing this kind of DIY work, it's the sort of thing I really want to get into myself. How are your rocker panels? Any dents? I've got one in mine and want to take a jab at repairing it before I shell out massive bucks for a professional to tackle it (have got it quoted, he even suggested I have a go at it myself because either way it doesn't affect his ability to repair it and might even save him some time haha).

Keep the pictures coming too, they speak a thousand words - love seeing the befores and afters!

[Jamos]

Thanks Sobek!

I've always thought, "Next month I'll take it in to get fixed" but woke up the other day thinking, "wait. . . . why the heck couldn't *I* do this!?"

So, I started haha. The rockers are in great shape EXCEPT for that one jack spot, it rusted pretty badly and underneath the jack pad actually came off last year - cleaned it up a BIT and then glued it in place. I'll rip it out again and clean up the metal and get it taken care of as it should be.

There are three dents on the car, two on the driver's side - each door - and one on the passenger side - rear door. Pretty small, but to me they're 100% bigger than they need to be. Super thick metal there so I'm not sure what I'll end up doing, I may even fill them in with putty just because I can't get to them through the door skins - already tried, more than once.

I'm MOSTLY worried about running out of paint, I have to find someone closer to me than California to set me up with spray cans of this paint. I can't say it enough, the paint is GORGEOUS out of this can!

[TxDarth]

I actually think I would be looking for a new shell....maybe transfer your power train to the new donor. Once rust gets thst bad it is almost impossible to stop - just being honest. That car has been in some serious salted areas and sadly it shows in many areas.

[xboss]

It's def rusty but at least he can have fun with it. My 750 got hit in the back on the freeway for example and the body shifted where the rear glass and deck meet it's off now even though no dents so even though I am doing all kinds of stuff to the car, I still consider it my beater 750 that I hope to transfer parts from into a better one someday.

[Jamos]

I have a car in my driveway from 2009, and it's rusted way worse than mine. The rust areas are just that, areas, not the whole thing. Every car up here is like this after 5 years man, you southerners don't know how luck you are!


While sanding the replacement bumper today, I was JUST moving to grab my can of primer and OOPS, knocked it off the make-shift table. Cracked the damned left corner of it, that sharp angle that goes up with the wheel well, GREAT! I'm sure I can fix it, but not what I was planning for.

[xboss]

Detroit cars get tortured by snow and salt. You can see the road in the floor boards of some old cars!

Man, I used to live in cali, they have it made. I saw cars with no paint or primer, just bare metal from the sun beating the paint off the car. Car is like 30 years old with no paint and no rust.

[Jamos]

Yeah when I went to Vancouver I saw 35 year old cars that looked brand new, EVERYWHERE. It was like time travel, nobody needed new cars so there were so many oldies driving around haha! Bastards =D

Got the bumper pretty much ready to cut for the insert - HOPE it arrives tomorrow.

Started off with 60 grit sand paper to remove all/most of the previous paint:



Then I went around and put putty/glaze to fill in all the little imperfections/scratches



Then I wiped it all down with water. Then I sprayed foaming glass-cleaner, wiped that down. Then bug and tar remover, sprayed it on and wiped it with one terry cloth, and then wiped it off with another. AND THEN took a tack rag and wiped and the rag came out like this (tack as in tacky, it's slightly gluey/sticky to pick up eeevverything before you spray)



And PRESTO:



I think that colour will look good on the Orient Blue, don't you? =D

Here's the damaged part that is all bondo'd up, turns out this ABS plastic bumper, isnt' ABS as my abs glue doesn't do a THING to it, thus the bondo:



Obviously no bondo in that picture, I'm letting it cure over night. I'm exhausted, this is tough work haha!

[TxDarth]

You did good 'til the glass cleaner and tar remover. Finish with 320 or better sand paper then wipe down with prosol or a good wax cleaner before the red oxide primer.

[Jamos]

Why do you suggest the wax remover (Turtle Wax: Wax remover) and the glass cleaner was bad? Glass cleaner to speed up wiping and the alcohol evaporates, then the wax remover gets rid of any residue, then the tack rag picked up the last finest stuff. Also I sanded with 600 before the paint. Then wet sanded with 600 to smoothen the primer to a glassy smooth texture

- - - Updated - - -

Ah I said, "bug and tar remover" it's actually wax remover, sorry =D AND I forgot to mention the extra sanding steps.

We're on the same page here hah

[Hueristic]

I think he meaNT A DEGREASER.

http://www.autobody101.com/forums/vi...hp?f=5&t=18975

And nothing wrong with tack cloths. used to use them all the time.

[Haadkoe]

I have a car in my driveway from 2009, and it's rusted way worse than mine. The rust areas are just that, areas, not the whole thing. Every car up here is like this after 5 years man, you southerners don't know how luck you are!


While sanding the replacement bumper today, I was JUST moving to grab my can of primer and OOPS, knocked it off the make-shift table. Cracked the damned left corner of it, that sharp angle that goes up with the wheel well, GREAT! I'm sure I can fix it, but not what I was planning for.

Mine is also an original Ontario car, and is the same color as yours... Blue and rust.

I'll be following suit sometime this summer, before the rear sheet metal disappears completely.

Just patched my leaking fuel tank on Saturday. I assumed it was gonna be leaking at the seam, but no. The bottom of the tank had a few rusty spots, the largest of which was the diameter of a softball, and the metal had actually become porous. Frigging salt!

[Jamos]

Rainy day, not much done today - cleaned up the bumper broken bits, looks as good as new now, I'm happy/big relief =D

I sanded down the metal on the rear fender some more to try to get rid of some of those developing rust spots, but no cigar. So I wet sanded that rear panel just about 50%, and cleaned it up annnd wanted to see how the blue paint would look so quickly sprayed a test spot, it was horrible! Then I realized I forgot to prime it and everything uh yi yi, too many fumes. SO I just bought a respirator and a couple more cans of paint from expresspaint.com for both my car and the grey G6 in the driveway.

Taking a break I guess until they arrive.

My bumper part didn't arrive today from Latvia

[xboss]

ABS is such a crank to bond to. EVen the 3m VHB tapes hate ABS

[Jamos]

So I'm still deciding on whether or not I want to fill in the dents or try PDR on them - one on the driver door and one on driver rear door - but other than that, every other spot has been worked on to remove rust or other defects from the PO's paint job.

Today I got my new mirror inserts and windshield trim. The TRIM doesn't fit because the windscreen isn't mounted straight, but since it's cracked I'll get a new one put in there sooner than later.

Old mirror trim - drove me NUTS -



And the purdy new one:


Those four screws that hold that thing in place were pretty corroded. Yuck.

Also received two more cans of 317 Orient Blue

[Jamos]

Got some vinyl and fabric dye today.

WOW is it ever as good as people say it is. I used some other stuff 10 years ago and it was nothing compared to this.

My carpets:






My door trim has pissed me off since I got the car, PO was a smoker and the typical burn marks were always in the corner of my eye:



Not anymore!




Trouble is, I just went through a can! Hah, After testing on some pieces first, doing the two thick carpets and that entire seal. . . oops. That seal is a pain because 50% of the spray misses it so it's such a waste. BUT boy does it look good, and this stuff dries almost immediately with no smell. Dupli-color Vinyl & Fabrick (with a k . . .)

$8 a can, took me 10 minutes in total. Incredible.

[TxDarth]

Will you please quit farting around with the carpets and finish that rear diffuser/bumper......I am waiting to see how that turns out, may order one myself.

[Jamos]

Hahaah!

WELL, about that.

I sprayed a wrinkle coat on it, but it wasn't even for some reason (I swear it wasn't my fault!) so I sprayed another primer coat on that, and sprayed another couple coats of wrinkle on it last night. This morning, SAME DAMNED RESULT.

So I went out and got some graffiti remover and went from this:



To this:


To this:

Once that flat black dries completely, I'll tape it off, and get to painting the bumper this afternoon, then get it on the car tomorrow at the latest. Just for you

Look at all the rags I had to use to remove the paint though, that GOOF OFF is great stuff, didn't affect this alien-plastic at all! Had to go through wrinkle, primer, wrinkle, primer. Took some time, ate right through my gloves but didn't do a THING to my fingers, actually removed all the urethane stains that nothing could take care of on my hands haha!


Look at my collection of things building every day, what a disaster this whole, "get a new bumper and paint it" project has become! =D

[Sobek]

I'd actually love to hear more about your fabric dye... I want to go with DARK grey / possibly black floor mats, but since mine are still like new it seems a shame to have to shell out another $140-ish for a whole new set of mats, and not even be 100% sure if the colour is what I want until they're in my hands. What product did you use? Does it seem durable? How does it feel? I keep hearing how sprayed carpets feel really rashy and awful.

Hmmm

[Jamos]

The stuff I used is:

Dupli-Color Vinyl & Fabrick

Should be at your local hardware store, it's the bondo of fabric dye. The carpet feels EXACTLY the same as it did before I sprayed it. It's a very thick carpet so I didn't get all the way down in to it, but you can only tell if you bend it in half - which it should never be when inside the car so I'm not worried =D

Not sure if they have DARK grey though.

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry Darth it looks like I won't get the bumper on the car tomorrow after all. I still have to paint it blue. Tonight I painted the skirt dark grey/charcoal/black hammered. It came out pretty darned well, however the damned spray nozzle broke RIGHT before I went to use it, and I put another one . . too tightly focussed which made it very hard to spray even, SO it may end up looking like total crap tomorrow - fingers crossed though heh. I need a nice FAN spray, not the damned laser shot that it was.

Here it was after the final primer/sanding and ready to go:


And then the hammered applied, a close up to show the texture:


Then I moved to finish building the rear corner of the car, sand it and get some primer down. While I was there I took out the light that was removed back in October, look at all that crud that collected just since then! Imagine people who haven't removed their lights in 15 years, asking for rust:


Looks like the paint job from the PO just had the lights taped off, you can see where the "new" paint meets the old:


Sanded it down, body filled some areas, treated the bare metal, and primed:


Now it's going to sit over night and cure, same as the bumper.

Tomorrow I hope to get the bumper all painted up, not sure about clear coated - I'll probably do that ON the car, just to give the bases some extra time to cure - and then I'll move to the 49 other things I'm doing with the car =D

[purplecty]

This stuff?

http://www.amazon.com/Dupli-Color-HV.../dp/B00098PO3G

[Jamos]

Yuzzir! It's actually $9.95 or something on special at Canadian Tire right now - for you Canucks.

It's excellent stuff, that video that finally sold me on it was this:



- - - Updated - - -

After starting on my carpets I realized - our carpets are about FIVE TIMES thicker than his, so it'll take more than one can as he used!! =D