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Thread: Vinyl Wrap '98 E36 M3 Start to Finish

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Vinyl Wrap '98 E36 M3 Start to Finish

    This will be a work in progress, but thought I'd start the thread now at the very beginning instead of trying to upload a million pictures at once and recount the whole process once we're done.

    Background: My son's first car (lucky) is a '98 M3 we bought from a family friend who had to sell it. It's titanium silver, black vader interior. The car currently has 399,300 miles on it. A previous owner, who I will punch in the testicles if I ever find them, plastidipped the car orange, and the wheels black. Seriously. The plastidip that was visible was removed by a selling dealer prior to our friend buying it back at 348000 miles. However, you will see the remnants in the pictures.

    Project: This car has a limited life ahead of it. Besides having an insane number of miles (but it runs like a champ, has been well maintained) it also has some rust issues that we need to address. We don't want to drop a mint on the vehicle, a full restoration repaint would probably cost twice as much as we paid for the car in the first place. So instead, we've taken on another fun father/son project. We're going to sand out to bare metal, prime and seal as much of the rust as we can get to, then do a full vinyl wrap ourselves. I want to teach my son the value of hard work and that it's 100% worth doing a project right and with a solid effort. We already did the audio system in the car, and he really enjoys the compliments he gets at car shows because we took extra steps to make it nice and customized.The thread is here if you're interested.

    Materials: We will be wrapping the body of the vehicle in 3M 1080 Matte Riviera Blue. The hood is not getting wrapped. We have something special planned for the roof, for which we had to get the correct colors from Avery in a satin finish. We are using a whole assortment of proper tools purchased along with the wrap, as well as a nice heat gun and a good assortment of fasterner tools and sanding tools. The vinyl and tools for wrapping were purchased through Metrorestyling, they seemed to have the best prices and everything we needed in one go. We're going to prime the vehicle with Rustoleum 2 in 1 Primer then Gloss protective enamel.

    Cost: Seems like people will ask eventually, so I'll try to cover some of the costs we've incurred along the way. Vinyl and tools for install - $600 New door trim molding (existing metal retaining guides were rusted and fell apart), new side skirt gaskets, New door handle trim/gaskets, new rear M3 badge, new rear tail lights and front blinkers (old tail lights were full of rust, go figure!), various other clips and hardware - $500

    Here we go! Some before pictures, and the initial pictures I took as we took the car apart today and started cleaning, prepping and sanding.

    These two are the day we bought it at the seller's house.

    IMG_4205.JPG
    IMG_4207.JPG

    We've since had the carbon fibre hood refinished at a shop:
    IMG_6889.jpg

    And below (and next post) are the pictures of the car being taken apart, as well as some of the rust issues:
    IMG_7102.jpg
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by M3Gonz; 06-15-2019 at 10:53 PM.

  2. #2
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    FYI - On the side skirt removal, I found a video on the YouTube of some dude with a red E36 and he made it look like a damn nightmare pulling all the clips to get the side skirts off. It took me literally 10ish minutes, including jacking up the car and removing the rear tire to get to the last two pins. It's not that hard. Only downside is I'll need a bunch of new hardware/clips and in the process of wrapping the side skirts I'll need to remove then apply the gasket, and those are stupid expensive considering what it is.

    Here's just a couple more pics:

    IMG_7129.jpg

    IMG_7141.jpg
    IMG_7139.jpg

    IMG_7151.jpg

  3. #3
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    gonna be a very cool thread! i hope my sons like my cars when they are ready to drive!

  4. #4
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    03 zhp, 97 e36m3, 04 zhp
    Treat the rear fender lip rust from the inside of the trunk too.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mless5 View Post
    Treat the rear fender lip rust from the inside of the trunk too.
    Absolutely. We're trying to get as much of the rust out as possible, but I also realize that at this point we're simply delaying the inevitable in regards to the rust. The rust along that lip inside the trunk is super bad, and we're running into trouble with part of the lip looking like it needs replacing, which would require welding a new lip into place, which is beyond what we have in tools, although my son learned to weld from his grandpa a while back. Taking the car down there to do some welding like that is a two hour drive on a car we just literally took apart.

  6. #6
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    Color
    IMG_7103.jpg

    Ugh, rust...
    IMG_7124.jpg
    IMG_7172.jpg

    Crappy glue/sticker job on the badge from previous, previous owner
    IMG_7106.jpg

  7. #7
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    Making some progress, slowly working on getting rid of as much rust as possible.

    IMG_7171.jpg

    IMG_7180.jpg

    IMG_7181.jpg

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    1997 BMW M3 Coupe
    First E36 M i've seen with more miles than my 340k. Props on keeping her going!
    '97 M3/2/5 340K and counting.

  9. #9
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    are slow.
    Wow that's a lot of miles. I bet it's still got life left in her though. I wonder what a blackstone oil analysis would bring back.
    Plastidip is the WORST to deal with. Use a clay bar to help get it up. Buy clay on Amazon or ebay in a 6 pack or 10 pack, you'll go through most of it. I used soap and water as a lube to get it off the paint, and it worked great.
    Keep us updated on the wrap. I've only done roofs and other small pieces. I bet a car is quite a project.
    Lucky kid getting an M3 as a first car btw.
    "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
    -Dr. Seuss
    DIY BMW Tools. Charlie For President

  10. #10
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    Update! Posting a bunch of pics, it's been a hot summer and between everything we've got going on (trust me it's a lot) we haven't been able to really put a lot of time into the car. But we've started wrapping and it's turning out awesome!

    Wrapping is not easy, it's very time consuming and I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I'm going slow to try and get it as perfect as possible.

    Before
    IMG_7123.jpg

    After - rust is gone and it's just bare metal with primer then sealer now. We've since gone over it again to smooth it out even more.
    IMG_7264.jpg

    Starting the wrap, first piece!
    IMG_7319.jpg
    IMG_7321.jpg
    IMG_7326.jpg

  11. #11
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    JROW0313.jpg
    MGEU8237.jpg
    MGMK9728.jpg
    JUVC8314.jpg

    By the way, 3M knifeless tape is a great thing, gets me nice clean cuts/lines like this:
    IMG_7499.jpg

  12. #12
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    Somewhat difficult (and anxiety provoking) piece for the rear side panel, door, upper and lower sill. Trying to be efficient about material use, this stuff's not cheap! Was able to cut out a piece that still fit the door, plus keep the entire rest of it all one piece, no seam. There will be a seam on the roof body line, but that's because we're going to do something very cool with a different material/color pattern.

    THSZ6227.jpg
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    IMG_7551.jpg

  13. #13
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    And finally the door, which actually wasn't too bad!

    IMG_7579.jpg
    IMG_7580.jpg
    IMG_7582.jpg
    IMG_7583.jpg

    And even put some new trim back on the car!

    IMG_7584.jpg

  14. #14
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    Nice job man, that looks great! I'm just about to hit 200k with mine, and I keep telling everyone at the track that I'm going for 300k I'm glad there are some great examples of 250k+ E36M3's out there. Keep up the good work!
    Feel free to ask about my car:

    TRM Coilovers 560f/784r | Epic Motorsports Tune | Apex Arc-8 17x9.5 et35 | Wilwood SL-4 BBK
    M50 Manifold | ASC Delete | Dinan BBTB | Fan Delete | Power Pulleys | Dinan CAI |
    S54 Oil Cooler
    Z3 Rack | Crossbrace | 3.38 LSD | Dinan Strut Tower Brace | AKG Chassis Mount Shifter
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    OE GT Front Splitter | Rear Rollbar | Rear Seat Delete | BW Fuel Starvation | Turtle Labs Door Panels
    And Really Old Paint

    Check out my YouTube channel for more DIY's and videos about my E36 M3

  15. #15
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    dang that's some awesome miles!!
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  16. #16
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    It's been a long time, but I just remembered that I needed to update this thread! The wrap looks super awesome and certainly has been turning heads. It was a super big pain in the ass to do, not sure I'd do another wrap especially considering how much of a perfectionist I am, and unless you're a pro it'll never be perfect.

    IMG_E9582.jpg
    IMG_9050.jpg
    IMG_9051.jpg

  17. #17
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    That turned out great. Really cool roof design. How has the wrap been holding up? I'm thinking of doing my 93 325is in some sort of Audi grey (Daytona Grey if I can find it).

  18. #18
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    The wrap is holding up good so far. The curved mirrors were one of the hardest parts, as well as the trunk lid. They both ended up having to be two pieces with a seam. Your '93 looks like it has the box style mirrors which would be easier to wrap.

  19. #19
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    1. How does vinyl wrap hold up over time?
    2. How much $ for material?

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by blak blur View Post
    1. How does vinyl wrap hold up over time?
    2. How much $ for material?
    Depending on the quality of materials and the application process (such as good clean environment, dust and oil free surface etc) my understanding is that the wrap should last 3-6 years.

    I believe we spent around $600 for all material and a few tools.

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