96 E36 328i resoration project

So a few of you have seen my car already as i was thinkibg of just getting rid of it and starting fresh but ive decided to do a extensive restoration on the car as its rust and must have been in a front end collision of some kind. (see pictures) so im going to be slowly working on it through the next few months and hopefully have a finished car early next year. I had thoughts of changing the color because ill be painting every panel... But havent decided yet. Anyone done that job before please reply with how big of a job it is to make it look factory. Anyways just making a thread so i can keep everyone updated on how the project is coming along .
Here it is when i first got it to my shop.

First time into the shop ill get started
Front bumper cover off and lights out.
And thats how it sits after day one

Thats all i could get done today but it went pretty fast im useing 320 grit and wet sanding. Ill go over it with 800 and then 1000 after primer.
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Well done man. Like the black leather. you should keep it black on black. All murdered out Anymore interior pics ?
Here are some pics of the interior and engine bay from my old e36

Never really was a big fan of the orange but thats how it came

Thats pretty sick. I like the gadge placement. I was thinking of doing the same thing to the engine cover now im not so sure. You should post a pic of the outside of the car.

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Yeah he was experimenting with fiberglass and built that gauge cluster. he also made some custom eyelids too. i thought i posted some pics of the exterior. ill put some more of the e36. did you see the e90?

R.I.P E36
Hello E90!!
just a few snaps of my new baby. Probablly getting rid of 20's soon


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Oh my god i think im in love. Thats a beautiful color works so nice with the car. What happened to it? Why did you sell? Im honestly considering that color now haha

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Also that e90 looks ballin with thoughs 20's lol

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BlackedoutBimme@: love your e36 style...more picture please if any...very inspiring me.....

Originally Posted by jkmeisl

Oh my god i think im in love. Thats a beautiful color works so nice with the car. What happened to it? Why did you sell? Im honestly considering that color now haha

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I ended up trading it for a RHD MR2 and up until i got the e90 i never stopped kicking myself in the ass for getting rid of it. I liked the gray also. i like the black a little more lol. I just had to have a new bmw. Once you have one you just cant stop thinking about it.

Originally Posted by Si e30

BlackedoutBimme@: love your e36 style...more picture please if any...very inspiring me.....

i only got 2 more pics of the e90

By the way, anyone want to buy my 20's or trade me for some smaller ones ? lol

Nothing looks better than black, the downside is you have to keep it clean. Was at the track this past weekend and there was a blacked out e35 m3 rims and all. Even with all the track goo on it is was a beautiful car. Good luck with your pproject. I found scotch bright pads very helpful in lieu of wet sand paper and you can save a bunch of $$$.

Yeah i wash my car about 2 times a week and it's still dirty. oh well lol
whats the scotch bright pads? are you saying i need a detail? haha

No my reference was to the op using wet sand paper on his paint job. I painted my track car last year just to experiment and used two different weight scotch pads to sand the entire car for $1.59.

so much better than wasting 1.59 for a piece of sandpaper!

Not sure if your mocking my idea but the paper would be much more. The pads wear forever versus the wet paper. I mounted them to an orbital wet sander and went at it. My goal was to see how much you could do for as little. In the end i was pleased with the prep but I would never shoot the paint myself. I would stop at primer and blocking if necessary. Too hard to get a good finish without a booth. Prep is where most of the cost is anyway due to labor.

no im not mocking it at all, I think its great when you find a product that can for the same job for a fraction of the cost. Its always good to know little trick like these. not everyone is made of money. I work my ass off to have that bimmer.
What do you do for work>?

OP keep us posted on your progress man! Save her.

hey I'm trying to set up a meeting. A few weekends from now. Anyone care to join?
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...16#post6807016

I built a booth when i painted my dads bumpers ill use it for when i need to paint the beamer. I just need to build two more walls. It worked amazing when i used it. Sealed perfect with a little 1/2 hp fan. Ill put a pic of the bumper i painted. Its a tricoat pearl white. So beautiful

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More progress on the grill peice. Only had 20 min to work on it but got rid of Alot of rock chips

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Paint stripper is your friend. Use it and save yourself a ton of hand work. I'm doing the same thing myself.....taking off all the old paint and starting from bare metal. After hand sanding for days I decided it would never get done at that rate. The pieces I could get in the blast cabinet (even leaving the door open) got abrasive blasted to bare. The rest are getting stripped and then sanded, with some of the sanding using random orbital pneumatic sanders.

thats a good idea. I painted my crx when i was younger and hand sanded the whole thing, Took me forever. I might go get an orbital but im just scared to screw up the lines. Im not worried about time that much but i do want that time that i spend on the car to be productive

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More work on the grill
The drivers side
Passenger side full of rock chips