a little clean up before the final spray:

Ground down some stuff, sanded some stuff, and treated some stuff with rust converter. Spraying the sealer and color on saturday, an praying that it turns out well.

After pricing out Lexus Pearl White ($670) I decided to go with normal White: ($265 total)

I realized that I gotta stick to a budget, and that the money could really go to some other areas on the car instead.

Very nice. I'm in the process of restoring my Turbo, and being that I'm doing bodywork and repaint on the exterior, I keep debating on pulling the engine and respraying the engine bay at the same time. In my case, space is the major issue, as I'd have to do some serious garage reorganizing. I'd probably also have to move things inside the house and keep them there. I'm pretty sure my girlfriend wouldn't be too keen on that.

How much stuff is on the interior side of the harness that comes through the driver's side of the engine bay? I'm debating whether or not I should pull it out when I paint my engine bay. Is it even feasible without removing the dash?

budget? What is this thing you speak of :rofl:

Budget's and hobbies don't mix well I've found

no it's not.

If you go in, then GO IN!

Pull the dash, pull the HVAC, pull the pedal box, the rack, EVERYTHING!

Cause once you start, might as well do it all, or not even bother trying.

Mind you, if you're only doing spot painting and keeping the bay the same color, then there's no point... but if you are completely changing color like me, then it's worth it.


dude, brian right?

After I get the car painted, and buy all the clips, bolts, and etc to put it all back together, I still need:

NEW TII driveshaft
BNR Turbo Rebuild
Coilovers
Wheels
Tires
stereo
speakers

And that's just the big stuff.

Along the way I might pick up some stuff like new carpet, floor mats, door seals, etc.... so $380 saved on paint is a BIG deal.

Yeah, and if you had waited a little while longer before you bought the paint, you could have the color that you wanted, not the color that you settled on. It's not like you held off buying a set of wheels that you can bolt on later, you made a decision that is not easily reversible. I would've waited until you could've afforded the color that you were most happy with.

Dude, I still got BMW M3 Alpine white... settled? Hardly. The pearl was a college student's baller pipe dream anyway. Besides, sometimes, with time and money constraints, you gotta have some give-n-take or you will never get shit done. I learned this the hard way. =)

Anyway, on to my update:

Got my Pineapple Racing engine-stand adaptor, OMP rebuild kit, and some other loose ends.

I degreased the left side of the block real quick because it's a to do it when it's bolted to the stand.

Painted the bay this morning :)

Started working on the dent in the rear quarter... After the engine bay, it was the second worst part of the car. Got most of it out, but still have a bit to go.

some more pics:

Not perfect, but for 3 hours of work, it's a hell of a lot better than when I started. The S5 molding now at least somewhat fits flat.

Well, I got the quarter back out pretty well... spent a lot of time on it...

I sanded off all the paint, then hammered out as much as I could, followed with some stud welding and a lot of pulling. After that hammered the metal, and ground down some of the pitting left from the stud welder.

At the shop, we had this 3M Fiberglass reinforced body filler, made for thick applications and shaping panels back in place. Unlike Kitty hair, and other glass fiber body fillers, this stuff is top notch! The strands are chopped so fine you cant even see them, it applies easy, hardens like concrete, and stays flexible enough to avoid trouble. If I ever recomended a filler, this stuff would be it!

Anyway, so, we did a nice thick coat, let it set, and then used a 12" grinder pad on it to shape the filler somewhat. there were some low spots, so we went for another coat.

The next day, I used the grinder to cut into the filler a bit, and then used an air sander (the reciprocating long board type) to sand the panel straight.

Now, this is where I am right now, and it's damn near perfect already. On monday, I'll add a bit more 3M stuff on the bottom section near the trim, but otherwise the panel is ready for some convetional filler (imperfections n stuff) and a coat of paint!

I wont have the time to spray the whole car body color, but at least I got the quarter and the engine bay done... These were the two hardest things, and the worst cosmetically.

Anyway, here are the pics of the somewhat finished progress:

And.... surprise!

I ran out of time. So, I guess stripping down a car, and completely painting it in just 10 4 hour work days was a bit unrealistic... even if I DID strip it outside of class.

I'm glad I got the two worst areas done though, the engine bay will never need another paint job again as long as I own the car, and the dent in the quarter would have probably cost me somewhere like $1500 to fix at a body shop.... Now that that's done I can reinstall the engine, and get the car running again so I can enjoy the rest of the warm weather. :D

EDIT: I found out that they ARE going to hold a Saturday hobbyist class during the fall semester. I think I'll sign up for it and get the car running in the meantime.

That rear quarter looks pretty good! Did you use the bondo-glass product to get all the imperfections out?
http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawe...SevTSeSSSSSS--
Also how did you manage to get the line of the body above the wheel well to be nice and true?

.........yeah tell me about it :banghead::cuss:

tell that to my wife :rofl::(