1969 2800 E3 - Bringing "The White Car" back to life!

zinz said:
dammmm.... I need some of these for my e28 !

(seriously... if you know of a straight set shoot me a PM :D )
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It's almost easier to buy an entire car and take the wheels off. I got these off a scrap car for $100. A guy next door to us has an E39 scrap car that's been sitting for five years. I can see it out my office window. LOL I should ask about them again.

I think they look great on E28's.
 
Done with the headlight grilles in Dull Aluminum and now with a clear coat. The clear coat went on very well with no issues over the rattle can Krylon. They also have the repaired/polished trim around the outside.


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Dan, did you sand and/or use a compound prior or during buffing those parts?
 
The kidney is just aluminum so I used a flat head screwdriver and dollied all the dents down as smooth as I could before sanding. It's very thin so you can't sand too much, so there's a few tiny pits here and there that I didn't want to sand out. I think I started with 400g and ended at 1000g or 1500g, then polished with a 6" cloth wheel on a drill motor with Blue Magic metal polish. I think most any metal polish will work okay.

The headlight grille surrounds are anodized aluminum, I believe, and very very hard. They're thicker though so there's more to work with. I actually started dry sanding with 80g to cut through the hard outside layer then used 150g/240g to work the heavy scratches out before sanding down to 1000g, then used Blue Magic to finish. I started with 240g on the first grille and it was taking forever, found it easier to cut through the hard layer and then clean up afterwards. I did all the sanding by hand. The good thing about just polishing out aluminum is if you find areas that aren't done quite good enough you just start sanding again and fix it. I'm happy with the way they turned out.

In this photo the top grille hasn't been touched yet and has heavy pitting. The bottom grille has been sanded and polished and has a couple areas on the right that needed more sanding. I think I probably used 800g then 1000g to sand it out, then polished.

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dang said:
The kidney is just aluminum so I used a flat head screwdriver and dollied all the dents down as smooth as I could before sanding. It's very thin so you can't sand too much, so there's a few tiny pits here and there that I didn't want to sand out. I think I started with 400g and ended at 1000g or 1500g, then polished with a 6" cloth wheel on a drill motor with Blue Magic metal polish. I think most any metal polish will work okay.

The headlight grille surrounds are anodized aluminum, I believe, and very very hard. They're thicker though so there's more to work with. I actually started dry sanding with 80g to cut through the hard outside layer then used 150g/240g to work the heavy scratches out before sanding down to 1000g, then used Blue Magic to finish. I started with 240g on the first grille and it was taking forever, found it easier to cut through the hard layer and then clean up afterwards. I did all the sanding by hand. The good thing about just polishing out aluminum is if you find areas that aren't done quite good enough you just start sanding again and fix it. I'm happy with the way they turned out.

In this photo the top grille hasn't been touched yet and has heavy pitting. The bottom grille has been sanded and polished and has a couple areas on the right that needed more sanding. I think I probably used 800g then 1000g to sand it out, then polished.
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Well done. Thanks for the intel.
 
dang said:
....
The headlight grille surrounds are anodized aluminum, I believe, and very very hard...../... I actually started dry sanding with 80g to cut through the hard outside layer then used 150g/240g to work the heavy scratches out before sanding down to 1000g, then used Blue Magic to finish. I started with 240g on the first grille and it was taking forever, found it easier to cut through the hard layer and then clean up afterwards. I did all the sanding by hand. The good thing about just polishing out aluminum is if you find areas that aren't done quite good enough you just start sanding again and fix it.

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Wrt removing anodising, besides 80 grit and elbow grease , you can also get oven cleaner and let chemistry do it for you.

Downside of the chemical technique is doesn't get you that body builder look...
 
eriknetherlands said:
Wrt removing anodising, besides 80 grit and elbow grease , you can also get oven cleaner and let chemistry do it for you.

Downside of the chemical technique is doesn't get you that body builder look...
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Not sure on the chemical side of it. Let us know how it goes. ;) And I'm having trouble typing because my shoulders are so sore. Seriously, between prepping the wheel centers and headlight grilles my hands, arms and shoulders are beat up.
 
dang said:
And I'm having trouble typing because my shoulders are so sore. Seriously, between prepping the wheel centers and headlight grilles my hands, arms and shoulders are beat up.
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but it's a "good" soreness isn't it. ;)

I love how you are "all in" on the details. :cool:
 
I have used Drano to remove anodizing on the aluminum strips around a Healey hardtop. Very effective. Then you can polish to the level you want. A real time saver as Erik has suggested. Google shows many examples. Does save on sanding and sanding and sanding, and also on Advil. ;)
 
After having some problems with the engine running a little hot I parked the car and decided to add a pusher fan to the radiator. I replaced the thermostat so I could check it off the list but decided to leave the 5-blade fan on the engine and add the pusher fan to see if that would be enough. If it's not I'll change the water pump and convert to the later fan/clutch setup to.

As a lot of you know, I work at a wrecking yard so I have access to a lot of hardware, brackets, mounts, metal, plastic, a lot of misc stuff but we deal in mostly newer cars so I don't have access to any old BMW stuff. I grabbed a broken duel motor fan assembly off of a Toyota and took the motor and fan blade off. They use this motor/fan on a LOT of their Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles. I also found some shock tower ring washers that were about the same size of the fan motor to use as mounting brackets on the radiator.

Something a little disappointing but really not a big deal... I centered the fan on the radiator and verified that the radiator is centered in the sheet metal opening, checked my clearances and went for it. After getting it all installed I noticed the fan was not centered behind the kidney grille opening. What the hell! After double-checking everything I finally realized that the sheet metal opening for the radiator is not centered on the nose panel so even though everything else is on center, the fan sits slightly to the right when looking at the front of the car. Everything is black and behind the grilles so it won't be noticeable, but it still bugs me a little.

Modified shock tower washers for brackets with some foam tape. Fan motor and fan off a Toyota.

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Bracket on engine side of radiator.

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Bracket with "standoffs" for fan motor.

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Fan motor.

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Fan.

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The radiator has to go in with the engine fan in place so the fan motor and fan blade are put on after the radiator is installed. I'm happy with the way it turned out, except for the centering aspect of it.

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I really like how you repurposed BMW AND Brand X parts to do this. Creative but looks like the factory could have done it. :cool:
 
You know Dan I am really surprised that with an Aluminum radiator your car even thinks about getting warm. My experience is that with that radiator there isn't really a threat of high temps on the car. I do activate my SPAL pusher fan when the A/C in on but other than that, I can run on the hottest day in Houston and the temp gauge is rock solid once the thermostat opens.
 
afeustel said:
You know Dan I am really surprised that with an Aluminum radiator your car even thinks about getting warm. My experience is that with that radiator there isn't really a threat of high temps on the car. I do activate my SPAL pusher fan when the A/C in on but other than that, I can run on the hottest day in Houston and the temp gauge is rock solid once the thermostat opens.
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You're probably right, but since I had everything apart with the new radiator, thermostat, fan off, etc, I decided to add the pusher now just in case. I haven't run the car with the aluminum radiator yet so I don't know if it needs anymore help. Maybe I can just put in a higher deg temp sensor so it won't come on unless necessary.
 
Yeah, I wasn't saying you don't need the pusher (with A/C I think you do) just making sure that there is not another problem somewhere that is causing the car to run hot.
 
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