Patricia A. Mayer's 3.0 CS / Paul Cain's Fjord project / The 300 mile Test Drive / VIII / Final Punch List

[paul cain]

Image 1262 Moving the outside door mirrors to the Euro position in the corner of the door. These are stainless steel 3mm bolts fitted flush to the body and tack welded.

Image 1274 Welded in and ground flush. Also welded up the holes for the U.S. Market mirror locations.

Image 1287 Top right corner is a Festool 125+ Sander with a full vacuum system. What a pleasure to work with. The plan on this repaint it to retain as much of the original BMW sealer and primer as possible. It is providing very good protection, is completely hardened and is very high quality. This image is after two steps: Sanding with the Festool 125+ using 180 grit to remove whats left of the clear coat and cutting through about 1/2 of the base coat. Then converting to a 10'' long flat sanding with 220 grit cross hatching to both flatten the panel and remove the remainder of the Fjord blue base coat.

Then this weekend begin with one coat of Glasurit high build primer. Hoping to only two step the block sanding. First sand will be with 320 grit. I did the math, and $ / Oz. this stuff is about the same price as cocaine or women's make up.

 

[paul cain]

Yesterday thanks to Rob Edwards (wind blocker in the video) and Mike Pelly we full prepped the four removable panels from the car and got two thin layers of DTM (direct to metal primer) down. Today was a first cut and guidecoat and blocking with the long board using 320 Grit. Sanding out the guide coat I find to be immensely gratifying, particularly at the higher grits like 400 and 600. We still have very long way to go. Hoping for only one coat of the Glasurit high build primer.

 

[paul cain]

Today was extremely productive. Rob Edwards brought up the Festool 125+ Sander. We did the entire roof in 9 minutes using 150 Grit paper. Check out the material removal vs. a conventional Makita hand sander.

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Desperate time's call for desperate measures: I had to get all the chrome off the car and the trunk lock (ring) was frozen on. I'd applied PB Blaster the day before, but no luck.
Had to grind it off.

I am in the market to purchase one of these threaded rings that fit to the trunk lock. Anyone have one laying around? Much appreciated.

 

[adawil2002]

Electric or air random orbit with a vacuum will always win over a quarter sheet "buzzy" sander which is for fine finishing.

 

[Candia4441]

Today was extremely productive. Rob Edwards brought up the Festool 125+ Sander. We did the entire roof in 9 minutes using 150 Grit paper. Check out the material removal vs. a conventional Makita hand sander.

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Desperate time's call for desperate measures: I had to get all the chrome off the car and the trunk lock (ring) was frozen on. I'd applied PB Blaster the day before, but no luck.
Had to grind it off.

I am in the market to purchase one of these threaded rings that fit to the trunk lock. Anyone have one laying around? Much appreciated.

Hi Paul, I part one E3 But I don't remember that I kept the lock I didnt have the key for the car that is very small item if you give me sum time I will look for it I hope I have it

 

[paul cain]

Spent the morning flattening the original primer with 180 grit on a hand block sander, also working all the small corners and drip rail, A and C pillars, etc. Then a few more hours of masking. Finally at 3 pm today, was able to put down a solid layer of white DTM primer. This will get lightly sanded with 320 grit before moving on to the Glasurit High build.

 

[paul cain]

If you have ever applied Wurth Stoneguard / Rocker Schutz this stuff gets EVERYWHERE. It's heavy think material that comes out of a automotive spray bazooka with the precision and control of a 12 ga shotgun. It travels substantially farther than paint. You can't mask enough off. This is after two coats. First coat flashed off after about 20 min (80° F outside yesterday) and the second coat was very light. The gun is about 2.5 feet from the panel. 1 hour of prep. 13 seconds of application.

Starting to get into the second coat of Glausurit High Build primer on the rear quarters and the doors. With the welding done to cover up the U.S. bumper holes, even with smooth grinding it took two full passes to get the lower side panels absolutely flat. Ditto the holes for the U.S. side reflectors. It's only a 25mm hole but the body work effect is about 12 inches in diameter. Those two holes are difficult to get perfect.

Each coat of primer makes the next round substantially easier, as the panel(s) get flatter. Sanding off the original clear coat in every nook and cranny was 2+ hours. Sanding primer with 320 takes just under an hour for the rear quarter. 400 grit takes 15 min. This process will repeat itself with color sanding.

 

[paul cain]

The Glasurit base coat has finally come available. This is normally a short lead time item. But toners, like everything else in the industrial world, is on much longer lead times and stocks are low. This is three quarts in a gallon container. It will be plenty to paint the car with a pint of touch up remaining.

Trunk panel on the final block sanding. This is after 1 coat of high build sanded with 320, this second coat high build will be sanded twice, with 400 grit, then 600. The black powder is guide coat, used to verify you have eliminated every low spot. It's fast and effective and it tells no lies.

Doors, hood and trunk jambs are all painted. Tomorrow the matching jambs will get painted.

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[vince]

Fjord!!

 

[paul cain]

Fjord!!

Yes! The absolute best color for any Coupe!

 

[paul cain]

We added the extra length to the hood back on May 25th. Here is the final result in Fjord blau. Did I mention it is the absolute best color for a Coupe?

 

[paul cain]

I was not happy with the shallowness of the second coat on the rear valence Stoneguard. So I put down a third coat for a more factory look. Its now ready for base coat.

Big day today. 4.5 hours of masking and about 30 min to put down the Fjord base coat on the jambs. The only way to 'jamb' a CS coupe is with the door off. Its a masking nightmare X2 as you have will have to remask everything inside the door jamb when you paint the exterior panel. There are no shortcuts sanding the nooks and crannies of the forward jambs on the body.

 

[paul cain]

The D.O.T. Exorcism is complete. The final prep before paint, while returning the body back to the original European bumper configuration. This includes removal of the D.O.T. side marker holes.

 

[coupedegrace]

We added the extra length to the hood back on May 25th. Here is the final result in Fjord blau. Did I mention it is the absolute best color for a Coupe?

Wow - I have to say that adding length to the hood seems a bit like magic to me. It's nice that you have just that much more metal to show off that beautiful fjord paint too!

 

[Candia4441]

I was not happy with the shallowness of the second coat on the rear valence Stoneguard. So I put down a third coat for a more factory look. Its now ready for base coat.

Big day today. 4.5 hours of masking and about 30 min to put down the Fjord base coat on the jambs. The only way to 'jamb' a CS coupe is with the door off. Its a masking nightmare X2 as you have will have to remask everything inside the door jamb when you paint the exterior panel. There are no shortcuts sanding the nooks and crannies of the forward jambs on the body.

Hi Paul, are you in construction business like me I am Fire protection contractor I see lots of ladder pipe machine

 

[paul cain]

Hello Albert, These photos are from my buddy (Mike) hobby shop, where I am lucky enough to have access and use. Mike shares this unit with a Porsche guy (Todd) who is an electrical contractor-hence the pipe equipment that gets in the way of the automotive restoration tools . I am recently retired from a career in electronic sensors (air bags, steering angle, etc.)

 

[Drew Gregg]

Wow - I have to say that adding length to the hood seems a bit like magic to me. It's nice that you have just that much more metal to show off that beautiful fjord paint too!

Adding extra length to the hood was a real work of art. The gap on the back of my hood to the windshield frame is 3/8" to 7/16". Yours was about 3/4". What will the gap -front & back- be when the hood is in place? Now I'm curious what those gaps are on other coupes. The gap on the front of my hood is about 5/16".

 

[paul cain]

Drew, thanks for your words of encouragement. The gap on the front and sides will remain as stock, this varies between 5-7mm on these three sides. Target gap for the rear edge is to be the same at about 6mm (~.24 inches).

There was an original BMW brochure, as I recall it was for the 2800CS. The hood and trunk gaps in this press car were comically large and inconsistent. I looked through my library tonight but could not find it. But it was memorable, that BMW used this as brochure worthy back in the day. Maybe someone else recalls seeing this image? It might have been in black and white or it was a white E9.

 

[Bmachine]

I was not happy with the shallowness of the second coat on the rear valence Stoneguard. So I put down a third coat for a more factory look. Its now ready for base coat.

Big day today. 4.5 hours of masking and about 30 min to put down the Fjord base coat on the jambs. The only way to 'jamb' a CS coupe is with the door off. Its a masking nightmare X2 as you have will have to remask everything inside the door jamb when you paint the exterior panel. There are no shortcuts sanding the nooks and crannies of the forward jambs on the body.

Paul, what is the reason for painting the engine bay and trunk outer areas as well as the door jambs separately?

 

[paul cain]

Paul, what is the reason for painting the engine bay and trunk outer areas as well as the door jambs separately?

Bmachine,
Short answer: its much lower risk to paint damage

Long(er) answer: there are two ways to paint a car. 1) like the factory where you paint the entire body and then assemble everything to the finished surface.

or 2) where you 'jamb' the internals and do all of your mechanical assembly, saving the exterior painting for absolutely last. I've done them both ways and prefer this 'jamb'ing' method as I can get all the testing and de-bugging out of the way and not have to work around precious outside panels. I have about 220 miles on this project, mostly to completely finish the punch list of leaks, tuning, buzzing exhaust, carb adjustments, etc. The goal is to get it, as the British would say 'fully sorted' before painting the outside.

This second method involves a staggering amount of masking and re-masking but allows perfect control to lay down paint in tight spots (like behind the door hinges) without amateurish overspray or bald spots. The first is not much easier as it involves a lot of post paint panel protection. Like all projects, its a trade off. Hope this helps.