The end is near....SCOTTeVEST's Baby

[restart]

Just to clarify my free opinion.
8000 seemed a good\great price for a complete with no bodywork other than blocking, I missed all the extra stuff.
Anything beyond that is open for negotiation. All the parties need be clear and to agree on the level of finishing expected. Misunderstandings are tough to recover from:eek:
Some of the cars I see I shops....an extra few hundred should be added just to cover cleaning.
Cheers
A

 

[JFENG]

Scott,
Which year bumpers do you have? 1973 or 1972 and earlier? Either way, I hope you have the correct front mounting arms. Because of differences in the front frame rails, those arms will mount slightly differently on a 74 and later car than they will mount on the original earlier cars. Make sure the shop figures this out so they cut the new slots in the nose valence in the correct lateral locations to allow the bumper mounting arms to sit adjacent to the front stub rails. I am not sure, but I believe Mario's shop fits up the nounting arms before they cut and weld in metal to close up the old bumper shock absorber holes. This is the safest way to ensure the new slots are properly positioned. I think (maybe) the front of those mounting arms need their holes elongated or the ends cut and repositioned because the left-right arm spacing is slightly greater than on the original cars. This business of mocking up, checking and trimming the new sheet metal patches to fit is part of why converting to chrome bumpers takes a little time.

 

[JFENG]

Just wait till they try to access the nut which secure the side molding under the rear quarter windows. With the window mechanism in place, it almost requires the hands/arms of a small child. We didn't have any lying around when Stan was assembling his car, but IIRC we made do with a pair of extra long needle nose pliers and tape (to make sure we didn't drop a nut into the abyss). When I do my car, I'm planning on removing the entire rear window mechanism before sending the car to paint. That'll make reassembly much easier.

BTW, in my opinion. the nicer the exterior the more jarring it is to see a short-cut engine bay job. The matt black looks terrible, IMHO. If that were my car, I'd pull the motor and pay the body shop another $1000 to shoot the entire engine bay and underside of the hood.

John

 

[restart]

Yah, now that I have watched the entire video and read the list I think have a better understanding of the scope...many rabbit holes .... but hey it’s worth 135000 now!
Plus one on below, except triple and add 10:eek:

You are heading down the rabbit hole and opening Pandora's Box when getting into these cars. I believe the estimate is low, from my experiences figure double or add $10K to the estimate, especially when dealing with any kind of rust. If the shop your estimate has never worked on an E9, consider another shop like VSR1.com in New Hampshire who specializes in CS coupes.

 

[scottevest]

Just wait till they try to access the nut which secure the side molding under the rear quarter windows. With the window mechanism in place, it almost requires the hands/arms of a small child. We didn't have any lying around when Stan was assembling his car, but IIRC we made do with a pair of extra long needle nose pliers and tape (to make sure we didn't drop a nut into the abyss). When I do my car, I'm planning on removing the entire rear window mechanism before sending the car to paint. That'll make reassembly much easier.

BTW, in my opinion. the nicer the exterior the more jarring it is to see a short-cut engine bay job. The matt black looks terrible, IMHO. If that were my car, I'd pull the motor and pay the body shop another $1000 to shoot the entire engine bay and underside of the hood.

John

i agree. i will ask.

 

[Stan]

OK, well that helps.

I'm certainly not trying to discourage you from using this shop - they are probably competent and well-meaning. But you don't want to hold a shop to a low, fixed price and have them hurry the work to try to limit their losses. And you don't want a shop asking you for more money every week when the scope of the work exceeds their initial estimate. So some further discussion may be in order.

Or, worse yet discover their price is too low so work on other cars and "fit yours in" so the project takes 5 years...

 

[aearch]

JUST TO ADDmy friend brought his 96 CHEVY SILVERADO OVER AFTER SITTING IN THE DELTA FOR 14 YEARS SO WHILE I AM WAITING ON THE COUPE I TOOK ON THE PROJECT
I STRIPPED DOWN THE CAR TO BASE COAT ns bought a 100 paint gun setup
got the paint and had at it first try came out really orange peally so sanded it down with 400 and then shot it agin with higher pressure -came out smooth -then added 4 coats of clear sanded it down
and bought one of the best tools ive ever owned the - de-walt power polisher and got the magic mequires 100 cutting compound and ran it over
the damn thing came out with a 1" depth mirro finish
i was blown away -if i had known how easy it was i could have saved 10k on my car
but ill be able to redo the front fender tops with no problem now added some mquires polish and ill post a pic.

 

[scottevest]

finally, after about 7 years thinking about a paint job, i am dropping MY BABY off next week with the painter, Benny's Rod Shop. Benny does amazing work and has some choice cars in his shop. I offered to get all the parts necessary in advance for him, so i am making this list.

i think most of these items have been addressed in this thread or elsewhere. if you have a one place shop to buy all this stuff, please let me know but i think all the information is there.

benny is local, so i hope/plan to visit and take pictures of the process.

staying black.

here's my list:

• new seals for front and rear windshield
• belt trim screws, etc.
• mounting kit for chrome bumpers, although i think my other shop bought them.

i think that is it but let me know if i missed anything, and thanks much.

 

[teahead]

Remember, put the chrome trim on the seals, then on the windshields, THEN install the glass. Can't put on the chrome trim after the fact.

 

[scottevest]

Remember, put the chrome trim on the seals, then on the windshields, THEN install the glass. Can't put on the chrome trim after the fact.

thanks. i will let him know for sure. sooo excited.
seems that cleaning the chrome trim is not that hard, i hope....

 

[mark99]

I think that trim is aluminum, from the factory anodized, when you redo it, coat with clear ceramic (have it done by someone that knows what they are doing)
It won't stay shiny for long if not coated

 

[scottevest]

is this the best place to buy new rubber? www.wallothnesch.com/

 

[mark99]

shop around.. sending you a PM, try the dealer

 

[mark99]

I should have been more complete on the aluminum
Many of the shiny parts on these cars are aluminum that was anodized
Some parts are chrome plated brass
To refurbish the aluminum parts, first you need to remove the anodizing, then polish and then coat
Many people here use a place called Speedway to do all of that, I had them do all the aluminum from my car and they did a great job
I have been told that re-anodizing doesn't really work, it can come out uneven
'Regular' clear paint will look like you painted it
These places use a clear ceramic, probably / usually a brand called Cerakote
It is tricky to apply correctly, you are supposed to be trained and certified by them to do it, but I have had another place that was 'certified' screw it up
And you can not remove it chemically, which is great unless they screw it up

 

[scottevest]

I dropped of the coupe this week and walked around the car with the painter. I plan to document the process here, unless I should move this to a Project/Restoration thread. Let me know. Thanks all. SOOOO EXCITED.
Here's the video:

 

[Markos]

I dropped of the coupe this week and walked around the car with the painter. I plan to document the process here, unless I should move this to a Project/Restoration thread. Let me know. Thanks all. SOOOO EXCITED.
Here's the video:

Keep this thread going!

 

[floridabmx]

Can’t wait to get mine done one day. It needs it!

 

[scottevest]

Project creep begins.... My painter removed the interior and is suggesting refinishing interior. Frankly, for the most part, I think interior looks pretty good, although dirty, especially from hauling my 4 standard poodles. Any idea on what retouching my interior should cost? My headliner looks awesome and doesn't need anything.

It appears a piece of chrome is missing from one of my doors. Any ideas on how to replace?

I know everyone provided suggestions for the chrome retouching around windows. I think it may be hard to ship those.

I now need to order the new rubber and belt trim bits.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/njjbtg7y7o50d7a/IMG_4323.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zu2vnite2954j07/IMG_4324.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yl2cyq07trs44p5/IMG_4325.jpg?dl=0

 

[Markos]

The interior looks a little tired, and a little dirty. It seems like you like to drive your coupe and not park it at car shows. Other than removing the door panels the interior isn't really a "while I'm in there" kind of thing. You could easily do it later with little added cost (maybe an hour of labor to remove the door panels again). Don't get me wrong, a new interior would be great but your current interior seems nice enough to me, and poodle friendly.

They don't make tan door panels anymore. I also don't know if they make 1974 door panels. You can buy the perforated vinyl and make the upper door panel, but the whole thing seems like a lot of work.

As far as the chrome goes, I'm not sure which piece you are referring to. I'm leaning towards the vertical separator on the window glass. I mentioned it before in your door gap thread. Someone just posted a link to them recently. I think W&N sells them new, but perhaps not with the hard rubber insert. Can you specify which chrome piece or the general area where it is missing?

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Hi Scott, tough to be optimistic about the pricing, 5 years ago I spent 9K on "Paint & Body" and I delivered the car to the shop stripped bare naked, engine compartment and trunk pre-sprayed. If you are very close by and can monitor the progress and quality you may take the chance. I've done 5 of these and I can tell you that 8 hours goes by really quick and you can easily spend 3 hours taking a door apart not to mention putting it back together-correctly, clean, re-grease, re-align, door brake, there's like 400 parts on each door- I think these guys are probably good guys, but the hourly play-by-play is not going to happen.

Wish you were closer to Austin I'd be happy to help you. Personally, I think it's a blast to tear these things down and put them back together but I don't have to do it for a living. If you really get in a jam, we're putting together a body shop down here PM me and we can talk about it. We have lots of vintage BMW's in need of paint so we found a guy who's trying to break away on his own and a friend of mine and I are thinking of backing him but we're in the test phase now- he's shooting the nose on my M3 e36 next week. I'll document it thoroughly.