Alpine White Zender Kit E24 633CSI

[Jdesign]

Decided to finally attack the task of buffing the entire car back to its former shine. Upon doing so I learned a few things;

1. The paint is a lot worse than I expected 
2. It was repainted and the new clear and paint is thin
3. pin-striping is hand painted and baked on

I took some pictures as I started to cut into the clear. The pinstripe is the worst. I soaked a section with alcohol and paper towel to soften the pin striping paint, rubbed at it a few minutes later, but its going to take some elbow grease. I have access to a pin-striping gun, so I think I might just re stripe the car once its cut and buffed and the majority of the lines are gone. 

My process is fairly simple

1. mask off all molding and trim
2. Clay bar all painted surfaces
3. Aggressive polish where needed on painted surfaces with polisher 
4. Light polish all painted surfaces with polisher
5. Wax all painted surfaces 
6. Seal all painted surfaces
7. Drink beer when finished

 All masked off Fender #1

Weirdly damaged paint under the clear is kind of hard to capture in pictures with white paint but if you look, you can see dark spots;

Realizing the pin stripping is not cooperating, I masked it off and burned at it separately from the paint around it.

After minimum results, I started soaking.

After soaking this is what I was able to remove, I may need to repeat the process to remove the rest, but you can see that the red has a tint on the surface still.

by the time I made it to the door, it was midnight. There is a lot of work ahead.  Check out all the dirty fingerprints at the edges.

Claybar removing the dirt;

after cutting with medium compound;

I hope to do 1 or 2 panels a day, but that's all subject to how much I want to punish myself.

[B C]

I thought it looked pretty good when I saw it, looking forward to the final result though. I will have to pick your brain when it comes time to making mine look better

[Jdesign]

Snap said:

I thought it looked pretty good when I saw it, looking forward to the final result though. I will have to pick your brain when it comes time to making mine look better

Good from a far, far from good. I'm not really a pro, but I enjoy learning. White is the easiest color to polish so im being pretty care free minus the fact I know the paint is thin.

[suspenceful]

Most of my cars have always been black. Paint correcting black SUCKS, and it's never clean anyways.

After buying a white and silver car, I was amazed and how easy it is to detail them.

Nice work so far! This stuff is tedious no matter which way you go about it.

[Jdesign]

suspenceful said:

Most of my cars have always been black. Paint correcting black SUCKS, and it's never clean anyways.

After buying a white and silver car, I was amazed and how easy it is to detail them.

Nice work so far! This stuff is tedious no matter which way you go about it.

I agree, black cars are the worst, but they look so good when freshly polished.

Thanks!

[wasnt m3]

Oven cleaner works amazingly well to remove painted on pinstripes FYI

[Jdesign]

wasnt m3 said:

Oven cleaner works amazingly well to remove painted on pinstripes FYI 

I will have to try that, it seems like you are not alone with that suggestion. 

"oven cleaner works well for this. If you use the spray type spray some into the cap and brush it on with a small paint brush. After a minute wipe it off with a damp rag and wash with soap and water. Oven cleaner will remove the striping paint but not injure the paint underneath as long as you don't leave it on too long. If you are trying to remove a red pigmented color on white or other light color be warned that 1-Shot will likely have stained the base paint.It is also dangerous to use this method on alklyd enamel;single stage paint or nitrocellulose lacquer. Urethanes don't seem to be affected very much but always try an out of the way spot to make sure it doesn't soften the paint"

-The H.A.M.B.

Sweet, exactly why I have to re-stripe the car.

[Jdesign]

Still slowly polishing this into something respectable. Its a slow process as its not one of the more exciting things to do. I have most of the trim and side skirts off and have scrubbed and cleaned the seats and carpet. I haven't taken any pictures to share, but I will. I need to get it back on the lift and install all new belts, check the timing belt, and install the new shifter bushings.

[YoungCR]

*timing chain

[Jdesign]

YoungCR said:

*timing chain

Further proving that I have not checked into it. LOL thanks Chris.

On another note, I allowed Earl to bring his car to my shop in order to help him make some progress. With that we were talking about this car and that I should add an additional decorative stripe to the car to help cover the aftermath of the pinstripe and add some "interest" to the car. This morning I made this quick Zender graphic based on the optional graphics available for the E21. I think the word Zender should be smaller, but its a good start.

[B C]

Jdesign said:

YoungCR said:

*timing chain

“Further proving that I have not checked into it. LOL thanks Chris.”

[emoji16]

I do like the Zender stripe but make it REALLY 80’s with a yellow orange red gradient

(Searching for example)

Here we go

[m42b32]

I think that would look great!! Especially if it were rolling on some super 80's wheels like centra type 7's or something like that, you aren't keeping the RS's right?

[Jdesign]

Snap said:

I do like the Zender stripe but make it REALLY 80’s with a yellow orange red gradient

Yesss. I like that. I think I am going to go up and over the rear wing too. similar to this: 

m42b32 said:

I think that would look great!! Especially if it were rolling on some super 80's wheels like centra type 7's or something like that, you aren't keeping the RS's right?

Im not sure about the RS's. Centras would be super cool but I think I will do something basic if I don't stick to the RS's. Like Style 5's or style 32's

[Jdesign]

So I found out that if you remove 30 year old tint, you probably get cancer if you dont wear a respirator. I woke up with a sore throat after spending an hour inside a confined E24 with a steam cleaner and toxic fumes from old window tint adhesive.

Luckily, all the old purple tint came off in solid chunks. Unluckily, there is still large amounts of adhesive on the windows and the smell is still present, meaning I will have to return to finish the job.

 Before:

During:

 

After:   *sorry that its hard to notice*

[B C]

You have all the fun tools!

[Jdesign]

Snap said:

You have all the fun tools!

I just bought the steam cleaner to do the job. $50 new @ dealer cost. Apparently it can purify the water so you dont need to get distilled water like most steam cleaners. (I used distilled anyways not knowing this till I read the directions)  Blew my mind that it only takes 15seconds to heat the water and make steam.

[m42b32]

That job is the worst!! If you still have adhesive all over the windows, ammonia worked super well getting mine cleaned up

[Jdesign]

m42b32 said:

That job is the worst!! If you still have adhesive all over the windows, ammonia worked super well getting mine cleaned up

I have "tint adhesive remover" but last time I used that it was still a huge pain in the @#$. I will try ammonia.

[suspenceful]

Nice! I didn't want to make a comment about the tint before, glad you removed it. I tried doing this on my old E36 and failed miserably.

[Jdesign]

suspenceful said:

Nice! I didn't want to make a comment about the tint before, glad you removed it. I tried doing this on my old E36 and failed miserably.

I have removed tint on a few cars. THIS car was the absolutely worst one I have dealt with. The worst part is I got sick and felt like I was going to die and haven't finished. I actually fear finishing the job now. I did open the windows to let the car fumigate and added an air neutralizer, so hopefully that helps.