This was the rust that started me down the slippery slope to a full respray

 

I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to body work, so any advice is appreciated. I'm prepping for primer now so I might get some paint on the body this weekend.

I'm doing a two tone colour scheme with a dark graphite roof and dark graphite on the lower part of the door, front wing and rear quarter panel. The rest of the car is the standard black. I'm hoping it will look ok

 

The other side had corrosion in the same place, but there was no hole. Fortunately, I caught it in time.

I think it might be an idea to fit front mud flaps to stop stones getting kicked up by the front tyres and causing stone chips in the future.

You can see that the rear arch trim looks like it's been shot blasted!

 

The first paragraph and picture very much put me in mind of father Ted

 

I actually took the car in due to a noisy pulley. While I was at it I did a walnut blast of the inlet valves, full silicone coolant hoses, new clips, welded in a new exhaust flexi, oil change, new coolant link pipe, finally found that inlet manifold leak! Then the header tank looked a bit old and yellow, so i changed that. That's when I thought I'd better investigate that stone chip I'd never bothered to fix.

It's a bit like this:

 

I've started on the masking tonight. If I crack on with it I'll get the body painted this weekend.

I'll have to put the car outside under a tarpaulin while I do all the other bits. I don't have room to do it all at the same time unfortunately.

 

Just started rewatching Malcom in the middle from the beginning on Disney plus. Such a funny show

 

Slowly getting there. This should start to get a bit faster from this point.

 

The front bumper and splitter have slowed me down a bit. They've had a hard life.

 

I finished prepping everything and I've masked the car up ready for paint.

 

That's as far as I'll get today.

 

Got to say if I was going that far I’d be putting a different colour on it!

 

I'm happy with the bits I've repaired. You can't see them now that the primer is on. There's a bit of over spray on the half of the roof I did first but it should flat back with a bit of wet and dry.

 

I think it will have to be two batches for this lot. It seems like an awful lot of stuff for such a small car

 

Must be amazing to have the time & talent to do this. Fair play to you.

 

Don’t forget the space too!

 

Yeah, true. Can't imagine the wife would be happy, me trying to do this in the kitchen. 😆

 

The space is fairly cramped for trying to paint a car. I've got a pal coming this weekend with a better gun for doing the base coat and lacquer.

I've decided to rig up aluminium ladders horizontally across the width of the ceiling so that I can hang parts from them using fencing wire bent into hooks. That should mean I can arrange things a bit better for painting.

I've finished all the priming now and flatted it all back with wet and dry so we're ready to go.

There's a lot more grey bits now:

 

I’m assuming that you are painting it black, it which one ….?

 

It's just going the same BMW Astro Black as it was originally. The only thing I'm doing slightly differently is a BMW Sparkling Graphite roof and the sides of the car will be 2 tone with sparkling graphite on the lower part. I'm hoping it will look ok

 

I've rigged up a frame that I can hang the parts from to make it easier.

 

Got the lacquer on everything tonight. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. Not maybe professional standards, but good for something painted in a barn.

 

That was a long day

 

Doing the roof a different colour was time consuming. I still have to do the 2 tone on the sides of the car. That's the next job.

 

Fantastic!

 

Thanks Jim. It's a lot of work, I'm working on the 2 tone on the sides tonight

 

It's really difficult to get the tape straight for the dividing line between the black and the graphite. I'll get it masked up tomorrow night and get some paint on.

 

Pull a builders string line 1st as a guide for the tape line ?
use magnets to pinch past arches

 

That's a good idea!

 

The string worked

What a faff it is doing 2 tone, but I think it suits the R56 and hopefully will look good when it's back together

The pictures show the process