[George1]

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

 

[George1]

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

 

[George1]

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.

 

[George1]

That was a long day

 

[George1]

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.

 

[big jim]

Fantastic!

 

[George1]

Fantastic!

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

 

[George1]

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.

 

[Alski]

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

 

[George1]

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

That's a good idea!

 

[George1]

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

 

[George1]

You can start to get an idea of how it will look now that the masking is coming off.

I'll hopefully get most of it back together over the weekend

 

[George1]

I ended up buying a spray gun. I took a punt on a Prowin KH-818 and I have to say that I'm really impressed with it. You can get a really good finish with this thing.

When I was powder coating and painting wheels then I had a Devilbiss GTi and I think it's possible to get just as good results with this cheap gun.

You can get it for about $70 if you look around. I didn't see anybody selling them in the UK though.

 

[George1]

The chrome trim along the bottom of the rear windows was some of the most difficult to remove. Here's a few pictures of reassembly which should help anyone else who tries to remove it. Once you understand how the clips work then it gets a bit easier.

 

[George1]

Not finished yet, but I ran it out the door for a few photos before it got dark

 

[George1]

Once I'd got the first side skirt on, I found these:

Unfortunately, the only way to get the side skirt off again to get these bungs back in the sill is to break the clips. But fortunately, with my new found knowledge of the trim I was able to unclip the lower part of the side skirt and get enough room to put them back in.

Crisis averted!

 

[George1]

The piece of trim that in my opinion is the most difficult to remove, is the chrome strip along the bottom edge of the rear window. I don't know how long it took me to remove it without damage, but it seemed like ages. The only advice I can offer is to push it down and unclip the bottom edge first. If you unclip the top edge first then it grips even harder and you'll end up damaging it. Once you're about half way along, you can get a 90 degree pick tool on the end of the plastic bracket and peel it off the edge of the glass complete with the remainder of the chrome strip attached.

What a pig of a thing:

 

[George1]

This is getting out of hand

 

[George1]

That's better

 

[CarsOrBikes]

that looks like a good effort