Cosmetic Refresh

Jun 30
2 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

When I bought this from a friend years ago, it had some areas where the clearcoat was starting to let go... it also had a really hazy rear window and after three summers parked in my driveway (my M Coupe and V8 Z3 live in the garage) the clearcoat really started to let go and the window got even worse. So, I decided to get it re-painted and put a new top on it

The paint shop warned me that on a car of this age they don't like removing old rubber and stuff due to the likelihood of it breaking, and they also said they wouldn't remove the side mirror gasket themselves as it requires removing the door panels to unplug the power functions and that introduces other liability from damage. I opted to do it myself, as I had to remove the door panels anyways to fix a slow passenger window

The side mirrors were removed - gasket removed and the mirrors re-installed just so I could drive it over. They will be removed to be painted off the car. All the side window gaskets, door handle gaskets, mirror gaskets etc were removed and will be replaced or, if in good shape, refreshed with a soak in rubber restorer. The body shop will be removing the windshield gasket, so the entire painted surface will be painted. This is how it looked when it was dropped off. I even removed the rear license plate trim so they could paint the trunk itself and paint the trim on it's own. I may also do a black trim, as I really like that look - but I will have a new red trim to be included as the car will be for sale after all the work is completed

I did not give them specific instructions to not paint the black inserts on the side hood grill pieces, but if they paint them I'll just mask off and paint the center piece black again

And a close-up showing all the gaskets removed for the side window, mirrors, etc

After the paint, on the way home

How it sat in my driveway before re-assembly...

Re-assembly begins! New gaskets where there was any damage observed, otherwise they were soaked in rubber restorer and then gummi pfledge

How it sat after the first day of re-assembly. Limiting factor on how much I can do at one time is basically how long I can be outside in the 110+ heat