heinzboehmer's 2002 Topaz 6MT Coupe

[heinzboehmer]

Thanks! Glad you appreciate the documentation. Hope it can help someone (and myself) in the future.

One thing I forgot to do was to list the part numbers of various connectors that weren't obvious to find, so here they are:

DME connector female: TE 7-967288-1
Power connector male (X6053): TE 1-828736-1
Power connector female (X6053): TE 1-828737-2

Edit: Found the part number for the female X6053 connector and double checked on the car. Turns out I wrote it down as being for the male connector on accident.

[timmo]

Thanks! Glad you appreciate the documentation. Hope it can help someone (and myself) in the future.

One thing I forgot to do was to list the part numbers of various connectors that weren't obvious to find, so here they are:

DME connector female: TE 7-967288-1
Power connector male (X6053): TE 1-828737-1
Power connector female (X6053): TE ??? - can't find this one in my notes, but I'll update this post if I do

This is really good to know! How did you identify some of these connectors, were the part numbers molded into it? For some of the smaller connectors in other places on the car I'd love to know what housings and pins to buy, but couldn't identify it

[heinzboehmer]

The part numbers for the power connectors were molded onto them and terra helped out with the DME connector (although I think it's got it on there somewhere too).

But I agree, it would be nice to have some sort of reference for the part numbers of all these connectors. Sort of like the torque spec document but for part numbers of random small things.

[Sharocks]

I'm not an EE but my EE friends would appreciate this.

Crazy lol

[heinzboehmer]

Jul 2021

So I gave up on doing my own paint correction.

Turns out I wasn't actually enjoying it as much as I though I would. Whenever I went down to the garage to get it done, I would end up working up something else. After many months of driving the car around with a bunch of half-worked on panels, I decided it was time to take it to someone. Found a local guy (truly local, like ten blocks away) that said he could get it looking a lot better for a very reasonable price, so I took it to him.

I took off the badges, grills, plate, etc. the night before to make it easier for him to work on the paint. Unfortunately, I found evidence of a previous owner using what I can only imagine were long wood screws to attach the license plate. They went through the paint all the way to bare metal, so there were four rusty holes behind the license plate frame that had the paint bubbling around them. Fortunately, they're in areas that are completely covered by the plate, so I just ground everything down until I got to good metal, and applied a layer of POR-15 to them. Forgot to take pics, but I'll take some when I put everything back on the car and throw them on here. Kind of a bummer, but it's invisible and I eventually want to get a CSL trunk anyway, so I guess it's not that big of a deal.

Now for the exciting stuff. Starting with the three areas that improved the most, hood and both bumpers. Before is top and after is bottom:








I brought the detailer some touch up paint too and he filled in all the bigger scrapes/dings. It's touch up, so it was never going to be perfect, but it's a million times better than it was before — especially if you don't have your nose pressed up against the car.

Here's the rest of the pictures I took. Difference isn't as drastic (mostly because of the lighting), but still appreciable. Before is still top and after is still bottom:






Again, not entirely perfect (there's not much to do about the rock chips the car accumulated over many winters in Colorado), but waaay better than before. Also, the car is actually blue and not greyish! Who would have thought?

I'll go take some better pics with the DSLR this weekend. Hopefully those do a better job at how much nicer the car looks now.

Bonus pic at the detailer's:


Now I just need to find time to install all the new exterior plastics I have stored in the garage and remove the fog lights (to eventually replace with brake ducts and because I like the look). After that, I'll be pretty much completely satisfied with the exterior — well I guess until I decide to spend the money for a CSL trunk and carbon roof. I never meant to have this car win any shows, so I'm totally okay with some imperfections. In fact, I kinda like it, as I don't feel bad driving it when the weather isn't perfect or on track.

[Slideways]

Paint looks amazing after the detail! Dr. Colorchip will fix all those rock chips and make those areas look 95% better.

[heinzboehmer]

Thank you! I'm honestly surprised at how much better it looks. I thought the detailer was gonna tell me that at least the bumpers needed a repaint.

Still have a bunch of Dr. Colorchip that the detailer didn't use, so if I'm bored someday, I'll fill in all the rock chips.

[Slideways]

Thank you! I'm honestly surprised at how much better it looks. I thought the detailer was gonna tell me that at least the bumpers needed a repaint.

Still have a bunch of Dr. Colorchip that the detailer didn't use, so if I'm bored someday, I'll fill in all the rock chips.

Yeah, it is well worth doing over a respray for just small rock chips. Since the cleaning solution takes off all the excess colorchip, you can literally smear the entire area with your thumb and fill all those chips at once. No need to be careful with that product unlike the factory BMW touchup paint.

[heinzboehmer]

Huh, always assumed it required tediously filling in each individual rock chip. You're convincing me to actually sit down and do it. It'd be nice to get it as close to perfect as possible.

[Slideways]

Huh, always assumed it required tediously filling in each individual rock chip. You're convincing me to actually sit down and do it. It'd be nice to get it as close to perfect as possible.

That's the best thing about it. Just dab and swipe with thumb. It will fill in multiple chips at one time and the excess colorchip paint gets slowly dissolved with their solution leaving only the chip filled in.

[heinzboehmer]

You can probably tell how much I was involved in the paint correction process from my ignorance about the product lol.

I'll give it a try soon, before I dirty up the car.

[timmo]

Yeah, my paint's in about the same condition - front end is just peppered with chips, the clear on my front bumper is starting to flake off.

What sealant did your detailer use?

[heinzboehmer]

Just some spray on wax. Wax and dry I think? Nothing fancy, so easy to strip.

Started filling in rock chips today. I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. I'll post up some pics when I'm done.

[Mike0032]

I was wondering when we were going to see the rest of the detail phase.

Love this color on this car.

[heinzboehmer]

Thanks! I'm really enjoying driving a car with paint that looks good now.

Filled in the chips. I used up the sealact pretty quickly, so I only did one quarter panel and the bigger ones on the hood. I'll do the rest when I get some more. Pretty happy with the results.



That angle exaggerates how visible the chips are, as the light catches on them and highlights them. Here's another angle that better captures how it looks when you're standing looking at the car:



Also, this is what the part of the trunk behind the license plate looks like now. Ugly, but won't keep rusting and is completely hidden.