2002 Steel Grey 6spd coupe Daily/Restoration project

[skristedja]

Looking really good, love the paint correction work. Steel grey is a very rewarding color to correct IMO. Looks kinda bland and regular when dull but has a very dynamic depth in good condition. My favorite is in the full California sun when its all clean--it has a nice creamy silver tone in the highlights and a deep almost bluish grey in the shadows. Only reason it doesn't get as much love is because BMW took that and made it even better with the silver grey.

[Tbonem3]

More paintwork

My pass rear tail was letting water into battery area after a car wash, so I removed the light, cleaned up the area



You can see the gasket split. It's actually split and connected (glued) during manufacturing. So I just superglued the split back together.



Decided to remove the license plate, emblem and roundel in reparation for correcting the boot's paint.



This car's nickname: "Dusty"

Cleaning/dressing the plate holder; it's in good shape. The hardware (looked like kitchen cabinet hardware from chyna lol) was trash. Once screw was so long, it bit into the paint behind it doh.



I also used the 303 wipe on the plastic on the underside of trunk handle



Clay bar



Like the front bumper, I'm only doing a 1 step with the medium correcting cream since the vertical surfaces don't need much cleaning up. I'm using the orange CSS pad which is meant for more cut, though it finishes okay enough IMO. I'll be coming around again 3-6 months later and doing a finer polish, a maintenance polish you could call it (annually or semi-annual)




Got new emblem/roundel from FCP:



I measured, but also had a little "evidence" left behind of where the old emblem was, so I was able to put it exactly where it should be. Curiously, the "3" is just a hair shorter than the "///M", so you can't line them up perfectly. You could put the bottom on the same plane, but I chose (believing it was like this originally) to center the 3 to the M, as in, put their midpoints on the same horizon. in this pic, it looks like the "3" is too high, but it's not actually.



Here's the taillight gasket glued back together:



Back in:



Plate holder, refreshed, back on: Look at those exh tips lol



Finally got the car tagged and opted to get brand new, random plates. I really don't like the retro black plates. Even on a black car, but certainly not on metallic grey - just made the car look old/dumpy (the car also did look dumpy when I bought it, so perhaps that's at play in my mind). Notice the factory plate screws @ $1 each lol



Worked on the fenders as well, same 1 step process with the BOSS correcting cream and an orange pad:




I love our metallic paints so much. And if you look closely, I really don't have many rock chips. Bad luck that the bumpers and pass QP are resprays, but at least the rest is factory and is in pretty good shape (besides those damn tree sap etchings)



Beautiful paint



Did the mirrors too cause it's easy. Still have doors/QPs and rear bumper left.



And lastly, since we haven't seen the car much, here's a decent shot. Still not where I want it, but so much better

[Tbonem3]

The panels in question are resprays, so plenty of clear to blow through luckily, but it's def easy to ruin factory paint! I wouldn't even bother on factory paint, just gotta live with some defects!

[antknee]

Wet sanding is an art. It took years of messing up the paint on my cars (including my e46) to learn some paints are thinner than others. Btw our e46s have super thin paint…. I was forced to repaint some stuff due to sanding through too much clear…..but paint meters are key…..

in the end it’s a great learning experience and rewarding at that once you get the hang of it.

[Tbonem3]

For the rest of the body, I shouldn't need to remove too much clear as the defects are very minimal. I already mentioned there are like no swirls. Most of the defects are permanent RIDS and etchings. There are some scratches that I think will come out (or almost will), so I plan to use the middle Griot's BOSS cream, correcting cream, for moderate defect removal.

For the front bumper, I'm using a 3" BP and 3" pad. In this case, a Cyan hydrotech pad from LC that supposedly has good cut AND good finish - this is a 1 step



I did the bumper and foglights. Headlights were already done with hood.



I mentioned it much earlier when re-fitting the bumper, but I'm sure it's a respray. The color match is good, but that was my first clue. The real give away is the level of orange peel. It's hard to see in a photo, but there's too much texture and not enough reflectivity.

Ostensibly, you might think that orange peel will diminish with a paint correction as you cut through the clear, but because you're using a foam pad with a soft backing, you're actually evenly removing clear, so the peaks and valleys (orange peel) remain. What you need to do is wetsand. There are some firm pads (Car pro denim) that are orange peel specific, but I also read that they're not always that great, and esp so in smaller, tighter arears or arears with high spots/curves.

I'll look into teaching myself to wetsand at a later time.

After CMX sealant applied:

[Tbonem3]

Paintwork

Alright, time for some fun! I love polishing paint and seeing the improvement. This isn't a DIY and I don't have pics for everything, but I'll speak about the products used how it went.

I don't correct a car's paint in 1 go. I'm in a nice situation where I WFH and the car can sit in the garage while I work. This time, I'm tackling the panels with the most defects: hood, roof & trunk lid; the flat surfaces.

Car already washed, got it in the garage and I took the grilles off. The hood vent is old and will be replaced at some point, so not concerned with that. I leave the roundel so that it gets polished (hoping to restore it; don't think I need a new one). I've washed the car a few times now, and use Zymol soap that has wax/polymers in it, so the paint actually already looks better with no decon or polishing simply from the washes (car had zero wax/protection on it when I bought it).



Let's look at the defects I'm dealing with:



Biggest eye sores are (I think) pine tree sap etchings. I was hoping they were recent enough (P.O. parked it under a pine tree at his new house he bought), but it was long enough that the damage is permanent . They're mostly in the front/middle of the hood, maybe about a dozen of them. Oh well.



Otherwise, it's mostly RIDS like this. There aren't actually any swirl marks really, a consequence of P.O. never washing the car. There is one small bird poop etching, not too bad. The roof and trunk also have some bird poop etching that have penetrated the clear.



The only part of the car that will need respraying, are the roof rails. They're just done. I'll do a light polish to make them look as good as possible, but the clear is pretty gone.



Trunk lid is the most scratched up



Here's the etching on the trunk lid. As transformative as a paint correction usually is, there are certain things that don't get much better. This is the worst IMO. You can see it in most lighting/angles. Oh well. I'm not going to wetsand it down to nothing.

Let me take a minute to show how I touch up chips before paint correction:



You can see the pretty large, long chip (into primer) on the hood here. I clean with IPA, then fill the "valley" using a toothpick and Dr. color chip paint. I found BMW touch up paint to dry too dark and not match well. I find Dr. Color chip to be a little lighter and a better match.

I do this days in advance so it can dry. That said, a paint correction will remove some, so do at least 2 coats imo.



Back to the correction. I decontaminated the paint using 2 products. An iron/fallout remover (this one doesn't change color) and clay bar.





Didn't pick up too much, though you can see more dirt in the MF towel:



I'm doing a 2 step with a 6" (that I put a 5" BP on) D/A for use with 5.5" pads. First step is with a medium cutting foam (orange CSS) and Griot's compound. I love love love the Griot's BOSS line, the creams don't dust and barely dry out so you can work as long as you want. Every once in a while, I have to spray some water to get it off - moreso in the summer. Great for someone like me, not a pro trying to cut fast. It's also one of the few retail compounds that goes down to p1000 where most do 1200 or 1500. They have a medium cut polish that is around 2k-2500 that gives you more flexibility depending on defects, plus the they have the perfecting polish. With paint that's never been touched, I'm using the fastest correcting cream, then the finishing polish. Using a D/A and a foam pad means I won't cut right through high spots and edges.




Here are those sap etchings. They got flatter, so I'm happy, but they're not gone and there is some slight discoloration if you look directly down. :/



Polish step. This time, the medium polish white CSS pad and the BOSS perfecting cream



Boot lid:



Hood done:



I'm really liking Mother's CMX. It's no more expensive than other waxes/sealants, but it's the closest to a true ceramic coating you'll get (from the commonly avail retail products I've used/read about). I'm not using their polish, and have just recently learned to double stack it, but nevertheless, on its own, it's a fantastic sealant that lasts a decent amount of time.



I do an IPA wipe before application (you wouldn't if you used CMX's polish, then sealant)



All done (did the roof too, no pics)



I hit the headlights, corners and trim with polish (step 2) as well. I'll get to bumper/fenders later.



Look at the depth and gloss of the hood, and the water beading. The other sealants I've used give similar hydrophobic beading, but the clear doesn't look this deep. I love carnauba, and will top it over sealants to try and get a warmer/deeper look. This CMX doesn't even need anything, just add more the next day if you can.

[Tbonem3]

Brake flush/inspection

The brakes work very well as far as grab/bite, but the pedal was spongy and would depress too far before grabbing well. I was pretty sure it just needed a flush.

Used a motive euro bleeder and my go-to ATE typ200 fluid.



Used the schwaben scanner tool to activate ABS routines (proper bleeding proceedure)



Starting at passenger rear. A SMART water bottle's cap fits the 1/4" hose perfectly! There's enough tension that the hose won't slip in or out while bleeding



Wow, did someone use ATF as brake fluid? The dirtiest fluid I've ever seen!



Getting clearer, lots of air



Finally. Took about 3/4 of a liter to get here!



Rear rotors have no lip and aren't too grooved. Pads are at least at 50%. Not a priority to rebuild the seals/slider pins, glad to have plenty of life as I don't plan on modding brakes on this car.



This was just from passenger rear



A tasty stout

Now driver rear



Fronts




Fronts similar to rears. Rotors are about as smooth, not much grooving, a slightly larger lip, but pads are at like 60%. The rotors both front and rear look OE, so at least P.O. didn't cheap out on the replacements.



Driver, now clear, no air, all done.



Good time to install the wheel studs. Just some generic 75mm (for spacers up to 15mm) with the hex head for easy install. I much prefer my Apex bullet nose, but installing the hex head ones is so easy.

Cleaned the rotor hubs' faces, hub lips, and threads.



Used red loctite, and let them sit overnight before reassembly.


12mm spacers up front, 10mm rear. Going to move to 15mm up front; hoping 12mm will fit in the rear. It's already tight with 10mm, and I will not grind, cut or pull fenders.

[jet_dogg]

I thought me and my buddy were the only ones who hated the silver ring on the zhp knob LOL!!!

Man props to you for doing that shifter bullshit, no way could I man fuck that.

[Tbonem3]

Correct. Sorry man. Thank you!

[PipeUy]

Nice updates, car is looking awesome. I recently converted my car to manual and used OEM front carrier bushings, really kicking myself for not going for the delrin/nylon ones because the OEM ones are pretty sloppy.

[Tbonem3]

Transmission flush, CDV removal, bushings, shifter linkage, knob, boot, trim

My neighbors bought a second home, out of state, and stay there for most of the year. They take one car and have, graciously, offered to let me put one of my cars in the free spot in the garage (they know of my care/love for my cars).

So, I've been able to keep my silvergrey car in there, taking it out periodically to enjoy, which has freed up my garage to not only keep the steelgrey in, but be able to do the larger jobs and take my time while the car sits. Still working from home at this point, so no need to drive the car either, which allows for larger/longer jobs as well.

First one up is a pretty thorough refresh of the tranny/shifter

Cover was dirty, so hosed it off and cleaned/treated it with the protectant.





Sect 1/2 hardware was original and pretty seized. Penetrant barely helped, I'll need new hardware



Dropped the sect 2 cross members. Even dirtier. Never seen so much dirt/rocks. When people joke about accumulating dirt adding weight to the car, it ain't a joke lol



Next, drained the tranny. What came out looked original, not fresh. RIP synchros As far as feel, the tranny doesn't feel much different than most. Never pops out, never doesn't go in, but getting into 2nd is tough when cold. Overall, not as smooth as my 180k silvergrey (poster child), but not too much worse. Pretty positive this is 123k mile, 19 y/o lube:



Like the tranny, I'm not putting in OE fluid yet. If pentosin MTF2 was still easy to get, I would have, but I'm trying a MTF3 fluid, a straight 75 weight, still the proper GL4 spec. The idea here is that the slightly lower weight will make shifting a little easier for this daily driver where I don't need as much high heat protection as I'm not jamming it into gear like I do on my silvergrey in the canyons.



As most know, our cars got a restrictor/governor in our clutch line to slow the slave action. Well we don't like that. One of the first things you should do to the car is remove it!

Here it is, you can see the orifice that fluid passes through.



You can actually punch it out, or you can simply remove the unit, and thread the line back onto the hard line fitting seen here (what I did):



Next, I support the tranny w/ jack and drop the brace with dampener and bushings, To the left is my replacement bushing, a BMW part from E21! Much beefier, similar to my favorite the Rogue Eng versions. This one requires some modifications which I'll show, but I also did a DIY thread about this - see here: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...mission-mounts



Cleaned up



The E21 bushings aren't notched to fit our brace, so notch them or file/grind off the notch (or, at least, enough of it)



There we are. The holes in the brace and the dampener need to be enlarged by 1.xmm to accept the larger M10 stud vs stock M8. Takes a second with a drill bit or even a reamer.



The slots on the tranny's "feet" also need to be opened up by a hair over 1mm:



Not installing it yet as I need access to the shift linkage. I don't drop the driveshaft, so this job (underneath part) fucking sucks.

Removing shifter. I use two long flat head drivers, against each other, to clock the shifter cup enough to pop out:




Here's my little "refresh kit." New OE/M parts; the selector joint is very important, but also a key aftermarket part I love- the delrin/nylon front carrier bushings
Also pictured is my favorite shift knob which I'll speak about farther down.



Removing the linkage. Hard to get pics. It's dark, tight, and generally unpleasant getting this stuff out with tranny in place.



As you can see, I pre-installed the selector rod onto the joint. I hope this saves me some work. It's hard enough to install the damn joint.
The foam in the joint was obliterated lol. A new one is largely responsible to tightening up the slop (along with the carrier bushes)



FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUU. Hardest thing I've ever done on these god damn cars. Took a while. The selector rod actually even helped, giving me more to use to push the foam onto the tranny's rod end. Getting it in far enough AND the little pin through was a nightmare. I even beveled the pin to make life easier. I shudder to think what if I hadn't.



Rod attached to shifter that's back in the car with fresh lube and cup



Tranny brace, dampener and bushings going in. Those damn M10 nuts on top were a bitch to tighten. Ended up having to use a ratcheting end wrench to get any swing - socket wouldn't fit!



Buttoning it all back up. New hardware for sect 1/2:



Before I finish the inside, I wanted to DIY the trim. I actually had found a new trim for $30 (they used to be $17 on ECS like a year ago!), but when the price shot up to $60, the seller "lost" my package. Seems like the best match to Titan is the "storm grey met" from Dupli color's perfect match system:



It's a very good match, but it lacks any hue of color. Titan has a gold tint to it. I didn't think it was that far off, but once installed, it's more noticeable. I have a plan that I'll document later.



Here's more detail on the shift knob for those interested. I run it in my other car too. It's the best of everything- looks, height, weight, design/feel. But it isn't lit.



Cleaning (protectant & a Q-tip) window switches before re-install:




I'll get better (good outdoor lighting) pics at some point.

[jet_dogg]

Please accept my humble apologies, there was no ill intent behind it.

[jet_dogg]

You can't get more if you used some on the wheels?

It's 5 sprays per wheel son.

[jet_dogg]

I don't use any meguiars products so I looked up the msds and holy shit that shit has a highly alkaline ph of almost 14.

I've never found any wheel cleaner as effective as one with an iron removing component. I don't know why you wouldn't just use that one dogg.

[timmo]

That Meguiar's hot rimz stuff is pretty good! Yeah stupid name but they worked a treat on my style 135s before I sold them. Decided to give it a try since I've never seen Meguiar's put out a bad product

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