** Acme [Akagi] bought a pink estate car - E30 325i project log! **

I wasnt trying to be negative, I was just wondering if you were planning on taking it after youve done all this work, if your rattle canning it then using it for a while fair enough. But NO bodyshop who is any good is going to touch it without taking it right back. So it brings up the question, why bother now if you plan to get it done anyways and just chuck it into a bodyshop now?

Another thing which kind of makes me laugh, you ordered all this original OEM spec stuff for inside, then ruin the car with that exhaust! But each to their own and at least your out there getting your hands dirty! It will be worth it in the end :)
 
I'm sure they will. Otherwise no bodyshop would ever spray old cars. Most of them have filler in them somewhere. Unless you're asking if I will be taking it to a bodyshop like this having just filled it myself? In which case no I'm not doing that, and I can understand why they wouldn't want to. :)

I'm painting these bits with cans for now but it will probably go for a re-spray somewhen in the fairly distant future...

yea a bodyshop will deffo take it back to bare metal, they'll also rub down your filler to get it perfect, unfortunately they'll charge you quite a lot for this..............the advantage of the spray can now is, it'll protect the car until it gets sprayed.......against rust !

you're deffo doing the right thing with the rattle cans..........i found it really hard to hide filler, i always used to see mounds and hills, even when i thought it was dead flat.

whether or not the rust will come back on the underside of the car is hard to tell, because it deffo came back on the Ford Cortinas, usually within 10 months, even if you're really careful, back then a respray only cost 250 quid..............amazing isn't it
 
Tried and failed to make up a middle exhaust section. Out of 6 possible places it could have leaked, it leaked from...... 4 of them. :p

And I snapped an exhaust flange..... So it will now be going to an exhaust shop for them to do it properly, with the added cost of chopping a bit of pipe, replacing a flange, and welding it back on, because I'm a numpty. :(

I'm not bothered about what a bodyshop may or may not do when it goes in for a spray because that really is a long way off. Its fallen way down my list of priorities. :)
 
yea a bodyshop will deffo take it back to bare metal, they'll also rub down your filler to get it perfect, unfortunately they'll charge you quite a lot for this..............the advantage of the spray can now is, it'll protect the car until it gets sprayed.......against rust !

you're deffo doing the right thing with the rattle cans..........i found it really hard to hide filler, i always used to see mounds and hills, even when i thought it was dead flat.

whether or not the rust will come back on the underside of the car is hard to tell, because it deffo came back on the Ford Cortinas, usually within 10 months, even if you're really careful, back then a respray only cost 250 quid..............amazing isn't it
Most body shops will "deffo" not take your average respray job back to bare metal.
 
they're not doing their job properly then, the bodyshop i deal with takes it back to bare metal, the car is totally stripped...........they keep the car for about three weeks
 
they're not doing their job properly then, the bodyshop i deal with takes it back to bare metal, the car is totally stripped...........they keep the car for about three weeks

No, hardly any spray shops take a car back to bare metal. Bare metal re-sprays are mega bucks, and are not something that I am ever going to entertain the idea of... Only a small percentage of car re-sprays will be bare metal re-sprays.

Almost all re-sprays will involve keying the existing paint, filling and prepping little dents etc, removing window trims/bumpers/things that will get in the way, and spraying.
 
i am indeed talking about mega bucks, one quote was 6k and the other about 7k, this was last year..... the cars in their bodyshop were all totally gutted and stripped back to bare metal...i've no reason to tell lies m8.

yes you can get it done as you say i suppose...esp if it's the same colour
 
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i am indeed talking about mega bucks, one quote was 6k and the other about 7k, this was last year..... the cars in their bodyshop were all totally gutted and stripped back to bare metal...i've no reason to tell lies m8.

yes you can get it done as you say i suppose...esp if it's the same colour

Bare shell / metal restorations places != all body shops, in fact, they are fewer given the number of shops in and around the country. Any decent bodyshop will take it back as far as is needed to ensure the panels they are painting are straight and will blend the new paint into the existing paint. Anyone who takes every job all the way back for a simple panel repair is just trying to make money and waste everyone's time.

@Acme if you're using rattle cans then get one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BHH1QT4

Also make sure you use base coat and a few coats of lacquer and buff/cut the lacquer once it's applied.
 
Sanded down the rear quarter a bit, skimmed some more filler in, sanded again, put on several layers of filler primer, waiting for it to dry so I can block sand it, then put more filler primer on.

I hate waiting the 24 hours+ before sanding... I want to get sanding after an hour damnit, but I know it will mess it up! :p
 
Are you using aerosol filler primer? The yellow stuff? Be warned it can be a pretty volatile product to work with - solvent reactions, pickling, sometimes gets lifted when applying filler/stopper over it, things like that. Proper filler primer from a spray gun is infinitely better.
 
Sanded it back, sprayed a some more coats on, its so smooooooth now!! :eek: Its also shiny/glossy... Am I to take it that this means it is water-proof until sanded?

Also fitted the fuel filler neck, vapor tank, and breather pipes. Now I can put the rear interior back together...

Exhaust work booked for the 9th... MOT booked for the 14th... Show booked for the 17th... :p
 
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i've just sprayed grey high build primer car paint, over metallic gloss and it's attacked the gloss underneath, i'll need to rub it all back to bare plastic ( Tamiya RC model truck) i'm surprised it did this, it totally softened the gloss underneath creating a finish that looked like plant roots !
 
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