JOURNAL: 1998 BMW Z3 2.8 Roadster [UPDATED: 6th May 2011]

[pangster]

I'm also planning on doing Knockhill this year..

FYI - BMWCC (Scottish Region) are well on with plans for a Knockhill Track Day

I'll publish details once everything has been confirmed

cool! - I'm not a member of BMWCC though

[pangster]

Good news! - I got an email confirming my new wheel will be sent out on 28th March!!

More good news is that I've been trying to get a leather match to get new custom gaiters made up for the gearstick and handbrake - but the trim shop has had problems matching it with samples (you've no idea how many different colours of tan/beige and brown there is!! :eek:shifty:):



So I had a brainwave - I bought a 2nd hand beige handbrake gaiter that came up on eBay:



And I'm now going to send this off with the gearstick gaiter to ensure a proper match!! - hopefully by the end of next week I'll have received and fitted my new steering wheel and custom handbrake/gearstick gaiters!!

[NeRo]

cool! - I'm not a member of BMWCC though

It's not what you know, but who you know

[pangster]

cool! - I'm not a member of BMWCC though

It's not what you know, but who you know

[pangster]

I eventually got round to starting to prep and paint my Z3 ///M gills and mirrors today - not bad going as I've had them for about 8 months or so.. I was going to get one of my friends to do them as he's a professional painter (very good one as well) - but he's been very busy at work (we had a lot of ice here recently!! LOL!) - so figured given they're fairly small parts that I'd have a go myself as the worst thing that could happen is that I'd need to give them to him and wait until he was free to sort my mess out!

I didn't really appreciate how much of a ball ache spraying Montreal Blue would be - it needs a special ground coat before you can shoot colour - which just adds to the whole process..

Anyway - thought I'd share some pics of the progress I made today:

PARTS AFTER PREP AND PRIMER:



GROUND COAT:



GROUND V FIRST COAT OF COLOUR:



2 COATS OF COLOUR (Pretty hard to pic up the metallic fleck/lustre on my iPhone camera! - but it does look better in real life!):


I'll let it dry overnight and the plan for tomorrow is:

(1) flatten back any high spots/imperfections and then give them their final coat of colour

(2) paint mirror bases (acid etch primer / ground coat / colour x 2 / lacquer x 2)

(3) paint satin black gill inlay

(4) lacquer gills and mirrors

(5) finish off with rubbing compound

With any luck I might have these finished and fitted by Sunday night!

[pangster]

I made decent progress today and done almost all I set out to do..

(*) I re-did the inlays of the Z3M gills to give them a smooth black satin finish

(*) I finished prepping the mirror bases ready for colour. Given I had ran out of the Montreal Blue paint I ordered from www.paints4u.com - I decided to take the plunge/chance and bought some from Halfords... complete waste of money - I would have been better off painting them Arctic Silver - it probably would have been a closer match to Montreal Blue (which was a real shame as I got a really good finish on them as well - but the colours are poles apart!!).. just means even more work next week or the next chance I get as they'll both need rubbed back again!!!

(*) Fitted the Z3M gills (yet to go over them with G3 so they will appear a little flat just now) - pics below:



Overall in terms of colour matching - I'd give the paints4u paint a solid 9 out of 10 and the halfords paint 2 out of 10.. once I order more Montreal Blue paint I'll get the Z3M mirrors redone and then fitted to the car. I'll then need to go over the Z3M mirrors and Z3M side gills with some G3 and in the next month or so I'll give the rest of the car a proper machine detail.

[NeRo]

You know my thoughts on M Gills on anything other than an M and I'm not convinced by the finish you've got on yours helps either - sorry

I know what you mean about Halfords Touch-ups - the Siena Red I got was more brown than red

It's been a while since anyone has used "thickbox" lightbox, so I've converted your pics

[pangster]

You know my thoughts on M Gills on anything other than an M and I'm not convinced by the finish you've got on yours helps either - sorry

I know what you mean about Halfords Touch-ups - the Siena Red I got was more brown than red

It's been a while since anyone has used "thickbox" lightbox, so I've converted your pics

I know what you mean.. I still need to go over them with G3 rubbing compound (I need to leave it a few days to make sure the lacquer is hard enough).. and you're never going to get a 100% match from a rattle can.. but fairly happy with how they turned out so far - once I've been over them with G3 the shine/luster should come out.. and the next time I have more time on my hands I'll do a proper detail of the whole car - It'll be fine until it goes in for a respray

I know the gills aren't to everyone's tastes - but they turned out just how I expected them to as I think the chrome accent goes well with the wheels and the chrome kidney grills - just enough of a chrome highlight without being over the top!

[pangster]

FWIW - this will give you an idea of how different the Montreal Blue supplied by Halfords (mirror bases) is compared to the Montreal Blue supplied by Paints4U (///M gills):

[pangster]

I did a quick side by side comparison shot:



just need to get the ///M mirrors sorted out and also just got an email saying my new steering wheel has been sent out today!!