BMW e46 330cI by Notloudenuf

[Notloudenuf]

It's been a while (7 years to be exact) but I have a car that will basically be dedicated to a stereo install. Not much happening yet but follow along because I'll be adding to this slowly.

It needs a lot of work; but that's ok. I wanted something to tinker with.




It came with the Harmon system. This is what that looks like

[LBaudio]

nice project car

[chithead]

[JayinMI]

Nice. I was entertaining doing a dedicated build when I bought my Neon. And I probably will, but I want to dedicate the Mazda to SQ and keep the miles off of it.
What are you plans? Gutting the dash, like Mic?

[Notloudenuf]

Nice. I was entertaining doing a dedicated build when I bought my Neon. And I probably will, but I want to dedicate the Mazda to SQ and keep the miles off of it.
What are you plans? Gutting the dash, like Mic?

Nothing too crazy for now. Just a nice 2way in stock locations until I think I need to upgrade. Maybe 1 or 2 IB 15s in the trunk and a decently fancy trunk build out.

[Notloudenuf]

Continue to work on the project.
I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to refinish the headlights.
As I received the car.

A few passes with PlastX maybe

Here is as good as I have been able to get them.

I'll continue to work on these. I really want them looking clear without having to buy new covers.

I bought a Harbor Freight paintless dent puller kit and it worked ok.
One of several dents before

After

It looks better. The glue does not stick all that well. If you buy one on your own be aware of this fact.

[Notloudenuf]

The big project this weekend was paint correction. And what a job that is
The hood was by far the worst. The part on the right is what the hood looked like when I got the car.
The portion on the left is after a pass by hand with Meguiar's Ultimate compound.

Here it is getting set up

Not much in the way of progress but here is the end of the day yesterday after compounding, polish, then hand wax.



Still working toward the stereo install so you'll have to be patient with me. The factory HK.

My Diamonds are an exact fit replacement diameter and depth



In addition I replaced the broken side mirror glass and installed my new kidney grills.

[Afghan Vet]

Great work so far Kendal! I really like what you did to the paint surface, and I’m looking forward to the next steps with the audio. The Milan was always one of my favorite cars at my meets!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Notloudenuf]

Y'all remember this picture?

I decided to dye the rear deck back to black instead of the purple it has faded to over the years.
I used this spray fabric dye from duplicolor https://www.duplicolor.com/product/v...abric-coating/
It worked very well. Its not like paint as in it doesn't coat the fabric and weigh it down. After each light coat I used a paint brush to fluff the fabric up.
Getting started


You can see it changing each time


And finished


And just so everyone knows it took the whole can of spray dye to get it to this.

[JayinMI]

I've been goin through headlight hell, as well. I'm doing a retrofit on the Neon. I started with some aftermarket Depo clear lens headlights.
They had turned yellow, and hazy. I found a video on YouTube from ChrisFix where he wet sands some PT Cruiser headlights out with 3 different grits of paper (ending with 2000)then paints them with clear Rustoleum 2X paint (which says it has some UV protection in it.) I won't say they looked amazing, but they looked pretty good, and tons better than when he started.

Wet sanding them out has been fine, but 3 times now, the paint has reacted badly. The last time, I even tried adhesion promoter. Nope. I think there might be something wrong with the paint because I could make one pass and then had to shake it up again. (And, yes, I shook it up to start)

So, finally I ordered some Spraymax 2k Glamour Clear. I've used it before on plastic, and had no issues. It's about $22 a can, so it isn't cheap. (And I had to buy a 2 pack...but I have other uses) I'm going to wetsand it one more time, and try it with the new clear.
This stuff dries hard enough I could wet sand it out after it's done (probably 3000 grit or something) and then I'll use my 3" air polisher to make it perfect.

If it reacts AGAIN, (after I recover from losing my shit) I'm going to assume it's the plastic and figure something else out. If it goes well, I'll let you know.
Nice work on the paint correction, it's looking a lot better.

Jay