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My Carbon Black bare metal respray - progress photos

58K views 80 replies 42 participants last post by  Terabass 
#1 ·
Hi All,
I thought I'd share the major cosmetic surgery that my beast is undergoing at the moment. The paint on my car was 100% original, and while it still had a pretty good finish it was suffering from a lot of stone chips on the front bonnet and guards plus a few on the front of the roof. In addition, each panel had some sort of minor mark on it - just small scratches or marks, but enough to mean the car was never going to be perfect. The car is build BJ10004, ie the 5th ever RHD car and the first ever built for the Australian market (Dec 1998), so to me it's a pretty special car. This is how it looked:

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So recently someone ran into the front driver's door while it was parked (no note of course), and shortly afterwards my passenger side mirror entangled in a cable and the other end went under the rear tyre. Long story ??????

This nearly ripped the mirror off and put a nice scratch down the side of the car doors as well. Here are some shots of the damage:

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These two pieces of bad luck meant I had to lodge two insurance claims, and luckily the insurance company authorised a brand new driver's door and passenger mirror, and most of both sides of the car to be painted. I took the car to a really good authorised BMW panel repairer who use Glasurit paint (after talking to quite a few others first), and discussed paying to do some additional work while it was under the knife anyway. What started as paint stripping the bonnet and front guards to fix the stone chips and repairing the front bar (that had a crack in it and lots of chips), has turned into a full back to the metal respray, with brand new front bar...

The great news is that now that the car is back to the metal, there is no evidence of any previous repairs at all. We already new the paint was all original after checking the paint depth, but it was thin from repeated buffing over the years. The guys at the panel shop have really got behind the project (as they love the car) and are doing a bunch of extra work for me without charge. I've only paid to paint strip the front of the car due to chips, then block back and respray the rest, but I discovered today they've completely paint stripped the entire car for me to ensure a perfect finish. They're also doing the inside around the door pillars & sills etc beyond what was quoted. Of course I'll put all new moulds etc on and will post full details later.

Anyway below are some photos from today. I'll update as the next stage comes together!

Nick

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#4 ·
Very cool, well done of you to treat the M5 with such a cosmetic improvement, curious to see the end results! :)
 
#8 ·
Nick;

you know, the first picture of your car is the wallpaper on my desktop pc at work, for the past months. I too own a Dec.1998 built beast in Carbon Black as well, which has a special spot in my heart. Paint has stone chips at the usual places and other blemishes from daily use. It's probably too thin for a proper detailing job on some parts as well.

If I ever have the funds to do so, I'm planning a full respray at some point in the near future. I'll follow your updates with much interest.

Thanks for posting! :applause:
 
#11 ·
Thanks for all the positive comments!

Nick;

you know, the first picture of your car is the wallpaper on my desktop pc at work, for the past months.
That's great - thanks for letting me know! I'll get you a better one to replace it with when this is all finished :cheers:

How did they strip it? Chemical means or a soda blaster?

Should come out nice. My Carbon Black needs a respray badly, but the cost of a good job is more than 50% of the value of the car.
They used chemical. Here are some pics the panel shop sent me a couple of days ago. This is just before they decided to strip the whole car for me, so what you can see is probably the original extent of preperation. So glad they went the extra mile! In the first photo you can see them stripping one of the doors with chemical.

By the way there's some nice machinary in this shop - I can't believe how many E90 M3 boys smash their cars, there's a different one in there each time I visit!

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#9 ·
How did they strip it? Chemical means or a soda blaster?

Should come out nice. My Carbon Black needs a respray badly, but the cost of a good job is more than 50% of the value of the car.
 
#14 ·
A ton of work, but with black it's the only way to make sure to get the best finish possible. I am curious for the results...any clues on when they will be done?
 
#16 ·
Nick

You won't be able to ride with us once the respray is finished, just to damn good!
 
#20 ·
I'm sure Griot's has a product for that. :3:

Seriously, I have heard that you don't want to leave bare metal out like that for too long, what with rust and contaminants and such, but I'm sure that the shop knows about all that and will clean & prime it ASAP.

A good paint job is only as good as the preparation before it, and it looks like these guys are going to do a bang-up job for you! I don't know why they have to take the doors off, but hey, they probably don't know how to do my job either.

Looking forward to seeing the results. Thanks for all the good pics and write-ups!

M
 
#25 ·
Epic, can't wait to see the end result, hope you own a good camera..............
 
#26 ·
OK, finally I can see some carbon black! They took the front guards off so that they can properly paint where they meet the "A" Pillar. I'm just in the process of ordering all the black trim that goes around the window frames - geez that's expensive!

The panel shop just sent me these photos today, I'll go and take some better ones and post soon.

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#29 · (Edited)
KA-Ching! I sure hope the OP has the balls to tell us how much the total bill, parts and labor, comes to when he's finished.

And by balls, I mean the courage to stand up to possible ridicule. "You spent how much on a twelve year old car?!?!?!?!" Nah, never mind, that's what his wife will be screaming. Anything we say will be tame in comparison.

Hmmmm... maybe a new thread, a survey, guessing the total bill.

I'm going to say 5700 AUD.

M
 
#32 ·
Should look great when it is all done! I'd love to have mine totally redone but it is generally pretty good and only the front needs doing desperately due to stone chips!

cheers and keep the photos coming!
 
#33 ·
That's a truly inspirational story. personally I don't care about the economics, it's just great to see someone lavishing so much care an attention on a very special car. And the first E39 M5 in Australia is a very special car indeed.

But if we're having a sweepstake I'll go for 9000 AUD. Still great value based on the stupid prices that I understand M5s go for out there...

YG
 
#35 ·
WOW! Just saw the car. It's tucked in tightly between cars, so it's hard to get good photos. But the paint finish looks amazing! The depth of colour and amount of blue in the paint blew me away. They've gone around with some 2000 grade wet & dry and taken out any minor imperfections, and will then polish it. Currently preparing the doors, and will then do all other parts such as mirrors and door handles etc. I'm so glad I did the turret now, I very nearly didn't!

Meanwhile I've pretty much finalised my parts order that I will post later - it includes two new headlight covers (I spend the weekend cleaning mine up with wet & dry and polishing them and they were 80% better, but ended up deciding to replace. I found new ones from turnermotorsport.com for $200 USD for the pair. I've also got 4 broken adjusters that I'm fixing at the same time.

Cost? Well remember that insurance covered both sides, and I didn't pay to strip the whole car back. The panel shop have also done a stack of extra work for me free of charge - all I have paid to strip was the front guards and bonnet. Having said that, cost is just over $7,000 AUD (including an OEM new front bumper bar as mine was cracked) plus whatever my parts bill ends up - I'll post later. But I was in one of those situations where the sides were being painted anyway and the rest of the car was not perfect, so it was "now or never" to do the whole lot once and for all. Also consider the car's now probably worth $50,000 AUD. I have no intention of selling it, and it's no longer a daily driver.

I figure I'll have forgotten the cost in 12 months - but will now always have a perfect carbonblack M5!

Nick

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