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Read the WELCOME ALL BMWFANATICS post.
The Grim Reaper!
- Thread starter Kish2604
- Start date
updates from 09 July 2016,
A good friend of mine (also BMW enthusiast) was getting married and it was my task to get him to the hall for his sentencing... this also meant the car needed some freshening up, more than a car wash or quick polish would be able to do. In swoops Ricardo from Detail Excellence to the rescue. With the wedding at 2pm he asked me to be at the shop at 7am for him to start work. I was also lucky enough to be the first car to be done at his new space at CARS,COFFEES,COMBOVERS in Umgeni road.
I will let the pics do the talking from here.
working behind closed curtains...
reflection after complete clay...
Reflection shots after machine polish to remove imperfections
You can miss out on a CCC double mutton burger while you there...
All in all I cannot express my thanks enough to Detail Excellence for the revive on the paint. We discussed a few items I needed to address and I will be back in November for another round of pampering! these pics are my own and a small write up is avail on his page here Detail Excellence
Some pics from the wedding:
A good friend of mine (also BMW enthusiast) was getting married and it was my task to get him to the hall for his sentencing... this also meant the car needed some freshening up, more than a car wash or quick polish would be able to do. In swoops Ricardo from Detail Excellence to the rescue. With the wedding at 2pm he asked me to be at the shop at 7am for him to start work. I was also lucky enough to be the first car to be done at his new space at CARS,COFFEES,COMBOVERS in Umgeni road.
I will let the pics do the talking from here.
working behind closed curtains...
reflection after complete clay...
Reflection shots after machine polish to remove imperfections
You can miss out on a CCC double mutton burger while you there...
All in all I cannot express my thanks enough to Detail Excellence for the revive on the paint. We discussed a few items I needed to address and I will be back in November for another round of pampering! these pics are my own and a small write up is avail on his page here Detail Excellence
Some pics from the wedding:
Update: 10 July 2016
I already posted a pic of the shocks having arrived from Sean @ Axis, the day after the wedding was the best chance PrevanP and myself would get to fit the shocks fitted to our cars. So the strip began on the front on each car and we took it of to get the springs compressed and the shock swopped out. a few hours later we were done with the fronts and started on the rears which actually isn't very hard other than the stripping of the rear interior to get to the upper subframe.
Pics may be a duplicate from PrevanP thread.
I got the alignment redone the next day.
I already posted a pic of the shocks having arrived from Sean @ Axis, the day after the wedding was the best chance PrevanP and myself would get to fit the shocks fitted to our cars. So the strip began on the front on each car and we took it of to get the springs compressed and the shock swopped out. a few hours later we were done with the fronts and started on the rears which actually isn't very hard other than the stripping of the rear interior to get to the upper subframe.
Pics may be a duplicate from PrevanP thread.
I got the alignment redone the next day.
The next step on our journey was TheFanatics Raceday 2016, for a full report back with results have a look into this feedback thread.
Raceday 2016
Raceday 2016
Time for normal programming to resume after those few posts:
I have always stood by the point that its useless making a few million HP if you cant translate that onto the road. So while everything else was happening I also looked into getting the rear suspension sorted, first stop? M3 rear control arms! As the ffg pics will show the M3 came with aluminium arms with a different type of bushing design versus the oem pressed metal arms. however from the M3 the only 2 arms that can be used are the upper control arm and trailing arm. the lower trailing arm and toe arms can only be replaced with an aftermarket solution.
the arms arrived shortly after raceday and I spend a winter evening putting them in.
pics:
I have always stood by the point that its useless making a few million HP if you cant translate that onto the road. So while everything else was happening I also looked into getting the rear suspension sorted, first stop? M3 rear control arms! As the ffg pics will show the M3 came with aluminium arms with a different type of bushing design versus the oem pressed metal arms. however from the M3 the only 2 arms that can be used are the upper control arm and trailing arm. the lower trailing arm and toe arms can only be replaced with an aftermarket solution.
the arms arrived shortly after raceday and I spend a winter evening putting them in.
pics:
As with ownership of any car the process of modding to taste is never done, with the rims having been refurbished the brakes callipers and disc hats were looking a bit sad, the next bit was a to tidy that up but what could I do that would look good but not stand out to much? the thought process here was to do the rattle clips and caliper carrier in BMW blue while leaving the rest of the caliper in gloss metallic black and the disc hats in high heat matt black so they fade away into the background.
Step 1 was to strip the front brakes, get the rattle clips and carriers cleaned and primed. these were then washed and left to dry.
Step 2 was to clean the callipers with brake cleaner and dry. (I couldn't srip the brake line of as I didn't have suitable tools to press the brake pipe to keep the fluid inside.
Step 3 was the spray work which wasn't to bad for a rattle can. The paint went on evenly without running and the finish was good. the only thing I battled with was getting it to dry quick enough in the winter cold.
Step 4 was the calliper which was a little harder inside the wheel well and still connected but I managed to mask of everything that would show overspray.
Step 5 was very carful reassembly.
Overall I am happy with the finish but there are a few things niggling me. Firstly the rattle cans are enamel based paints which while they offer a good finish, they aren't very resilient to impacts and scratches from removal and refit. Secondly the E90 range of calipers have a very rough finish to them unlike the F30 M sport which are machined smooth and hence finish very well when painted.
Ideas are being formulated on how to tackle version 2 of this mod...
pics below:
Step 1 was to strip the front brakes, get the rattle clips and carriers cleaned and primed. these were then washed and left to dry.
Step 2 was to clean the callipers with brake cleaner and dry. (I couldn't srip the brake line of as I didn't have suitable tools to press the brake pipe to keep the fluid inside.
Step 3 was the spray work which wasn't to bad for a rattle can. The paint went on evenly without running and the finish was good. the only thing I battled with was getting it to dry quick enough in the winter cold.
Step 4 was the calliper which was a little harder inside the wheel well and still connected but I managed to mask of everything that would show overspray.
Step 5 was very carful reassembly.
Overall I am happy with the finish but there are a few things niggling me. Firstly the rattle cans are enamel based paints which while they offer a good finish, they aren't very resilient to impacts and scratches from removal and refit. Secondly the E90 range of calipers have a very rough finish to them unlike the F30 M sport which are machined smooth and hence finish very well when painted.
Ideas are being formulated on how to tackle version 2 of this mod...
pics below:
The last update here for tonight is from 20 August 2016,
After the small changes to the brakes were completed, the next item was to fit the Performance boot spoiler lying in the garage, having bought it from one of the forum advertisers at the beginning of the year it was put into storage till I could find a trustworthy shop to paint. One of our members (922-ZN) had his CSL bootlid sprayed with his regular panel shop and based on the outcome I decided to give it a go. I removed the mirror caps and rear diffuser from the car and bundled it with the spare set of OEM grills and boot spoiler for delivery. 3 days later the items were ready for collection and needless to say I was very impressed with the outcome.
Our member Icechilli was kind enough to assist with fitment the next Saturday morning. All the items went on well however when removing the thin lip spoiler we saw that water ingress had etched away at the paint in one corner. I would have non of this so I left the new spoiler off and booked the car back at the same panel shop to respray the bootlid. While I am at it I figured I would get the front bumper, bonnet and fenders were also redone to eliminate the stone chips. The outcome as before was beyond my expectations...
Here are some pics that had me very happy!
After the small changes to the brakes were completed, the next item was to fit the Performance boot spoiler lying in the garage, having bought it from one of the forum advertisers at the beginning of the year it was put into storage till I could find a trustworthy shop to paint. One of our members (922-ZN) had his CSL bootlid sprayed with his regular panel shop and based on the outcome I decided to give it a go. I removed the mirror caps and rear diffuser from the car and bundled it with the spare set of OEM grills and boot spoiler for delivery. 3 days later the items were ready for collection and needless to say I was very impressed with the outcome.
Our member Icechilli was kind enough to assist with fitment the next Saturday morning. All the items went on well however when removing the thin lip spoiler we saw that water ingress had etched away at the paint in one corner. I would have non of this so I left the new spoiler off and booked the car back at the same panel shop to respray the bootlid. While I am at it I figured I would get the front bumper, bonnet and fenders were also redone to eliminate the stone chips. The outcome as before was beyond my expectations...
Here are some pics that had me very happy!
last update to bring this thread up to current date:
02/04 September 2016 was the 3rd annual BMWFanatics weekend away to Clarens, here are some of the pics I took of my Reaper over the weekend.
Thanks for reading and more updates as and when they do become available.
02/04 September 2016 was the 3rd annual BMWFanatics weekend away to Clarens, here are some of the pics I took of my Reaper over the weekend.
Thanks for reading and more updates as and when they do become available.
raise:
