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Friday, March 29, 2024

Doug's Domain

Doug Vetter, ATP/CFI

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Friday, September 12, 2014

Body Shop Progress: Bodywork

I delivered the E36 to the paint shop going on three weeks ago but not much got done the first couple of weeks for a variety of reasons, including the shop manager going on vacation for a week. He knows this is my second car and I left instructions to "do it right, don't rush", so I couldn't blame him for delaying the work until he got back. But then, as often happens when key people take time off, the shop got stuck in catch-up mode for a week, so work didn't begin until this week.

As you can see in the pictures (sorry for the crappy quality) they spent time addressing all the dings and dents, and even some rust I noticed forming on the left rear wheel arch near the rear bumper cover. The hood had to be completely reworked for a couple reasons. First, rust had started to form around the washer jets because the clear had failed some time ago and the basecoat was not far behind. Second, the last shop to paint the hood applied a relatively thick coat of clear, which sounds like a good idea until rocks pit the hell out of it and create small craters everywhere.

The shop estimated delivery of the car late this month or early October. If the delivery gets pushed too far into October I may have to delay the interior and audio system work yet again as I can't have the E36 in pieces when the first snow hits.

Mileage: 252200