BMW e30 325i

[Wolfgang]

A bit of reading for you that might help.

Surbuf Buffing Pads: Tips and Tricks for Maximum Cut! - Autopia Forums - Auto Detailing & Car Care Discussion Forum

[Ben J]

Re: BMW e30 325i

Awesone thanks, Ill have a look at it later when I'm home

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[Ben J]

So I spent all of Friday and Saturday getting this thing ready for the show on sunday, including stripping the paint on a set of headlight surround rings, sanding them and buffing them up to a nice shine, lightly smoking the tail lights (not happy with the finish, I rushed them and it shows, will redo them nicely some time) and a bit of a detail of the car inside and out.

Took photos of all of this but somehow lost them (wiped the SD card thinking I'd copied everything over, but missed those couple of days) which is a shame, as the results of detailing where quite impressive. The only panel on the car that hasn't been resprayed is the bonnet, and since I've bought it it has looked like absolute crap compared to the rest of the car. It was oxidised, covered in scratches and just very rough. I clayed it and couldn't believe how dirty it was, by far the dirtiest panel on any car I've ever done, I'd be surprised if it had ever been done in its 27 years of life... after doing the normal amount of passes that I would do on any other car, the clay was filthy, so I folded it in and repeated the process. It took 4 rounds of passes to completely clean it. I haven't seen results like that from clay before either, could actually see the colour that had been hiden by this layer of ****, until then I had always thought the original paint was a metallic black, but turns out its straight black like the rest of the car. A good heavy cut using the techniques they recommend in that thread for the Surbuf pads (thanks Wolfgang, turns out I was using them wrong..) followed by a medium cut polish and then a finishing polish and it looks a thousand times better. Still a lot of deep scratches in it and a few dents, so I will be replacing it with a freshly painted piece in the future, but definintely looks a lot more presentable.

Also gave the rest of the car a light polish to remove some light swirls, not completely happy with the results, need to give it a bit more of a cut to get it perfect but just didn't have time, but even in the bright sun at the show to most people it looked OK (I'll always be incredibly picky about paint though). Finished off the whole car with some Dodo supernatural wax and polished up all the metal bits and cleaned up the trims and wheels and glass etc...

Anyway heres some photos from the show. Couldn't find a rear badge in time unfortunately :/

[Big_M]

Looks great mate.

[Ben J]

Re: BMW e30 325i

Thanks still a lot of things to tidy up, but its coming along slowly

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[Wolfgang]

Looks the goods Ben.

Great to hear you figured out the Surbufs.

[Ben J]

Interior is a little messy, missing a couple little trim pieces but they'll be replaced soon, and its been a week since I cleaned it, but heres some photos for those interested. Dash is perfect

[Big_M]

A crack free dash ! Nice. Original or have you replaced it ? Did it come with those rims? I always fancied some for my old E30 but never found any local.

[Ben J]

Re: BMW e30 325i

fairly certain it's original. cars spent half of its life in the UK where I assume the rare bit of sun is much more friendly than it is here in aus, and it's had a dash mat on it it's whole life too it seems. I normally leave the dash mat on to protect it for daily duties, but love to take it off every now and then

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[Domel]

This car is cool! Not too many of the chrome bumper, 325i's around.

Is it sport seats up front under those covers?

Great job with fixing up the fender and the boot lip delete, looks a lot better in my opinion (did the same on mine as well).

For the missing trim bits, ebay.co.uk is your best friend (you probably knew this already anyway).

Keep up the great job and be careful not to go overboard with the 'improvements' as some people do.

Dom.

[pontiff]

ahhh the joys of the e30 325i. I had one many years ago, but it was an aussie delivered post 88 model so plastic bumpers (which I must admit I preferred). Those seats look great, always wanted to get a set of sports, but they were always so expensive. Keep up the great work but yeah as above, try not to go too overboard

[Ben J]

Re: BMW e30 325i

Cheers guys. Definitely going to try and not go too over the top, basically just want to fix a lot of little things up, keep it clean (solid black paint is a real bitch to keep looking good as a daily driver it turns a out, even for a detailer like myself), get it running nice etc.

The reason there is covers on the front seats is because they don't match. Not sure why, it's one of the downsides of the car, but one day I'll get a matching set of something sporty in there

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[pontiff]

Cheers guys. Definitely going to try and not go too over the top, basically just want to fix a lot of little things up, keep it clean (solid black paint is a real bitch to keep looking good as a daily driver it turns a out, even for a detailer like myself), get it running nice etc.

The reason there is covers on the front seats is because they don't match. Not sure why, it's one of the downsides of the car, but one day I'll get a matching set of something sporty in there

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the sports recaros set off these cars imho, such a classic design.

[Ben J]

Re: BMW e30 325i

I agree, would love to find a mint set, not high on the list of priorities though and money is super tight at the moment, so will be a long time before i can seriously look for a set.

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[pontiff]

I agree, would love to find a mint set, not high on the list of priorities though and money is super tight at the moment, so will be a long time before i can seriously look for a set.

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yeah I hear ya, they are stupidly expensive and since they were not that common over here, even rarer. There are so many parts (even for the vw) that you see in the USA (not so much for the polo but for others) and the UK that you say, dammm if i was over there I would so have that