Prepping the Body, Priming and Painting the Clarion Builds 74 BMW 2002
What Lies Beneath:
Having a car repainted and having it come out looking great is not an easy, fast, or cheap prospect. No matter how carefully the body is inspected there will almost always be surprises that won’t show themselves until the car is disassembled. Our ‘74 BMW 2002 was no exception. After the skilled team at Coupe King had their way with our ride and the pieces were all neatly stacked on shelves, we started getting a better idea of what we were in for. Rust on a vehicle this old is normal, and we certainly did not expect our 02 to be an anomaly. Once torn down, we found trouble areas on many of the panels. For a car build of this caliber, we decided against merely treating the affected areas and painting over them. Instead, we opted to replace panels and cut out the affected areas where needed. We ended up replacing numerous panels including the doors, fenders, trunk lid and even the hood. Many of these parts were shipped directly from BMW’s warehouse in Germany. After hours of cutting, welding, hammering, fitting and refitting, our ’02 was once again rust free and ready to move to Diamond Hills Collision Center for some finishing body work and a fresh coat of paint.
Arriving At Diamond Hills:
The team at Diamond Hills Collision Center is full of experts of all thing auto body, and the caliber of the vehicles they work on serves as a testament of their reputation for quality and attention to detail. Our BMW edged its way into their shop, pushing past Lamborghinis, Ferraris, GTRs, and a host of other high end luxury cars. The 02’s shell looked a bit out of place in its current haggard state, but that did not last long. Mere days after the Clarion Builds BMW arrived at Diamond Hills’ facilities located in Walnut, CA, they began stripping all of the remaining paint and prepping the body for the next stage. Using a special (secret) compound applied directly to the sheet metal, the paint easily scraped off as if they were squeegeeing water off of a window and in no time they had the body down to bare metal. Once the sheet metal was prepped, the skilled craftsman at Diamond Hill began the delicate and complex task of making sure the body was completely straight and true to its original form. This slow and precise step of the restoration is crucial in order to guarantee that the finished product will look perfect once the paint is applied. In fact, any minor slipup or oversight at this stage could have permanent repercussions for the project as a whole. We knew the highly trained and experienced team at Diamond Hills Collision Center was up to the challenge.
Metal Work and Body Filler:
Coupe King had handled the majority of the cutting and welding, but to make sure that the bodywork required a minimal amount of body filler, some fine metalworking was still necessary. So out came the hammer and dolly. This is a time honored metal working technique that requires both skill and the patience of a saint to master. While the principle is simple, hammering sheet metal against an object that has the shape you want in order to achieve show worthy results is anything but. The team at Diamond Hills is filled with true craftsmen, so within a few weeks they had the body panels where they wanted them and began applying the body filler. There are a few tricks to using body filler correctly but the most important one is simple patience. First, the panels must have a sanded finish and be contaminant free. If the surface is not prepped correctly then the bonding agents will not function properly and you will get cracking in no time. Next, the filler should be applied in a thin coat. The less that is used the better. Too often, we see filler applied too thick at one time and in the worst case you can lose the lines of the car. Once each layer is applied and cured, out comes the sanding blocks and the surface is sanded even. Where the metal begins to show back through the filler is where the high spots are, and where it still remains are the low spots. Repeat these steps as needed until the panels are straight and smooth enough for primer. This is exactly what the Clarion Builds BMW 2002 underwent and after a few weeks of hard work the car moved on to the next stage, primer.
Finally – Laying Down Some Paint:
After a clean shot of primer, the team at Diamond Hills went over the car once more to make sure there were no imperfections with the body of the car and then it was time for paint. Truth be told, we had no idea what color we wanted to paint the car – another big decision that makes or breaks any build. With so many colors in the paint books to choose from, we decided early on that we definitely wanted to keep the car an original factory available BMW color from the 02’s era, making the decision a little less onerous. After a little bit of research, we didn’t realize just how special our 02 was. It turns out the car’s original Fjord Blue paint was a pretty rare color to find on a US spec 74 model, however few did make it across the pond and ours just happened to be one – so when it finally came down to it, we decided to keep the car unique and dress it back up in its original factory color.
Check out the full albums here:
Paint Prep: http://bit.ly/12AReOo
Primer and Paint: http://bit.ly/1qDaXYR
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