Happy Friday!  We’ve had several beautiful fall days, and this is another one!  What a great night for the Cruise-In!

It’s been another busy week, with several projects.  Today has been crazy, so let me apologize in advance about this post…I’ll be short on words, but make up for it with photos!  Plus, honestly, I’m anxious to go enjoy some nice fall weather tonight at the Cruise-In!  For now, we’ll show you the results from last week’s 1992 318i cabrio paint project…and the new sparkling maritius blau paint on the bonnet, deck lid, spoiler, and 3rd brake light!  Take a look!

Please note, these photos do not do the paint job justice!  Photographing paint can be especially difficult, especially in bright sun!

And more progress has been made on the 1986 BMW 325 project, namely with the engine bay!  Also, the rear suspension is nearly 100% installed.  Here’s a look at this week’s work on the engine bay, including high-build primer, sanding, painting, clear coat, wet-sanding, and buffing:

Reggie mixes the high-build primer:

Next, he sprayed the body color paint and then the clear coat, before proceeding to wet-sanding, as seen below:

Finally, it’s time to polish the paint with some rubbing compound for the finishing touch:

We’ll have more updates next week!

Have a great weekend!

What a great trip to the Windy City for VintageFest!  We left the shop Friday evening with perfect cabrio weather surrounding us.  We grabbed some dinner at Portillo’s Hot Dogs (you must try their Italian Beef with hot and sweet peppers, dipped!) just south of the city before doing some night driving along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.   Luckily, we had Takashi, Chicago native, to lead the way around the city…and to open our eyes and delight our tastebuds with the best tiramisu I’ve ever had!  We will definitely be going back for more!   Saturday morning was a different story, as far as the weather was concerned.  Dark clouds slowly moved in carrying a few sprinkles, and eventually a downpour of “big ol’ fat rain” as Forrest Gump would say.  Despite the rain, we headed off to the event location and waited out the rain.  Luckily, the rain stopped before the event officially started.  And the cars arrived, and all was right again in Vernon Hills, IL.  To view our album at your leisure, click here.  Or simply enjoy the following slideshow!

Just like last year, we did Leatherique demonstrations, but this time we used the Baur’s back seat.  It was great to hear feedback from those who purchased Leatherique last year!  If you’re in need of Leatherique, give us a call or send us an email!  We also donated some Reggie’s Motorworks t-shirts and a 16-ounce Leatherique kit as door prizes for the day.  Speaking of the Baur, we were happy to be awarded 2nd place for Best e30!  Thank you to all those who voted for our bimmer! Enthusiast Apparel was even represented, and some of their cool shirts were door prizes too.  So despite the gray day, the event was a success, and we’d love to go back again next fall!  Thank you to Kent, Shari, and the Windy City BMW CCA for welcoming us!

In other news, it’s been another busy week at the shop.  Reggie’s painted a bonnet, deck lid, spoiler, and third brake light a sweet mauritius blau for a 1992 318i cabrio.  Here’s a look at the prep work done on the bonnet, where there was a slight dent on the passenger side in the front.  Stay tuned for photos of the finished product!

Reggie marks where to apply studs in order to pull out the dent where needed.

Then it’s time to use the stud welder!

Next, he uses the slide hammer to pull out the studs, thus pulling out the dent:

Just a look at the tools used for this part of the project:

Using a profile guage, he compares the shape/slope of each side of the bonnet to see if any more pulling is necessary:

After applying body filler, sanding, and high-build primer, he again compares the shape of this side to the other side:

Once the bonnet, deck lid, spoiler, and third brake light housing were sanded and prepped for paint, it was time to spray that beautiful metallic blue, maritius blau.

Stay tuned for more on this and our ’86 325 project!

We’ll be off to the Cruise-In shortly, and we hope that you can join us…the weather is perfect!

Happy Friday!  The sun is fighting through some clouds today, hopefully it will come out strong this evening for the Cruise-In!  Just a few photos from last Friday:

It’s been a great week here at the shop.  Reggie is really pleased with the progress on the 1988 325i cabrio!   After laying down a nice blanket of Alpinweiss last weekend, he noticed that the color just did not quite match the rest of the car.  After some more research, we learned that BMW made 2 variations of Alpinweiss during the same production year!  So we’re chalking this one up to experience.  We took a piece of the cabrio to an expert about 30 minutes away, where he custom color matched the paint for us and stored the new code in their system.  Once that was squared away, Reggie prepped the cabrio and got busy painting.  As it sits right now, it’s just waiting to be wet-sanded.  And we couldn’t be happier with the paint match!

To see a full gallery of the bodywork done to this cabrio, click here.  Just a few photos from the prep work to buffing:

Reggie block sands all areas that have imperfections, then masks the car for primer before yet more sanding.  Masking takes quite a bit of time, but it’s very important.  Reggie found a good deal on a masking cart, which adheres tape to paper allowing you to tear off pre-taped strips as needed.  It was well worth the investment to save a little time during the prep work.

First, the car gets a coat of high-build surfacer/primer to fill any last flaws:

Here is the car after the high-build primer has been finish sanded (ready for the white paint!):

The car is now ready for the “base coat” paint and then the clear coat!

Then the fine tuning begins!  The car is wet-sanded and then buffed to let that new paint shine!  (Yes, these photos are from the first round of paint with the ‘other’ Alpinweiss, but the process is the same!)

So despite the whole Alpinweiss paint code debacle, we’re pretty darn pleased with how this car is coming along! We’ll be sure to keep you posted on its progress!

Reggie also replaced front and rear brakes on a very nice 2005 Mini Cooper S.   The Mini’s brake calipers and brackets  also got a coat of red ceramic paint.  They really pop against the silver and black body.   We’re also working on a 1989 325ix and doing some A/C work on a Volvo, just to name a few.

If you’re a subscriber to our Newsletter, you’ve probably read that we’ve recently upgraded some technology around the shop, allowing us to work on later model BMW, Mini, Audi, and Volkswagen.  We’re very excited to be able to work on these marks, as many of our customers own one or more of them in addition to their Bimmers.   If you would like to schedule an inspection or need to take care of some routine maintenance, give us a call at 317.804.9313.

We’ll be going to the Mecum Auction tomorrow, so if you’re in the Indianapolis area, you may want to check it out!

Have a great weekend!