Ian_C Estoril S50 Journal

[Jonttt]

Nicely done Ian. Hopefully I'll get to see it in the flesh at Silverstone Classic

[Dave P]

Did they replace the window seals on the rear windows or just re-use the old ones?

[Ian_C]

They just reused the old ones Dave. Looks ok

[Dave P]

Originally Posted by Ian_C

They just reused the old ones Dave. Looks ok

cheers

[Ian_C]

Given that I've had the coupe back on the road for a month or so now I thought it might be an idea to bring my journal up to date with the final stages of the rebuild after painting.

Before putting the arch liners back in I freshened up and protected the vulnerable bits with Hammerite underbody seal...







...cleaned up the splash guards...





...and replaced any rusted nuts & bolts



The new sill covers and front wings were also protected with underbody seal:



Also replaced the splash guards in front of the rear wheels as the originals had definitely seen some action!



With new jack pads the coupe was looking nice and fresh underneath now:





The ///M gills were looking tired so a fresh coat of satin black, some new chrome parts and ///M badges brought them back to life:

[Ian_C]

The rear ///M badge was also in a similar tired state but rather than buy new I used aceman's refurb kit:









The exhaust tips needed some work too so I got a mini wire brush set from eBay and set to work:





I’d noticed that there were some wear marks where the sill step plates contacted the door slams. I’ll get this attended to properly over the winter but for now used some Estoril sticker sets prepped by the bodyshop to cover up and prevent further erosion:





I also removed the rear wiper to give a cleaner look and added the all important z3mcoupe.com window sticker



Some finished (for now) pics:

[Dave P]

Never seen the stickers before are they a BMW part? if so have you the part number?

[Ian_C]

Originally Posted by Dave P

Never seen the stickers before are they a BMW part? if so have you the part number?

They're generic sticker sets Dave, not BMW. Gaskell Motor Bodies offered a set and flashed them in Estoril & lacquer. Apparently some people use them on stone chips. First I'd heard of them.

[sibeck]

Hey Ian after reading your journal no wonder your car looked so good , parked next to mine at Gatdon

[Ian_C]

Finally managed to get started on the under bonnet refurb that I've had in mind for a while now. Doesn't look too bad from a distance...



...but really want to tidy up the bonnet slam panel by giving it a fresh coat of paint:



...and that means that it's got to come off to do a proper job. After a day of wrestling with the front end I got all the bits off:



This has encouraged me to do some other bits and pieces whilst I've got the front end in bits. There's a few brackets & pipes etc that could do with a coat of Hammerite and I'll replace some rusted nuts & bolts too.

The more observant amongst you will notice that the underbonnet area is flat estoril in my coupe. A bit of digging with BMW confirmed that the car had a replacement engine under warranty when it was a couple of years old at 17k miles. The area was freshly painted at the time as the dealer had scuffed a fair amount of paint getting the engine out. At least that makes it easier for me to get a good colour match when I repaint the slam panel