Front end

[Ferrett 1962]

So I finaly got hold of a few parts to fix the front of my 525i. Some may remember when I got the car it had been in a small accident by the PO and the damage had been fixed by an idiot, mine is the wide grill but they had used a narrow grill bonnet ( hood) and had not replaced the front bumper but had just jammed it on which made it impossible to get everything to sit right on the front left side grill, headlight and indicator as well as some dick bumped into the car in a carpark and bent the front grill as well as breaking the headlight mounts so they floated around and only pointed at the road.
Well I drove to Sydney this saturday and for the total of $260 I picked up a new bumper, complete grill including all lights and bonnet for the car.
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The colour doesn't bother me since the front looks the way it should. Thanks to the info on this forum I was able to strip the front and bend a few things plus put it back together in only a few hours tomake it look this good.
The battery was flat in the camera so no pictures of the work but I will take some of the old parts and add some thoughts and tips I learnt on the way.

[genphreak]

Well isn't that better!

Good to see, and nice work moit! I just bought a compressor from Repco to paint a house ($329) and a gun, ratchet, rattle gun and sockets and mask cost maybe $170 more. If you havea garage and the time to take the care (esp with the dust, it is easy to paint your car. I plan on doing my '90 M50 525i which is pretty battered this year to see how we go. The main issue is dust, so I might seal the area I spray in (plastic and duct tape). Once the 2 pak paint is set I can roll it into the sun to bake a little, the aussie sun is so damn hot that paint will bake in it very well... Once complete I'll work out what to do about the clear coat- If not happy my local shop would probably not charge much to do that.

BTW: I too have a 'navy blau' (but narrow grille) bonnet (and bumpers). I was going to just do the bonnet black, but maybe I'll make it a bit different now.

[Ferrett 1962]

Still have to do minor adjustments but it is very close to right
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You can see how bent the bumper was and how high it pushed everything, I might pull the metal out and make an effort on the bumper cover as a spare.
When I romoved the bumper the bolts were only finger tight and the whole thing was held by the side clips and how tight it was jammed on.

[Ferrett 1962]

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Also for sale is a narrow grill bonnet in silver pickup only from Canberra, it is VGC but I have another in echuca VIC for pickup only, a couple of hours out of Melbourne. Make an offer on either one if interested.

[Ferrett 1962]

Be careful when you paint, dust is not the only problem, I painted a HQ SS years ago and the main problem was mist from the spray gun it's self. While spraying mist particles of paint floated in the air and settled on the car hence the breathing mask and full suits worn by spray painters, the resault was a dull and cloudy paint job that I was able to cut back with a lot of effort to a great looking glossy paintjob. You must have an extraction and filter system to avoid this, spray booths are designed to draw air out and filter the paint before pumping the air outside and this flow keeps the mist from settling on the car. If you can look at some docmentries or restoration shows and note how clear the air is inside the booth or go down and talk to repair shops and ask if you can look to see how it works. Someone can tell me if I am wrong but that is how it worked when I did it in a sealed garrage.

[genphreak]

Nice pics!

The bumper will straighten if you try to un-bend the same way as it was bent. Extra hands are useful (esp strong ones) and perhaps a vice that can grip it... you know how ti goes.

May be simpler just to get a scrappy bumper cover which has not been bent before.

Thanks for the pointer about the 'spray booth'- I haven't gibven it much thought, and ventilation is very important. I will need positive pressure on top of the car and ventilation below... and yes, will see if I can reccie a booth to see. I want to learn more than anything, not that I ever want to paint for a living. The amount of time I' spend doing such things makes it somewhat unprofitable :)