The Red Thread (56k warning)

[Rob]

First the exotic - the girl's step father has a '48 MG. A college room mate gave it too him to avoid having to repay a loan (poor guy). The car is refurbished, painted in "some BMW red" color, runs well and everything except the windshield wipers works. Turn signals were added. Unfortunately, none of the pictures I took shows off the chrome very well, but it looks good on this car. Then, pretty much anything looks good on this car.

The side:

http://forums.bimmerevolution.com/album_pic.php?pic_id=226


The front (suicide doors!):

http://forums.bimmerevolution.com/album_pic.php?pic_id=227

The other side:

http://forums.bimmerevolution.com/album_pic.php?pic_id=229

And the tail (check out the plate):

http://forums.bimmerevolution.com/album_pic.php?pic_id=228

Yes, I put tire gel on the spare. Both sides. :)


And now for the repairs. My dad took his CLK to a hand car wash that apparently thought rags dragged through the dirt were appropriate wash rags. The pictures didn't show the damage very well, but here are a few of the finished product (repaired with Griot's machine polish 1, 2 and 3 followed by PS2 paint prep and BOS wax).

http://forums.bimmerevolution.com/album_pic.php?pic_id=225

http://forums.bimmerevolution.com/album_pic.php?pic_id=223

http://forums.bimmerevolution.com/album_pic.php?pic_id=222
That's mom up in front. She was pretty excited about the shine.

http://forums.bimmerevolution.com/album_pic.php?pic_id=224

Finally, one more red vehicle - my first attempt at chip repair. Mom drove the Escalade into the side of the garage. (There is a long story about a Seville, vibration at idle, a new engine, more vibration, a lemon law buy back/exchange settlement, and the purchase of a vehicle that holds value for trade in - it wasn't their first choice). It's not a highway chip, it's a scrape down to the metal. I wasn't satisfied with the result, but it looks much better than before I started. I will have another go next time I am up there.

The damage:

http://forums.bimmerevolution.com/album_pic.php?pic_id=230

The repair from about 8 feet:

http://forums.bimmerevolution.com/album_pic.php?pic_id=232

Like I said, not a great job. But not so bad for a first attempt with a hole that I had a hard time filling with paint.

I would have added pics of the Mini since it's red too, but I reached my pic quota. :)

[The HACK]

Holy sh*t that MG is drop dead gorgeous.

You need to let that paint "build". Put on one layer, let it dry, layer it, let it dry...repeat until you've got a small gob of paint there. Then use a 2000 or 4000 grit sand paper and sand down the gob, then use rubbing compound to smooth it out, then apply clear coat lacquer, let it dry, sand, rubbing compound, machine polish. To use touch-up process will take longer and more man hour to have that piece just removed and repainted it's amost not worth the effort.

I tried fixing a rock chip on the Red CI that way and it took me several months of slowly building up the paint. Seriously, given the amount of time wasted I'd been better off just taking it to a shop and have it done professionally.

[Rob]

Thanks, Hack. I will try it - the panel is just cladding that could easily be replaced, but the car (truck in my mind) is going to be traded in as soon as he thinks it's reasonable - like when they have a trade in price for it. He doesn't want to spend any money on it. It will be a fun project for me over the course of months, since I don't get up there more than once every three weeks or so.

The MG is fabulous, isn't it? Wish they lived a little closer. It will take a few attempts to get all the swirl marks out of the hood and doors.

[Masskrug]

I'm crying foul here for all the color blind people!

That is a lot of red; nice shiny and clean!

[killerdeck]

Lovin that MG! It so neat to see old cars like that in such awesome condition. Red is so :cool: Here is my red ride:

http://forums.bimmerevolution.com/album_pic.php?pic_id=198

[blee]

Damn man, sweet MG. :thumbup: