Painting trim

[smorris_12]

One of BMWs less great innovations was the soft touch finish for various panels on cars from the late 90s onwards (gosh, that seems a long time ago yet somehow so recent.) After a few years they get all scuffed and was the one thing that really let my Zed down. The worst of is was the steering wheel controls and the window switch surround:

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Excuse the rubbish pic. It's the only before photo I've got and it's a crop of a much larger pic. As you can see, the button panels look distinctly chewed. There's been at least 2 previous female owners so distinctly possible its been caused by jewellery. There was a chip on the lower left of the M panel too that's just visible.

Watching one of Sreten's videos on his M539 Restorations YouTube channel inspired me to drag myself outside, yank the offending bits out of the car, dismantled the switches and then go at them with meths to get the soft touch off (Sreten used oven cleaner which is nasty stuff.) The window panel wasn't too bad and took a lot more effort to get the top layer off. I followed this with a selection of 320 grit sandpaper to key the surface before lashing them at very short intervals with primer, base coat and lacquer (ignore everything you've ever read on the back of a Halfords rattle can about how to paint things. The instructions couldn't be any more wrong if they suggested using fire and swans to get a good finish. If anyone wants clarification, shout and I'll do a write up.)

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Seems I forgot to take any pictures in the middle. Mostly because I have one of the worst camera phones ever created, as you can probably tell. Many coats of Hycote satin black paint and a rather nice matt lacquer by ProXL later and that's the result.

While not a soft-touch, the door pulls are another odd one. Chromed plastic, covered with either an opaque lacquer or silver paint. They looked positively sand blasted leaving all these shiny dinks that really caught the eye. I started by spraying them with a tin of "aluminium" paint but a) it was boringly flat and b) I'd not got all the scratches out which showed right through. The chromed finish is surprisingly hard, unlike the top layer. I went at the handles with the random orbital sander until they were smooth of deep scratches with a 320 grit finish, went to Halfords, picked a random rattle can of spray paint (Rover Gunmetal grey) and sprayed and lacquered them up. Result:

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Well, I'm pleased, anyway. There is one downside to all this and it's that spray paint is a gateway drug. Before you know it you've had a couple of beers and decide to do the entire front bumper based on the success of doing 3 square inches. But that's a story for another day.......

[Special Kay]

That's a fantastic result, they look brand new

[patriot66]

Great work. Excellent results you've gotten there

[Zedebee]

Trims look good. I’m really interested to know how you did your bumper and how it turned out. I did my own in perhaps a less forgiving colour, which turned out 80% satisfactory but not 100%. See this thread halfway down.
viewtopic.php?t=137760

I’ve also colour coded the Ali trims to good effect:

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[smorris_12]

Trims look good. I’m really interested to know how you did your bumper and how it turned out. I did my own in perhaps a less forgiving colour, which turned out 80% satisfactory but not 100%.

It certainly looks more matt than the rest but the colour match looks ok to me. I'd say you either rubbed it down before the lacquer (which appears on tins but is wrong) or just didn't get the lacquer on thick enough.

Going to do a thread on the bumper probably tomorrow when I've got time. Got a few more pics for that one.

[Zedebee]

Trims look good. I’m really interested to know how you did your bumper and how it turned out. I did my own in perhaps a less forgiving colour, which turned out 80% satisfactory but not 100%.

It certainly looks more matt than the rest but the colour match looks ok to me. I'd say you either rubbed it down before the lacquer (which appears on tins but is wrong) or just didn't get the lacquer on thick enough.

Going to do a thread on the bumper probably tomorrow when I've got time. Got a few more pics for that one.

The colour match was good, you wouldn’t notice at 10 metres. I did rub down the paint before the lacquer, trying to get as smooth a finish as possible. Hopefully you’ll tell me this is the error, so I can do better next time.

[smorris_12]

I did rub down the paint before the lacquer, trying to get as smooth a finish as possible.

Yep, that's the problem. You only rub down if it's not smooth enough (usually not a problem compared to primer) or you've left it more than an hour before doing the lacquer. BUT... it then must be followed with another layer of paint. The "leave for 24hrs" is nonsense as well. The lacquer should follow about 30/60 minutes later depending on temperature.

I'll do a run through of steps on the bumper thread when I've got more time.