smorris_12
Active member
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:
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.)
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:
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.......
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.)
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:
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.......
