blackout

Some backstory (i'll try to keep it brief...)- bough the car in December 06, I had just sold my 240 that some of you may remember, and I 'needed' a car right away. Didn't want anything but an e36 m3 5spd coupe, and it had to be black, blue, or silver with vader seats. Found this one at 8 pm on a Saturday, drove it, bought it. Was happy until I saw it in daylight, and the paint was crap. NEVER buy a car in a rush. EVER.

Anyway, since I've been perpetually disappointed in the paint, I haven't really been motivated to stay up with the repair over the years (although I did at least keep it well-maintained), and always entertained the idea of selling it even though I absolutely love driving the thing. Example, I drove around on blown shocks and struts for a couple years, even though I had them purchased and sitting in my outside closet. It's amazing at how thoroughly deeply I was disappointed the paint was not perfect on this thing. Here are some flattering pics that don't highlight the faded hood and roof, multiple paint chips, and cracked and peeling trim around the windows-







The starter went out on me last January, and I let it sit in the parking lot where I worked until June, when I finally push-started it and drove it home. (Anyone who's done a starter on these may sort of understand why it sat so long... I just couldn't muscle up the motivation knowing how involved it was to replace a fucking starter) Needless to say, the paint was fucked. I had at least kept it clean and waxed while it was running, but sitting in a parking lot for 6 months stripped away any remnants of 12 year old clearcoat it had left on the hood, and did a pretty good job fading the rest of the car as well. So I got it fixed, got a new job, decided I deserved better than a beat up looking e36 so I tried to trade it in on an e46 m3, the dealer didn't even want to give me 2k for it. Fuck that noise.

So lo and behold, I've decided to fix it and make it presentable, at the very least to maybe make the next owner happy with it. I ordered some H&R sport springs to go with the brand new oe shocks and struts I bought two years ago and never installed, a borla cat-back exhaust, an HID angel eye headlight conversion kit, and various other body parts/knick-knacks it needed, dropped it off at a local maaco and called it a day.

Yes, I said maaco. I'm not trying to build a show car, so spending $4500+ on a paint job is ludicrous to me. Plus, one of the local body shops I called around here actually suggested I go to maaco, as most 'collision centers' don't frequently perform full paint jobs and thus must charge upwards of $4-5000 for a 'factory' paint job... The body doesn't need much, just reconditioning the hood, tidying up the front bumper, two tiny dings, and some slight rust in the left rear quarter. I did elect for the 'signature' paint, which includes base coat/clear coat + prep, the door jambs because I'm changing colors, and then added two additional coats of clear to make it pop. All this for $1535 (est)... I think that's ok, but I'm sure someone will pop up in here to tell me how I got ripped off, or how it's going to look like shit and start flaking and peeling a week after it dries, etc. etc... I'll post a review and pics after they're done.

Anyway, now's the hard part. I actually did drop the car off Friday morning, and I went with Ford Dark Blue Pearl. Here's an example-



Not too bad, I wanted to go deep blue but not quite midnight. I figured that would look pretty good on an e36, with either silver or black wheels (maybe even gold?), tint the windows, plus smoked corners and the halo headlights. I didn't want to go with the factory estoril blue because I wanted to stand out a bit... if I were to stay factory I would have just repainted it cosmos.

BUT, I was having second thoughts, mostly having to do with the fact that all the pics I can find on the internet of this color are on boring ass ford vehicles, mostly trucks, so I got to thinking. I remember seeing a competition package e46 m3 that inspired me to trade my shit in in the first place, did some pecking around on the internet to remind me, and found interlagos blue-





Granted, the car it is on and the quality of the pics affect how good they look, but damn.

I think the whole point of this thread is to 1)brag about finally getting my car painted and 2)getting someone to convince me not to head to maaco first thing in the morning to tell them to switch the paint to interlagos.

Thoughts?

Silverbullet86

the only color an 36 m3 should be is estoril blue, but thats just me

blackout

estoril is nice, but i want to be different.

TransAmWS6

so wait... are you selling the car or not? if youre just selling it, i dont understand why youre dumping all this money into it to "make the new owner happy". youre going to lose money lol.

anyway, id go with the blue that came on 350z's.

I<3Strippers!

mariner blue. nuff said. its close to laguna seca, but its not. dark blue is for bitches

blackout

it will be sold eventually... i can't see myself with this car five years from now. but for now i'm spending the money on something i'm going to drive for a while.

that comment was more or less to express my displeasure with this car since i bought it. i have a feeling that if this car comes out looking half as good as i'm expecting, i'll be happy with it for quite some time.

BatEclipse99

Come hear and let me beat you with a baseball bat, nuff reason not to take a BMW M to maaco?

nftuatn

exactly...why take a m series to maaco...you must really hate that car.lol

Archer

soo.. you spent $1500 on a maaco paintjob? seems to me like you could spend just a bit more and have it painted elsewhere by someone better. I've heard that some Maacos are better than others - 1500 just seems a little steep considering the reputation Maaco has.

MORE IMPATIENT

you think your dissapointed with the paint now ? just wait till you get it back from maaco, your gonna be freaking pissed. you just pissed away 1500 bucks cause the paint will be so far from perfect, and like you said, start falling off within a few months. Gonna look like a nice fresh florida citrus fruit. They dont take anything off, thats why all their paint jobs start to flake around the edges and peel, you cant prep properly and its a vicious circle with their paint work, start to peel from the outside edges inward. and not to mention the paint they use is such garbage, im quite certain someone makes it in their bathtub.

anyhow, good luck. I sincerely hope your not dissapointed, bu almost guarantee you will be.