I'm only half way done through this right now. But since I'm doing it 2 distinct stages I thought it would good enough to post up the first half here since it's been a little bit since I've posted up a good walkthrough here.
First let me appoligize for the pics.. Today I oblerterated my Sony DSLR by dropping it yet again by catching the strap and shattering the screen on it.... There's $700 out the friggin window... Anyways switched back to my Kodak point and shoot so some of the pics just didn't turn out to great....
Anyways... Got a BMW 323i in and at first glance it looked to be in great shape. Nothing out of the ordinary. Some scratches in the decklid and a bumper bing in the back...Then the customer shows me the issue at hand and why he brought it to me in the first place. (He heard I was good and thought this would be a good project for me to shine on) The interior is supposed to be 2 shades of brown. A light almost yellow oak color and then a dark brown. He just aquired this car from an auction in Indiana and apparently for some genious reason they decided to paint the seats dark grey. There is no grey anywhere on this car so I don't get the decsion on this one. But I LOVE customers like this really. it was "Jake it's a used car I know it's a used car so I don't expect much. But I'm in no hurry to get the car back I heard you work wonders on interiors and just do what you can because anything has to be better than this" LOL Music to my ears really. We agreed on a starting price and I told him what would change the price tag any and we went from there. I'm figureing on a 2 day detail here. The first stage is changing this god aweful paint job on the seats back to it's original color and the 2nd day is for the detail itself. Pretty much done with the first stage.. So for those of you that tend to like interior work sit back and enjoy this one. I think he's going to like it.
Arrival everything seems normal.
But putting the top down really shows just how bad this paint job was... Yes paint. Not dye... Hard cracking stupid paint and they never even bothered taping anything off so there's overspray on everything inside.
here's what the colors should be
bad paint job
They didn't even remove the headrest before painting... The orignal color still on the underside.
I ended up sanding all the old grey color off and getting back to a soft leather again
Started with the headrest to get a feel of what steps were going to be needed.
Side by side of before and after..
remove the seats to get it done right.
Sanded down the seat with 220 grit nice and aoft like
Prepped for dye.. Using SEM"s light Oak dye.
Now the cracks in the drivers seat were pretty deep and I wasn't going to get them all out. and there was a slight tear down in front. However it looks tons better than it did.
the headrest and the back console
The rear seat out and prepped
rear seat half and half
Front seats side by side
I couldn't figure out to pop the top half of the back seat so I unbolted anything in the way and taped off the edges and started in on that..
Of course tons more to come. I still have to finish up the top half of the back seat tomorrow (ran out of dye) and then do the detail and put it all back together. Right now I'm having a lot of fun with this one and loving the way it's turning out... More to come tomorrow guys..
Jake
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