This is somewhat of a preview right now till I can take some more pictures tomorrow (it's going to be at the shop getting some mechanical stuff done now that it's out of the body shop, I can finally lower the rear more now that the 255s are going bye bye in the rear.)

The fact that it only took them TWO DAYS to paint it and put it back together is amazing, I was off to the Ocean City car show a few hours after I got it back. Overall it took around 3 weeks or so, but I kept adding on little things (for example, they were going to fade paint into a number of areas and leave the hood/passenger front fender original) which wasn't acceptable to me so I ended up paying almost 1k more than what Geico gave me in the first place.. but it was well worth it. There's nothing quite like telling people the car has 94k miles on it and is 8 years old and seeing their face :eek: . ;)

Their paint shop/work is first rate, as is their body shop (had a number of door dings and such also.)
Body work = new nose panel, reshape front left fender, pull 3 door dings (they do it the hard way; welding a copper rod to the area, pulling it out, filling the area, smoothing/sanding it/repaint.) Not to mention paint stripper damage to the rest of the car. There are no tape lines and they painted into the trunk drainage wells/area under the rear dash where the trunk closes.

Here's a couple sneak peak pics..
http://mason.gmu.edu/~athomas6/DSC09947.jpg
http://mason.gmu.edu/~athomas6/DSC09949.jpg
http://mason.gmu.edu/~athomas6/shop2.jpg
http://mason.gmu.edu/~athomas6/shop1.jpg
http://mason.gmu.edu/~athomas6/DSC00142.jpg

That must have been one huge bird .... :eek:

That must have been one huge bird .... :eek:


Tell me about it, that's what I get for parking under a tree.

Looks good.

So, you pretty much had the whole car painted??

What were you having done to the front bumper??

Looks good.

So, you pretty much had the whole car painted??

What were you having done to the front bumper??


Everything minus the roof (but I still can't see where they faded it.) In a different claim someone had backed into me when my car was backed into a parking spot, messed up the fender/headlights/nose panel.

do you know who vandelized the car? it seem like they must hate you. i think id take a bat to someones face for that. anyway the car looks better than ever.

the car looks new :D

Eh, if I knew who did it... yeah, it'd all be over.

Then again that's probably why they're too pussy to confront me about it (OR why I haven't heard anything from anyone yet, and I know a lot of people in a bunch of groups who would find out.) But yeah, they seem to forget that I have this thing called insurance lol.

car looks good. I seriously recommend getting a clearbra asap. save your freshly painted bumper&hood from rock chip hell.

You better hope whoever did it is over being pissed at you -- insurance companies don't like paying for that shyt more than once.

car looks good. I seriously recommend getting a clearbra asap. save your freshly painted bumper&hood from rock chip hell.

I was thinking about that today. I covered the front areas with the blue scotch painters tape for the ocean city drives, there's already one ding on the hood.

Now's the time to do it.. how much do they run? The front area of E36s are so elaborate.. it would be a bitch (my old nose panel got screeeewed up with rock chips so that's an important one.)

Generally speaking, after a re-paint, don't you want the paint to breathe for while like a month or so?

Waxing it or putting a clearbra might close it off and then you'll get clouding in the paint.

Generally speaking, after a re-paint, don't you want the paint to breathe for while like a month or so?

Waxing it or putting a clearbra might close it off and then you'll get clouding in the paint.
I'm guessing he already waxed it.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4374755&postcount=71

---Eric

You better hope whoever did it is over being pissed at you -- insurance companies don't like paying for that shyt more than once.
I would think he's over being pissed at himself. :dunno

I'm guessing he already waxed it.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4374755&postcount=71

---Eric

I figure a weekend's worth of wax wouldn't do much as long as it was taken off afterwards.

I figure a weekend's worth of wax wouldn't do much as long as it was taken off afterwards.
Just as long as he doesn't remove it the same way as last time (paint stripper). :stickoutt

---Eric

Generally speaking, after a re-paint, don't you want the paint to breathe for while like a month or so?

Waxing it or putting a clearbra might close it off and then you'll get clouding in the paint.


there he goes talking to himself again. :rolleyes.

there he goes talking to himself again. :rolleyes.

What do you mean? Shouldn't you be sweating me???

Oh crap! Wrong screenname!!!!

BRB...

What do you mean? Shouldn't you be sweating me???

Oh crap! Wrong screenname!!!!

BRB...
:lol

---Eric

more pics finally..

http://mason.gmu.edu/~athomas6/M02.jpg
http://mason.gmu.edu/~athomas6/M01.jpg
http://mason.gmu.edu/~athomas6/M03.jpg

That looks good. Any orange peel?

That looks good. Any orange peel?

I'd say it's about same as stock. I swear it's a BMW thing. :shifty

The 3rd pic is just the CF weave, the guy did a good job (except he somehow didn't mask off my exhaust tips..hrmm.) Not that I really care, remus chrome square tips = ghey.. guess he thought so too. ps: the car came with it.

I'd say it's about same as stock. I swear it's a BMW thing. :shifty


Yeah, I had part of my car repainted at Elite Autohaus and they did a better job than the factory-there wasn't any orange peel.

Is that a spoiler on the wing? Seems a little excessive to me... Nice paint job though.

Is that a spoiler on the wing? Seems a little excessive to me... Nice paint job though.
I guess you could think of it like that lol, It's the regular adjustable UUC CF spoiler.

That looks good. Any orange peel?
what do you mean by orange peel?

what do you mean by orange peel?
You weren't just on 495 were you?

Um, orange peel as in the textured look that most OEM paints seem to have if you look at it right. It's not something you can feel but it's a sort of "defect" or attribute that seems to be common with a lot of OEM finishes.

Well, I am surprised that BMW of Fairfax did a good. THey did a poor job on my 99///M3. I was t-boned and they had my car for 2 1/2 months. I went to pick the car up because they said it was done. I get there and within the first 10sec I found that my door wouldn't open and my window would not go up. It was like they threw my car together and did not even checked if it worked, then the paint job...horrible...there are streaks like someone rubbed their fingers along the door then put a clear coat ontop of it...then they forgot to put on many parts...left my engine pay full of stuff from sanding and painting ,...and now they are gonna do my car over.. :mad