17 Oct Body Shots
We’ve got a bit of an overflow of pictures coming from the body shop recently, so let’s showcase a bit of our handiwork today.
We’ll start with the oldest and move to the newest. First up is a black E60 M5. The owner had an accident which resulted in irreparable damage to a corner of the hood, as well as part of the front bumper. So, after a lovely chat with the insurance agency (and if there’s one thing we love, it’s having a friendly low-key chat with claims reps and the like), the order was given to replace both the hood and front fender. As soon as the two pieces arrived, we prepped them and got them straight into the paint booth. After the paint and clearcoat was applied, we pulled them out for final prep prior to installation.
After the paint was dried, we transferred over the old parts (kidney grilles, etc.) to the new body panels and installed them. Now he won’t have an unsightly scar front and center on this beastly Bavarian.
Next on the docket is a Volkswagen Tiguan. The damage on this car also falls into the category of irreparable, as the gouge is extremely deep on the driver’s door. For that reason, the insurance company saw it fit to send us an entirely new door assembly, which they then wanted blended against the adjacent panels (the gash also moved onto the rear door on the same side, but that was repairable). Part of insurance-related bodywork is the struggle with the insurance companies themselves. Oftentimes, the insurance company will only cover so much work on the car, even if the body shop feels it’s incomplete. At that point, it’s up to the shop to either do just the work prescribed by the insurance company, or go above and beyond and just have the shop eat the costs for the sake of thoroughness. It’s frustrating at times. But either way, we digress. Take a look at this gash. Yeesh!
While we let the initial coats of paint dry on the door, we started removing all the parts from the old door in preparation of moving them over. Once the new door was adequately dry, we put it onto the car and proceeded to prep the surrounding panels for the blending, which is always the final step prior to applying the clearcoat.
Once the paint was dry, we moved it outside quickly to shuffle some cars in the garage, and we took the opportunity to snap a picture. It’s currently undergoing the final steps of getting cleaned up, so this car should be back on the road soon.
For our third and final car of today’s post, we have a 2012 Mercedes ML350. It’s always a shame to see a nearly-brand-new car roll into the body shop. Thankfully, this one has damage far less serious than the other two cars — in fact, it’s just a minor scrape down to the primer at the front right corner of the vehicle. By the time we got over to snap a picture, the body shop had already begun working on it. When you’re on a roll, you’re on a roll.
As of the last picture we snapped, the ML had the affected area cleaned up, and the corner of the car was being prepped for the paint booth. We should have a final picture for you in an upcoming blog post. Although, with the end of this ML, we’ve exhausted the backed up collection of body shop pictures for the blog, so there might not be another body post for a little bit.
But that’s not all! We had one more piece run through the paint booth this past week. While in the course of building Erik’s Mazda3 motor, we’d be using some Cosworth parts to help beef up his stock setup. The main Cosworth piece that’ll be seen in the engine bay is the giant badged intake manifold, so we took the liberty of painting that badge in the traditional Ford blue. We also did the valve cover, but we’re not there yet in building the motor, so we won’t show that off just yet.
The week’s more than halfway over already! See you tomorrow!
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