Wicks' E46 M3 Build. Hertz 3-Way Set from Tony D!

[Wicks]

Spot/ glazing putty? Comes in a small metal tube at auto stores by the body filler supplies

I'll have to keep my eye out for some of that. Thx!

Have you tried spraying the filler primer really close and thick?

You dont want to spray too close otherwise the paint will drip and look even worse.

Fillet primer, not paint

You're going to sand it anyways. Can spray on thick to fill in small scratches/sanding marks

Thanks tacomaguy1! Exactly filler primer is not paint. It gets sanded down and the last coats are the heaviest. Should go 2 light coats, medium coats, heavy coats, sand.

Over the weekend, I did start applying it heavier and heavier. Got a couple small runs which seemed to smooth themselves out while the primer dried.

It did seem to sand pretty well too.

I also noticed that the Rust-Oleum Filler Primer, that I got at Lowes, applied much thicker and better then the Dupli-color Filler Primer that I got at Advance Auto.

Dude this is coming along awesome!

My heart goes out to you on the sanding lol. Stuff sucks. I hate it

Thanks Chris!

Dude...................soooooooo............much sanding....

I could have sanded that damn deck lid for weeks.

I got it pretty close with only a few very small imperfections and called it good:

For what I'm doing with it, those tiny marks shouldn't show up.

Good news! The rear deck lid is covered and curing.

Stay tuned. I should have some finished pics in the next couple of days.

[Wicks]

Your skillset is wicked, Wicks I'm going to be borrowing some of your ideas in my Volvo build, maybe. I'm going to run some numbers tomorrow night and check to see if a setup like your rear deck will work for me...

Back to the point, that's looking awesome. Killer idea, executed amazingly.

While I greatly appreciate the comments, I just want to take a minute and note that my referenced skillset is only very recently acquired.

Before this project I had only really done the basics. Installed some electronics, cut and glued MDF and some basic carpet wrapping.

Most everything seen in this build was learned along the way.

I would advise anybody curious to a new technique to do a little research and then dive in.

Experience really is the best teacher and lot of the fabrication procedures aren't that bad once you've gotten the hang of it.

[Wicks]

So a LOT of work has gone into this new rear deck lid.

I'm going to toss out a bunch of pics showing its transformation so pull up a chair, this will take a while

There's a hard plastic frame which wraps around the rear of the deck lid and holds it in place right under the rear window.

The hard brittle plastic is bolted to the metal frame under the window.

I figured that hard plastic against metal would have the possibility of rattling or vibrating so I wanted to take some precautions while I'm in there.

Here I'm spraying some clear rubber coating on the surface that interfaces with the metal.

Since I no longer need any airflow through the entire rear deck, I added a bunch of Second Skin all over it to help seal it up and deaden it.

Here that hard plastic frame is mounted and I added some foam strips around the rear area of the port extension to help seal up the back of it.

Time to move on to the friction-fit foam ring around the port extension that I mentioned in an earlier post.

This will help hold the rear deck lid and the port extension together and help seal the two so no air moves in between them.

It's just a strip of 1x2" pine that has large foam tape adhered to it.

Here the strip is snugged up against the port extension.

Here are all three pieces fit around the port.

I taped the deck lid and port extension together to hold the tightly as I glued the foam ring to the deck lid.

Used some simple CA glue to adhere the foam ring to the rear deck. Held pretty damn good too.

Here shows the "sliding" action of the two pieces that's required since the rear window is so close there isn't room to vertically lower the pieces together.

More test fitting the port extension yet again.

And the rear deck lid too.

Close up of the port.

Camera aimed down into the port with the flash on so you can see the transition of all the pieces.

The rear deck lid with more primer.

Laying out some fiberglass strips to help hold down the foam ring.

Resin added. Nice and strong now.

More sanding...

[Wicks]

The final coat of primer.

I liked the Rust-Oleum Filler Primer best. Seemed to really go on thick and worked well.

Not that I intend on added a car seat anytime too soon, but the stock rear deck lid had a few holes for some securing bolts.

I drilled a couple holes to utilize those bolts for more strength to hold the new deck lid in place.

LOTS of pics before the final step:

A pic down into one of the bolt holes. Shows that there is a good 1/4" of body filler on this lid which adds a good amount of weight to it.

The new port hole.

Overall the new deck lid finally came out pretty smooth.

There were a few small imperfections, but I could have added more filler and sanded in a continual loop for weeks.

I finally just called it good and decided to more to the final step which should easily cover up any imperfections anyway.

........final pics of the finished deck lid coming soon

[graham0599]

Show the pics!!!!!!

[David Bailey]

I really LOVE this build!

[sphinxbccp]

Wooooo! Looking awesome dude!

[Wicks]

Show the pics!!!!!!

I really LOVE this build!

Wooooo! Looking awesome dude!

Pics coming this afternoon!

Stay tuned.

The rear deck lid came out looking SWEEET!

I'm really happy with it.

[Wicks]

So a while ago I was reading through Rogue's E46 build and saw a term and procedure that I hadn't heard before but definitely wanted to try because it looked like the perfect solution for my build.

...FLOCKING

So I ordered up the supplies and waited until I got the rear deck lid smooth enough for the application.

Here's everything lined up:

If you're not familiar with the process (I wasn't until a couple months ago), it basically involves painting on an adhesive and applying a layer of very fine fibers which give a furry/velvety texture to items when cured.

Make sure you get color-matched adhesive for the fibers you select as they need to match.

Here is the "flocking gun" which applies the fibers:

Simply holds a supply of loose fibers and is then connected to an air compressor at about 20-30psi.

The process looks tricky and difficult but after doing it only once, it really wasn't that bad and the results are amazing.

Here is the black adhesive painted on the deck lid. I used a chip brush around the outside edge and a foam roller on all the other smooth surfaces.

Don't be shy either, you want a good layer of the adhesive so the fibers stick properly.

I was worried that brush marks would show though on the final surface but everything smooths itself out and works great.

After a very liberal blasting of fibers:

You can see small mounds of the fibers....no worries, they'll come off smoothly after the process is cured (overnight).

Since it has cooled off in Colorado, I gave it two nights.

...And here is the final result:

The deck lid in place:

Close up of the transition:

With the rear seat up to get a better idea of how it will look fully installed.

[OrzechNJ]

AWESOME !!! Will never think off this type of finish..