Abby Somebody, Finding Unwanted Parts
11/09/09 09:56 AM | Projectile
My unlimited budget to restore, repair, refurbish and replace the bad and bent and bruised of the Blue Frankenstein is fantasy. I have been tinkering with this car since 2005, and the only absolute truths are; I have a small budget and I have lots of patience. Today I took a small drive just to see how things were going, (and because it's the first day in 5 that it hasn't been raining).
As to the smallish budget. I have been able to much of maximize my spending dollars by shopping a lot of new and used parts at E*Bay's Automotive section. I have replaced the trade mark "kidney" center grill and the right and left grill and headlight assemblies, the front bumper (and bumper shocks), both rear taillight assemblies, the shifter console, the Hella fog lights, and added after-market Angel Eyes all from e*bay stores. The previous portions of this post which you have just experienced were written on October 10th. I have again let myself fall off the blogging wagon until this morning. I now continue with the post updated to just a couple of days ago.
I've mentioned that I also use some of the companies who advertise in the BMW CCA monthly publication. I've been able to buy many items through these vendors and save a lot of moolah that the Local BMW retailer would have charged.
The above photo is how the Frankenstein looked when I first got it. Bumper messed up. Bumper rubber missing, headlight doors damaged, grill pieces left and right broken or completely missing, and of course the scrapes and dents from some unknown accident.
From the looks of the damage I assume that someone drove this wild beast through a fence and the scars are from the fencing putting up a small struggle. This right corner in the photo had some considerable damage too, can you say fence post?
This photo is a recent one, from just a few day ago. I have sanded and primered a lot of the areas that needed attention so the blue cast is gone in a lot of the car, replaced by sand-able grey primer (I can't really call the car the Blue Frankenstein now). In the photo the light pink is bondo filling in some of the worst problem areas where the (presumed) fence post did a number on the nose. this is two coats in and I still need to apply another. 
Above is a photo similar to the original shot at the top of the post where you can see the bumper, bumper rubber and covers and the grill pieces in place. The rubber is actually black but I did not wash the bondo dust and sanding debris off since there is un-primered metal there just looking for a reason to rust!
Chuck Pace ©2009
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I've mentioned that I also use some of the companies who advertise in the BMW CCA monthly publication. I've been able to buy many items through these vendors and save a lot of moolah that the Local BMW retailer would have charged.
The above photo is how the Frankenstein looked when I first got it. Bumper messed up. Bumper rubber missing, headlight doors damaged, grill pieces left and right broken or completely missing, and of course the scrapes and dents from some unknown accident.
From the looks of the damage I assume that someone drove this wild beast through a fence and the scars are from the fencing putting up a small struggle. This right corner in the photo had some considerable damage too, can you say fence post?
Above is a photo similar to the original shot at the top of the post where you can see the bumper, bumper rubber and covers and the grill pieces in place. The rubber is actually black but I did not wash the bondo dust and sanding debris off since there is un-primered metal there just looking for a reason to rust!
Chuck Pace ©2009
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