Richard's Corvair

The Restoration of my 1960 Corvair

Restoration of the BMW

Painting the left front corner

Painting the front

Painting the left side, back and front

Painting the right rear and trunk

Painting the hood after correcting previous repairs

Trunk lid painted

Painting the BMW stripes

Closeup of BMW stripes painted

First day at home in the Garage

Top and window as received from the body shop

Spreading the cleaner evenly on the top to prepare it for the dye

Cleaned top shows damage from dog

Preparing to dye and treat the canvas top

Towel to protect the paint from the blue dye

Applying the first coat of Renovo Soft Top Reviver

Window scratches before polishing

Scratches and damages to the rear window - before

Starting to repair the window

Left side polished with Black Magic and the right side with Meguiars Plastx

Final appearance after two coats of Reviver and polishing window

Janvil Glass Renew takes off the mineral film on the windshield

Interior leather, replaced in 2004 in Santa Cruz with original color leather

Final with view of top

Final in the garage

Final stripe and light reflections on fender

Front left final

Right front final

Finished with top down

Teresa in BMW

BMW & Corvair in vinyard

New leather steering wheel cover

Close-up of new leather seering wheel cover

Refreshing my 1988 BMW 325ic

I bought this car in Florida in 1996 and shipped it to Bolivia in 1998. Since then I've kept it up, replacing the convertible top in 2000 and reupholstering the interior with new leather in 2004.

But the paint had suffered from careless helpers using 3M pads to wash it and a dog that decided the top was his to scratch while I was away. A previous repair to the hood had been made with Bondo, and that was cracking.

I took it to the same shop that did my Corvair, and they stripped it, re-did the hood correctly, and returned it to its original paint, clear coat and stripe.

Here you can see the process and how I got it back from the shop. I used a three step process to restore the top that should add a few years to its life. I used the special cleaner from Renovo and the Dark Blue Soft Top Reviver from Renovo. Then I used a UV protector and water shed product to finish it. The dye was great, but I suggest you use a towel like this to keep some splashes off the paint, although it will come off good paint with polish (maybe not from oxidized paint). You can see that I did one side and then the other. I think it would have been better if I had done a few strokes on one side, then the other, then back to make sure it was even. It definitely needed the two coats they recommend.

Then I decided to try the PlastX from Meguiars that I bought for my dash cluster in the Corvair. It was not as effective as I had hoped, so I decided to try the "Black Magic" polish I bought for paint, and it worked better. Here you can see the area polished by Black Magic on the left and PlastX on the right, with a stripe of original down the middle. So I finished it with the Black Magic. I understand that Meguiars has a two step convertible window polish, but it is not available here and I didn't know about it in time to bring it from the US.

Then I got out some Janvil Glass Renew that was part of the kit I bought for the Corvair glass to see what it could do with the 22 year old windshield. It was amazing how it took the minerals and other road grime off. You can see the reflections on the minerals on the left. On the right you can see the transparent part that I've cleaned.

Finally I polished the entire car with the Black Magic, taking off dozens of stray spots of blue dye that had escaped from the brush and put a real nice shine on the paint.

The body shop polished the wheels a little, but I'll tackle that with my Meguiars Mag and Aluminum polish that I used on the Corvair when I get back to Tarija.

I finally got around to letting the steering wheel cover bother me. So this is a home-made leather cover sewn onto the steering wheel.

I have also restored the power window switches. Here is a brief summary and pictures.