Painting The E30's Engine Bay [COLOUR REVEAL] Kapci Basecoat & Clearcoat Paint | 038

In this video, I reveal my paint colour choice for the E30 Build and paint the engine bay in its final basecoat colour topped off with a glossy clear coat finish.

Red Scotchbrite Pads: https://ebay.us/txFdxe
Panel Wipe: https://ebay.us/Wd9iCP
ANI F160 Spray Gun 1.2mm Nozzle: https://www.spraygunsdirect.co.uk/pro...
Kapci Clearcoat: https://ebay.us/1WaL5V
Painting Mask: https://ebay.us/gsQzot
Poly Masking Sheets: https://ebay.us/e4Ms44

I finally decided on a paint colour for the BMW E30 build, I had a few BMW colours in mind, but I also received quite a lot of great paint colour suggestions in the comments.

I ended up with a nice short list of options to pick from which included greats such as BMW Salmon Silver, Piano Black, Original Titian Red, Imola Red, Oxford Green.

All of these had their strengths, especially the car's factory colour of Tizianrot AKA Titian Red. Going this direction would lead to a much easier life where I could avoid painting under the boot lid and even door jams.

My issue with respraying the car in its original factory colour though, is that Titian Red just really doesn't light my fire. I have an Imola Red E43 M3 which you may have seen in other videos, and even when Titian Red is wet and shiny, it looks dull and flat compared to Imola, so having the opportunity to paint an E30 in any colour I like, I had to take it.

A fun suggestion was to paint it Imola Red, a matching pair would be cool!

I very nearly selected BMW Oxford Green Metallic II which came a close second for me - would have been perfect for a British E30 Build too, but not enough to sway me.

I decided to go all in on the Kapci products so I could be confident in their compatibility. This is the same brand as my Epoxy Primer, and I've had great results before with their paints.

I first used 3M red scotch pads to sand and scuff up the previous epoxy finish to around 800 grit smooth, ready to accept a basecoat. When you're spraying metallic paint, you want to ensure you don't have any sanding marks or you will find the metallic flake sits in the marks and it can give an uneven metallic finish which spoils the effect.

Once I'd done this and panel wiped everything down, it was time to mix the base coat and finally open the tin to reveal BMW Mora Metallic 359, also known as Morarot Met 359, or BMW Mora Purple. It looked great in the tin.

I cracked out my new ANI F160 paint gun. I decided to invest in a new spray gun knowing that I'm planning to spray an entire car with it. It made sense to pick up a gun that was good enough to do that at this stage so I can get familiar using it on something less important.

I mixed up my basecoat and thinners to spec and set about getting two good coats on plus a drop coat which is another good trick to get an even metallic flake in your paint. Simply spray a broad coat from twice the distance on the most important parts to stand all your metallic up nicely.

With basecoat, you're looking for it to appear as a velvet finish once it's flashed off.

I gave 30-40 minutes to allow the basecoat to dry, more than recommended but it was 10 degrees Celsius on this day rather than 20 degrees for 2K Kapci paint, so I allowed for extra drying time. This helps you avoid getting solvent pop in the next clearcoat stage.

I mixed up my clearcoat and proceeded to get a first mist coat on. This initial clear lacquer mist coat works like glue for subsequent coats. Once you have this on you can straight away start putting a wet coat on. Then give some time and follow up with a second wet coat to give the final glossy finish. At this stage it's very important that you don't build up a paint run, which is easy to do if you arent careful.

It's also easy to miss parts, so its a dance between putting enough on for it to be glass-like but not so much that it runs or sags. Very difficult when you're painting a complex shape such as an engine bay.

Once done I walked away from my DIY garage spray job and allowed it a week to gas off and harden. At this point I was very unsure about the BMW Mora Metallic paint colour as it didn't look quite like I was expecting, it looked much darker, less purple and more red. More like I'd expect Calypso Red to appear.

I took the front core support out into direct sunlight and was greeted by a flash of pinky-purple highlight which was a relief. I suspect the Mora Met paint choice will be polarising, but I love it!

For more helpful how-to guides and restorations: https://www.spannerrash.com/

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