The edges were covered in black vinyl by Karl Franz when he owned the car to create that look. I removed all the vinyl wrap right after I purchased it. They are the same lights. I think the gray surrounds blend better with the Tungsten Silver color.

And thanks to everyone for the kind words. I'm starting to get excited to see it completed. I was just out in the shop completing some tasks on the front end. The oil cooler is now adjusted for a little clearance to the mesh. I added a spacer under the front mount holes to angle the bottom of the cooler back slightly. That gave me 1/8" clearance now. I'll put some foam tape between the grille and the cooler as well. I straightened the few bent fins on the cooler and repainted it flat black. I'm done for tonight. I might rest tomorrow and the work week will prevent much progress. I still might escape out there for some little projects.

 

Love your thread! Great work!

 

My wheels are also Sport Pack but they were repainted by the previous owner in a very dark grey, looks pretty good on the car but like you I was thinking of getting them painted black with diamond cut but instead of putting a clear coat I was going to get the clear tinted so the diamond cut wouldn't be silver but more like these wheels that I had on my BMW





This is an OEM BMW M3 wheels, with diamond cut and clear



And this is my Sport Pack wheels now

 

That is exactly my thought path as well. My idea was from either the late DBS wheels or the current M2/M3/M4 wheels like you referenced above. I used to own an early F80 and I did have a love/hate relationship with those wheels though thinking back. When they are clean they are beautiful. When they are dirty they do not look so great. And the stock pads on the F80 were horrible on brake dust. That is why I am leaning towards the dark gray as your wheels are currently but with the diamond turned faces.

What size tires are you running? They look over-sized.

 

I am running 245/40R19 and 285/35R19 just like the newer Vantage. The tires are Continental ExtremeContact DW (no longer available as they have been replaced by ExtremeContact Sport)

A question I have for you, how do you remove the window trim? I want to have them either powder coated black like all other chrome I had on the car or wrap them black if I couldn't remove them. Thanks

 

The window trim is not that bad, you just need to be careful. There are many torx head screws (exact number I cannot remember) that run above the drivers window. Otherwise, the rest of the trim goes in on clips that are riveted to the body. To access all the screws you will need to manipulate the seal covering some of them out of the way. They are evenly spaced for the most part so sort of easy to find them all. Careful on removing the trim from behind the door. It pulls straight out out on part of it but it has a tab that slides in a the very back going towards the rear of the car. You will want to do a careful wiggle motion (for lack of better wording) to release the clips. You can also use a plastic trim tool between it and the window to help get them out. Just make sure your force is straight out so you do not bend up the trim and/or the clip. The long section slides into the rear curved section. You can see that seam 2/3 of the way back on the rear window. The front slides forward to be released. Also, tape the roof line along the edge to make sure none of the trim comes in contact with your paint, especially at the front edge. My procedure was to remove the screws moving forward from the back side of the door opening (that way the last screw is at the front, where the paint can get scratched the easiest). I would then grab the trim and start to wiggle it out at the back. Once I have the long piece released from the clips I would slide the 2 pieces apart. Then I would remove the rest of the trim. Hope that part makes sense.

For the trim on the doors, the main sections slide off and the pieces between the mirror mount are taped on. Those are easy.

Overall, I would recommend vinyl wrapping the trim if you want it black. There are seals that are taped directly to the trim and I am not sure you will be able to save (foam type). I need to look for some of that material as one of my trim sections has a small tear in the seal.

 

Thanks I guess vinyl wrap it is for now, maybe later I will upgrade to the factory black trim.

 

Are n400 sills available ? Very interested

 

I have had several inquiries regarding the N400 sills. I have them on my workbench to detail and photograph this next week. The reassembly of the car has taken a little longer than planned. I am needing to get it back off my lift so I can perform a major service on one of my other vehicles. Back to the sills, they are painted a decent match for Tungsten Silver but I would still recommend a repaint. As I learned during this project, the initial recommended color matches by 3 different paint systems yielded nothing that that matched the factory paint. We had to use a couple of them as a basis to create a custom blend for my car. I even opted to blend onto neighboring panels and re-clear them as well to ensure a great match/transition. Because these cars are hand painted at the factory, there may be more variability between cars for the same color vs other manufacturers that use robots to paint their cars. There can be variations based on ambient conditions as well (temp, humidity, etc.).

I am planning on going down a list based on inquiries I have received via PM. There are 3 people ahead of you; if they pass on them I will contact you via PM. Thanks for asking though.

 

I am familiar with the variations, I had a really tough time matching when I had front and present sills resprayed, was only successful thanks to an "artist" in manhiem pa specializing in matching paint.

 

Great Build!!

 

I am thankful for the shop I used. They did create a match that could have probably been just fine for panel painting. I am glad I opted for the additional effort as it now looks factory in person. The N400 sills on the car were an eyesore to me due to the paint mismatch.

Thanks Stuart! I have the V12 clutch kit you sent me sitting on the bench. I am going to get this part of the project completed first. I want to make sure I have all of these check engine lights satisfied before I start the clutch swap. Running the car with all of these things disconnected really can aggravate it.

 

Wow. You don't visit the forum as frequently and then you discover all sorts of treats when you pop in.

The car is looking fantastic. Great job. Congrats.

FYI, the blue wrap was just me having fun and teaching myself a new skill. I was never intending for it to be a long term thing. But when the opportunity presented itself to buy a new Vantage, the plan was to restore the car back to its original color. The sales team at my dealership are personal friends and they encouraged me to try to sell it with the wrap on and see how it did. They allowed my car to sit in the showroom even though it was not a consignment deal.

I wasn't in a rush to sell my car since the new car was going to take about 8 months to build. Much to the dealership's surprise, I wound up selling the car for a quite a tidy profit and the price was even higher than newer cars they had on the floor with thousands fewer miles. In fact, my final price was 15K more than I was offered for it in trade.
Even as a partially color-blind person, I could clearly tell the N400 sills were never really color-matched. I bought them from a guy on Pistonheads who had them painted by a local Jaguar shop in the UK prior to shipping them. They only used the paint code since my car was never there to match it with.

Oh, and the little brackets on either side of the license plate were responsible for saving the car from much worse damage when that girl drove into my rear bumper years ago. Her car hit squarely on one of the little extrusions which absorbed all the impact. The only things needing to be replaced were the diffuser and the bumper support beam (which held the extrusions that you removed. LOL). The bumper cover was just repainted as it had no damage. The body shop also replaced the transmission oil cooler because a few of the vanes were bent. This was totally unnecessary but was the product of our insurance industry at work to maximize profits for all.

Believe it or not, that little bit of repair wound up costing a total of $35,500

The girl only had minimum collision coverage ($10K). I believe that State Farm wound up putting her on a monthly payment plan in order to repay the difference. So, word to the wise, increase the collision coverage on all your cars' insurance policies. Increasing my property damage coverage from $100K to $500K only cost me $12 more a year. (yes, only twelve dollars!)

Keep up the great work.

 

Car looks great! Only suggestion I would have is get the lug nuts color matched or get black lug nuts so they stand out much less and blend in more.

Other than that awesome! Enjoy her

 

Looking really nice....great work!