[stobin]

[stobin]

So for the last few months the GA has been in the body shop. Things are moving slowly, but I'm very happy with the work being done. One of the major things I wanted done was to reduce the gaps on the car. The gaps were too big for my satisfaction. I have seen a lot of other '73-'77 cars with big gaps, so this is the time to do it. They started with the doors. They were slid back towards the rear quarters. A few things that had to happen was the drivers front fender ear that bolts into the firewall needed to be cut and re-welded. This was the only way to get the fender to slide back toward the drivers door. Metal was added to various areas in order to get the gaps even throughout the car. It's one thing to gap the car, but if the gaps aren't identical throughout the car, it looks wrong. This is were most of the time was spent. The front nose is one of the In Design/Motorealm pieces that has been on the car since 2001. The glass needed to be reworked for a better fit as well. One area that was a problem was the nose always rubbed the top of the bumper. That was reshaped and now has about 1/8" clearance. The nose/hood gap has been perfected as well. Another area that was addressed are the body lines. The GA has very distinctive body lines. The body guys and I agreed these should be enhanced and sharpened. So all the corners such as the trunk lid, hood, body contours, roofline have been sharpened. This really adds a custom element to the body, and will really be enhanced when the paint is done. It's hard to see in some of the pictures with just primer. see the next page for photo's.

[stobin]

[stobin]

[stobin]

So after I decided to have the GA repainted, I wanted to change the color from the bright silver to a darker silver or lighter grey. The car was painted BMW Titanium Silver in 2001. It is a little too light in the direct sunlight, and because the car is so big, I felt a little darker shade would give the car a little more character. I looked at a ton of silvers, but the problem is most newer cars have a coarse metallic. I don't like the look on older cars. I like BMW colors because they have a finer metallic. So I decided to go with 2016 BMW Donnington Gray. This color is only available on the M series. It is not as dark as the standard Space Gray. It is a little bit darker, and looks fantastic in the sun. It has a good amount of flop to it that will compliment the body lines. I'm open to opinions on the choice.

[stobin]

[John62]

As long as its not a tri coat color it looks nice, I must say I did like that rendering a few pages back with the dark red to break it up.