Alpine Demo Car

A 1995 BMW M3 Coupe
Once again, Steve Brown and Chris Yato have built a phenomenal demo car. This time it's a 1995 M3 BMW. The project began in April 2000 and the M3 was complete in November. What does it take to build a car like this? For starters, about 3000 hours of labor and two very talented installers. The paint, Fiberglas, and the design work were all done by Chris and Steve. A clear theme was carried throughout the car from under the hood to the interior and trunk, which goes to show that the key to building a car like this one is to have a solid plan.

Rage Gold body filler is used to finish the shape of the dash, and it is hand-sanded with 36 grit paper.

After application of Mar-Glass and Rage Gold, the panel's shape is complete. Notice how it completely flushes in the bezels for the shifter and the monitors.

After the Mar-Glass is ground down, Rage Gold body filler is applied to smooth the final shape. These two shots show the completed sides of the console.

MDF rings were then constructed to hold the actual woofers, and they were superglued into place on the enclosure in the proper position. This created the frame for the enclosure, which was then covered with stretchy carpet to form the shape of the final piece.

Rage Gold was then applied and sanded to create the final shape.

The trim panel for the rack was started by building a frame from MDF. Notice the indented area above the processor; this allows clearance for the monitor arc that will be installed later..

The center of the arch is cut out to make an insert piece on which to mount the monitor. This piece is held into the main structure with ball-and-socket fasteners for easy removal.

The task of prepping all of the many panels in the car for paint was a huge task. First, custom stands had to be made to hold each piece properly for ease of painting. Then, all of the pieces were polyester primed and sanded with 120, 220, and finally 400 grit sandpaper to get them ready for the next step.

The pieces were then sprayed with two coats of epoxy primer/sealer, a non-sanding primer to finish the surface and prepare it for paint.

Now all the pieces can be re-installed onto the trunk lid to check the fit.