Slippydiff
Imola
- Joined
- 22 Nov 2007
- Messages
- 868
Bodywork and Paint
The front bumper to the leading edge of the bonnet shutline had been an irritation with the car from day one of my ownership. The gap between the trailing edge of the front bumper and the leading edge of the bonnet on the N/S of the car being some 3-4mm wider than the O/S, and the way the car was parked in the garage meant that every time I went into the garage it was the first thing I saw on the car, and it grated. A lot.
I'd asked Matt at Fearnsport to try and improve the shutline. His 'fix" was to adjust the bonnet catch and pull the bonnet further down, thus giving the visual impression the shutline was tighter than it actually was. Close, but no cigar I'm afraid.
So off the front bumper came. It's actually a far easier job than I'd envisaged, and with the car up in the air on axle stands, it took no more than 30 minutes to remove from start to finish.
Having studied the various front bumper mounting points, it was clear there was a fair degree of adjustment available, but it was also noticeable that the PU itself had sagged on the N/S as had one of its crucial attachment/mounting points. But furthermore the two nasty plastic bumper mounting brackets bolted to the front panel and the N/S/F wing also looked tired and somewhat saggy.
On what was one of the hottest days of the year (up to that point in late May), I used the ambient temperature and a heatgun to remove the sag from the mounting point on the PU, and the PU itself.
After tweaking the various mounting brackets and shimming them out with washers and fitting/removing the PU on at least 8 occasions, I refitted the PU for the final time and was pleased to find that with the the various adjustment points tweaked, the shutline now looked near perfect.
Satisfied with the outcome, I could now once again enjoy walking through the garage. Little did I know that the bumper would be coming off again !!
The car is an original panel example , however the previous long term owner (or a prior owner) had Paint Protection Film fitted to the front half of the bonnet, the front bumper, the leading edge of the front wings, the sill extensions, mirrors and the leading edges of the rear bumper.
I'd assumed, incorrectly, that this PPF had been fitted early in the car's 20 year life, and thus the paintwork on the front of the car was original. Wrong !!
The PPF was old, and a year outdoors in the sun, wind, rain and frosts of Silverstone had done it no favours at all. Added to which the quality of its fitment originally left a lot to be desired. The front wings and bonnet looked especially bad as the PPF had only been applied to their leading edges.
I tried machine polishing the film, and whilst doing so improved it, the PPF generally made the car look 'tired".
Starting small, I removed the film from the mirrors, this alone sharpened the car up, so I progressed to the front wings.
After some experimentation I established that using a heat gun to gently warm the film up prior to attempting to peel it off worked best. Too much heat and the film tore or left the majority of its adhesive stuck to the panel, and removing this gooey, sticky residue was a long, tedious, messy process.
With the front wings now devoid of PPF the car looked better still (and the flowing lines of the front wings now returned because the the line where the PPF finished abruptly had been dispensed with).
And so on to the bonnet. I foolishly attempted this late one evening, and whilst I originally made good progress to the N/S of the bonnet, pulling the large area of film off in one broad swathe was proving hard work, and impatience got the better of me, so rather than use the heat gun on an area I'd already heated up once, I elected to just pull the film off ...
With a noise akin to ripping Calico the film came off the bonnet. Alas, it did so with all the laquer and a couple of coats of paint too ...
Suffice to say, what I thought at that very moment, rhymed rather neatly with 'Clucking Bell" ...
I retired to the living room having kicked the cat and poured myself a large glass of Amaretto.
The rest of the film and its adhesive were removed without further trauma to the car's paint and laquer the following evening, and with the bonnet and front wings now devoid of PPF, I figured I may as well remove it from the nicely fitted, properly adjusted front bumper too. So off the front bumper came once again ...
Removing the film from the bumper was a Herculean task, the area of film far greater than that fitted to the bonnet. I rapidly realised that trying to remove the film in one piece would be impossible, so I elected to cut the film into 4" wide sections with a sharp scalpel. This made removing the film far easier, though still a lengthy process.
With the film removed, my thoughts turned to the Cup esque vents that had been cut into the top of the front bumper. These vents had been roughly hewn out of the PU, their edges rough in places, but also their shape grated, and their dimensions differed from vent to vent.
I'd never really been convinced as to their aesthetic quality (I actually looked into having sections from a secondhand PU plastic welded into the voids with a view to returning the bumper to a stock looking item) but decided against it.
Closer inspection of their shapes revealed that not only were they of differing dimensions, but whoever had applied the PPF to the bumper, had apparently cut it using a pair of those all but useless scissors to be found in every kindergarten the length and breadth of Britain ...
So what were already badly cut holes, were made to look considerably worse by the application of the poorly cut PPF.
Note the differences in the PPF cut lines and their proximity to the opening in the PU at the points marked with arrows :
Add in the nasty aluminium expanded mesh that had been used to protect the radiators and to fill the Cup vents (which looked like it had been sprayed with an aerosol on numerous occasions) and the whole thing looked pretty tawdry.
So I devised a plan to tidy up the vents : Specifically to redesign the outer profile of the outer vents and narrow the 'bars" between the two outer vents and the central vent.
I mocked these up with black insulation tape (you'll probably need to open the image up to its full size by right clicking on the image and clicking 'Open image in new tab". Once opened, click on the image in the new tab to view it full size) :
Then removed the mesh, unfortunately these had been stuck in place using what looked like Liquid Metal :
simply 'gobbed" on by Stevie Wonder's English brother. The adhesive required the application of copious amounts of heat and a various hooks/picks to literally tear the mesh and adhesive off the back of the bumper. I then set to with a die grinder, files and emery cloth.
Mocked up :
And the end result :
'Bar" width narrowed and equalised :
Finished mods :
The vents look more 996 RS like and are far neater (not to mention symetrical)
Next up was sourcing some decent mesh for the 'Cup" vents. Many hours spent trawling an internet found this in The States :
https://www.123rf.com/photo_6094655...mb-speaker-grille-vector-grid-background.html
Further surfing found a company in the UK that could supply sensible sized sheets with various sizes of hexagonal perforations.
After much deliberation I decided on the finer mesh. The mesh is mild steel rather than my preferred stainless steel, but has been two pack epoxy coated in satin black. It looks far more OE and professional than the usual expanded mesh used.
The rear bumper on the car was a new item. Legend has it that when Dick Chambellend specified the very expensive Inconel/Titanium exhaust, he did so with a two central exit tailpipes. Upon collection of the car the owner questioned why the exhaust had been configured in this manner.
As the owner wanted the car to look as stock as possible, he requested the exhaust be redesigned to utilise the stock tailpipe positions, this in turn meant fitting a new bumper...
Bearing in mind these rear bumpers were fitted to every Mk1 996 ever produced, it's strange they're actually more expensive than the Aerokit/Mk1 GT3 front bumpers !! They cost the princely sum of £1500.
A new bumper was sourced, painted and fitted, with one caveat, the heatshield that protects the PU from the massive heat of the cats behind it, was omitted, along with the stays that secure the lower, rear edge of the bumper.
This was end result of the rear bumper being 'toasted" by the cats :
With the rear bumper off the car to remove and fix the exhaust, I set to with my heatgun to try and reshape the rear bumper with a view to getting it repaired. But pretty much as soon as I tried to move it back closer to its original shape having heated it, it cracked ...
PU (Polyurethane) contains oil within it's ingredients (no sh*t Sherlock), when it's gently roasted by two cats running at anything up to 900 degrees C, these oils get burnt off, and the end result is a very brittle bumper indeed.
The heatshield and its stays are now present and correct :
As the existing rear bumper was not repairable cost effectively, I sourced a replacement secondhand bumper, and this, the front bumper and bonnet were expertly painted and the grills fitted to the Cup vents. After many hours fettling, the end result looks stunning
A big thank you to Diggameister for his recommendation for an excellent bodyshop in the West Midlands. :thumbs:
:worship:
And a quick edit to add an image of the numerous layers of paint found on what i'd assumed was an original paint panel ...
In fairness, I think it probably IS an original paint bonnet, the problem being that OE paint was beneath at least 4 or 5 other layers of paint :grin:
Suffice to say, the bonnet was returned to bare metal prior to painting this time !!
The front bumper to the leading edge of the bonnet shutline had been an irritation with the car from day one of my ownership. The gap between the trailing edge of the front bumper and the leading edge of the bonnet on the N/S of the car being some 3-4mm wider than the O/S, and the way the car was parked in the garage meant that every time I went into the garage it was the first thing I saw on the car, and it grated. A lot.
I'd asked Matt at Fearnsport to try and improve the shutline. His 'fix" was to adjust the bonnet catch and pull the bonnet further down, thus giving the visual impression the shutline was tighter than it actually was. Close, but no cigar I'm afraid.
So off the front bumper came. It's actually a far easier job than I'd envisaged, and with the car up in the air on axle stands, it took no more than 30 minutes to remove from start to finish.
Having studied the various front bumper mounting points, it was clear there was a fair degree of adjustment available, but it was also noticeable that the PU itself had sagged on the N/S as had one of its crucial attachment/mounting points. But furthermore the two nasty plastic bumper mounting brackets bolted to the front panel and the N/S/F wing also looked tired and somewhat saggy.
On what was one of the hottest days of the year (up to that point in late May), I used the ambient temperature and a heatgun to remove the sag from the mounting point on the PU, and the PU itself.
After tweaking the various mounting brackets and shimming them out with washers and fitting/removing the PU on at least 8 occasions, I refitted the PU for the final time and was pleased to find that with the the various adjustment points tweaked, the shutline now looked near perfect.
Satisfied with the outcome, I could now once again enjoy walking through the garage. Little did I know that the bumper would be coming off again !!
The car is an original panel example , however the previous long term owner (or a prior owner) had Paint Protection Film fitted to the front half of the bonnet, the front bumper, the leading edge of the front wings, the sill extensions, mirrors and the leading edges of the rear bumper.
I'd assumed, incorrectly, that this PPF had been fitted early in the car's 20 year life, and thus the paintwork on the front of the car was original. Wrong !!
The PPF was old, and a year outdoors in the sun, wind, rain and frosts of Silverstone had done it no favours at all. Added to which the quality of its fitment originally left a lot to be desired. The front wings and bonnet looked especially bad as the PPF had only been applied to their leading edges.
I tried machine polishing the film, and whilst doing so improved it, the PPF generally made the car look 'tired".
Starting small, I removed the film from the mirrors, this alone sharpened the car up, so I progressed to the front wings.
After some experimentation I established that using a heat gun to gently warm the film up prior to attempting to peel it off worked best. Too much heat and the film tore or left the majority of its adhesive stuck to the panel, and removing this gooey, sticky residue was a long, tedious, messy process.
With the front wings now devoid of PPF the car looked better still (and the flowing lines of the front wings now returned because the the line where the PPF finished abruptly had been dispensed with).
And so on to the bonnet. I foolishly attempted this late one evening, and whilst I originally made good progress to the N/S of the bonnet, pulling the large area of film off in one broad swathe was proving hard work, and impatience got the better of me, so rather than use the heat gun on an area I'd already heated up once, I elected to just pull the film off ...
With a noise akin to ripping Calico the film came off the bonnet. Alas, it did so with all the laquer and a couple of coats of paint too ...
Suffice to say, what I thought at that very moment, rhymed rather neatly with 'Clucking Bell" ...
I retired to the living room having kicked the cat and poured myself a large glass of Amaretto.
The rest of the film and its adhesive were removed without further trauma to the car's paint and laquer the following evening, and with the bonnet and front wings now devoid of PPF, I figured I may as well remove it from the nicely fitted, properly adjusted front bumper too. So off the front bumper came once again ...
Removing the film from the bumper was a Herculean task, the area of film far greater than that fitted to the bonnet. I rapidly realised that trying to remove the film in one piece would be impossible, so I elected to cut the film into 4" wide sections with a sharp scalpel. This made removing the film far easier, though still a lengthy process.
With the film removed, my thoughts turned to the Cup esque vents that had been cut into the top of the front bumper. These vents had been roughly hewn out of the PU, their edges rough in places, but also their shape grated, and their dimensions differed from vent to vent.
I'd never really been convinced as to their aesthetic quality (I actually looked into having sections from a secondhand PU plastic welded into the voids with a view to returning the bumper to a stock looking item) but decided against it.
Closer inspection of their shapes revealed that not only were they of differing dimensions, but whoever had applied the PPF to the bumper, had apparently cut it using a pair of those all but useless scissors to be found in every kindergarten the length and breadth of Britain ...
So what were already badly cut holes, were made to look considerably worse by the application of the poorly cut PPF.
Note the differences in the PPF cut lines and their proximity to the opening in the PU at the points marked with arrows :
Add in the nasty aluminium expanded mesh that had been used to protect the radiators and to fill the Cup vents (which looked like it had been sprayed with an aerosol on numerous occasions) and the whole thing looked pretty tawdry.
So I devised a plan to tidy up the vents : Specifically to redesign the outer profile of the outer vents and narrow the 'bars" between the two outer vents and the central vent.
I mocked these up with black insulation tape (you'll probably need to open the image up to its full size by right clicking on the image and clicking 'Open image in new tab". Once opened, click on the image in the new tab to view it full size) :
Then removed the mesh, unfortunately these had been stuck in place using what looked like Liquid Metal :
simply 'gobbed" on by Stevie Wonder's English brother. The adhesive required the application of copious amounts of heat and a various hooks/picks to literally tear the mesh and adhesive off the back of the bumper. I then set to with a die grinder, files and emery cloth.
Mocked up :
And the end result :
'Bar" width narrowed and equalised :
Finished mods :
The vents look more 996 RS like and are far neater (not to mention symetrical)
Next up was sourcing some decent mesh for the 'Cup" vents. Many hours spent trawling an internet found this in The States :
https://www.123rf.com/photo_6094655...mb-speaker-grille-vector-grid-background.html
Further surfing found a company in the UK that could supply sensible sized sheets with various sizes of hexagonal perforations.
After much deliberation I decided on the finer mesh. The mesh is mild steel rather than my preferred stainless steel, but has been two pack epoxy coated in satin black. It looks far more OE and professional than the usual expanded mesh used.
The rear bumper on the car was a new item. Legend has it that when Dick Chambellend specified the very expensive Inconel/Titanium exhaust, he did so with a two central exit tailpipes. Upon collection of the car the owner questioned why the exhaust had been configured in this manner.
As the owner wanted the car to look as stock as possible, he requested the exhaust be redesigned to utilise the stock tailpipe positions, this in turn meant fitting a new bumper...
Bearing in mind these rear bumpers were fitted to every Mk1 996 ever produced, it's strange they're actually more expensive than the Aerokit/Mk1 GT3 front bumpers !! They cost the princely sum of £1500.
A new bumper was sourced, painted and fitted, with one caveat, the heatshield that protects the PU from the massive heat of the cats behind it, was omitted, along with the stays that secure the lower, rear edge of the bumper.
This was end result of the rear bumper being 'toasted" by the cats :
With the rear bumper off the car to remove and fix the exhaust, I set to with my heatgun to try and reshape the rear bumper with a view to getting it repaired. But pretty much as soon as I tried to move it back closer to its original shape having heated it, it cracked ...
PU (Polyurethane) contains oil within it's ingredients (no sh*t Sherlock), when it's gently roasted by two cats running at anything up to 900 degrees C, these oils get burnt off, and the end result is a very brittle bumper indeed.
The heatshield and its stays are now present and correct :
As the existing rear bumper was not repairable cost effectively, I sourced a replacement secondhand bumper, and this, the front bumper and bonnet were expertly painted and the grills fitted to the Cup vents. After many hours fettling, the end result looks stunning
A big thank you to Diggameister for his recommendation for an excellent bodyshop in the West Midlands. :thumbs:
:worship:
And a quick edit to add an image of the numerous layers of paint found on what i'd assumed was an original paint panel ...
In fairness, I think it probably IS an original paint bonnet, the problem being that OE paint was beneath at least 4 or 5 other layers of paint :grin:
Suffice to say, the bonnet was returned to bare metal prior to painting this time !!