So another weekend and another time for an update. Over the course of the week another pile of parts has arrived to refresh the little car.
Here we have a new middle under tray (no trays on the car when I got it, now its got front and middle), new polybushed tuning fork arms, new coolant cap, exhaust gaskets, cabin pollen filter and two M030 antiroll bars with bushes. The tyres are my current favourite - Cooper Zeon CS - A rated wet grip, excellent dry grip, and miles better than the Conti's I had on the turbo before these.
Before all the shenanigans putting this lot on I thought I'd have a bash at sorting this lacquer peel on the bonnet which had been bugging me since I got the car.
So I thought 'Nae bother this, seen em do it'... I began by sanding down the edges of the peeling clear coat with the intention of making it flush with the base coat. Things (not surprisingly) didn't go to plan and I ended up taking some of the base coat off and going into the primer...
... Just as well I still had that can of Artic Silver spray paint I got when I had my old 4S then! Not quite. It appears that my old 4S was a slightly different colour and the spray paint came out in splatters more than a smooth flow..
To cut a long story short, after many hours of making a mess, rubbing down, finally getting a smooth patch of silver down and then polishing the clear coat I ended up with this
... and I think you'll agree that from this angle it looks just fine!
There are lots of areas on the car which need painting, so I've decided I'm going to do a 'homebuiltbyjeff' and create my own booth, invest in some proper gravity fed guns, and learn to do it myself once and for all.
In between putting the paint down and waiting for it to be dry enough to put the clear on I tackled this:
Old vs new front ARB
Then I freshened everything up and re-assembled:
Before putting the trays on with these
Things noted - there appears to be a small weep from one of the power steering pipes above the front anti-roll bar. Also I still haven't managed to find the source of the oil leak at the back, but I believe it to be the oil filler pipe.
Tomorrow the car is off to OPC Newcastle to have a new key programmed to the car because the 3 it came with don't work off the blipper.
Until next time..... :bandit: