seanl82

Now finished the bodywork detailing stage, pretty happy with the outcome! The paint is too far gone in a few places, but at least the polishing removed a few of the scuffs that were mostly made up of paint transfer so not quite as bad in a couple of areas. Electrical and mechanical problems need to be sorted first though, so dash out time and wiring sorted next. Ok here is what I did, and some photos. Started off with two hits of APC, rinsing with PW in between as a pre-wash. This was followed by 2BM and rinse with an open ended hose. Shuts and gaps with APC and a small detailing brush. Next it was de-tarred all over twice using AF citrus tar and glue remover, agitated with a damp microfibre. Then Iron-X'd all over, which was amazing how much fallout was on it! Car looked like it was bleeding all over!!! Wheels cleaned with Bilberry, de-tarred and iron-x'd also. 2BM wash again and rinsed. Clayed twice with DJ SN medium clay and Demonshine diluted 50:50 as lube. 2BM washed and rinsed again with an open ended hose. At this point it was already looking soooo much better! The fact that the last owner lived in the Big Smog really told before! Not an awful lot of tree sap, but tons of grime pulled off with the clay, hence the reason it was done twice! I then went over the each panel with 3M Fast Cut Plus on a 3M yellow pad, followed by 3M Ultrafina on a 3M Blue pad. This has taken out 90% of the swirls and alot of the RDS's. This has made the paintwork appear quite healthy at last. The pearl looks fantastic and really does shine now! It was then washed 2BM, rinsed and dried again, before being given an IPA wipedown to remove polishing oils. Then treated to two coats of Collinite 476s wax, black plastics done with Carpro Perl, glass cleaned with Rain-x, exhaust polished with Megs NXT metal polysh and 0000 wire wool before being sealed with CG Jetseal 109. I didn't bother sealing the wheels as they're gonna be refirbed in time, but tyres dressed with Megs Tyre Gel. Some pics, although its pretty overcast so no real reflection shots unfortunately. And tucked away undercover until the next time................

Your better off just removing it altogether mate. You can google the model number and see if you can find a reset procedure, but in all likelyhood its goosed! Is the factory immobiliser still present?

Good effort! A good machine polish will bring that up well! Was it sprayed outside by any chance!

It was pretty bad that rust though! Can't see many having a decent original chassis. If I was in the market for one, I'd factor that into the price I was willing to pay, unless it'd been replaced recently with a zinc coated powdercoated one. Such an amazing car though! :shades:

I do mate! It looks like there are a few marks in the pic, and I didn't notice until I posted teh pics up. The marks are on the camera lens, or its just polishing dust I think as the paintwork is coming up really well, although there are a few deep scratches that I'm not comfortable cutting back without a PDG, and a few areas of lacquer peel that I can't do much about. I'll bang up some completed pics when its finished and list what I've used to get there. After that its dash out time and re-wiring! Edit; Cheers Alan, its my favourite tool mate! Lots of hard work to get a good finish but its soooo worth it in the end. You should have seen the state of the paintwork in person before I started! I'll expand on that when I do a bit of a write up when its finished. :thumbleft:

Give the sensors and reluctor rings a good clean before anything else, see how you get on. Intermittent ABS faults usually point to those mate.

A couple of teaser pics! Hopefully will be finished by the end of the w.end provided SWMBO allows me the time! Camera Phone Pics but I'm still really impressed with how its coming along! 50/50 Pearllllllllllllllllll reflections!

Dont spend your money on dedicated lubes or QDs, I use demonshine diluted 1:1 and it acts as a great lube. £3 or so from asda for 1.5 litres will last a good long while as well! :thumbleft:

Could be worse, mine died on the A38 on my Golf3 a couple of years ago, causing HG failure. Was fine one minute, gone the next! :(

Congrats! :thumbleft:

Good project! I wish mine was in as good condition as yours! :lol: I've just finished prepping for polish today, and it look so much better already! Its in need of alot of paint repair, but I'll gauge that after its been cut back and I can get a real idea of just how bad it is. Hopefully mine comes together like yours Sean, but I don't have the lump unfortunately.................:( Look forward to more updates mate! :thumbleft:

Ah got you, sorry! Not an awful lot you can do tbh, don't know if there are clips to pull the base itself taught, just the ones below the bolsters I'd assume. Being new leather, it'll need to rest to mold itself to the shape anyway, so this'll eliminate some of them. A bit of wear will flatten it down too. Can't really suggest anything other than that tbh mate.

The oil cooler went on my old mk3 GTI 8v, causing HG failure etc. I replaced the entire engine for one of similar mileage to this for £85 delivered! New clutch and Lightened flywheel, cambelt, painted up and it was absolutely mint! Old New

Went in to put some more of the interior in and attempt to sort out the stereo wiring. Needed to fab a handbrake tunnel bracket as where the welding on the handbrake is, its obstructing the tunnel cover slightly. This took longer than I'd budgeted, and couldn't find an M8 Tap so thats another thing to sort. All prepped and ready to tap, then bolt down though. I also noticed today that the engine doesn't switch off when the lights are on! Switches off when you turn the lights off though, and normal when no lights on at all. FFS, the entire dash loom really needs replacing I think! Its such a mess, its unreal. Remnants of old alarm systems ripped out with bits of insulation covering where it was spliced in everywhere! If anyone knows of a likely cause of the above off the top of their head, or has come across it before I'm all ears. I've decided to completely take the stereo wiring out, and start from scratch as well. At least I'll know its done right then.

Worth investigating further before narrowing it down to HG. Find out if you have sprung a water leak anywhere. Look around pipes, pipe clanmps, water pump, heater matrix hoses etc etc to see if you can find any evidence of leakage. You'll get the crystallised coolant and "snail trails" that will point toward a leak. For oil pressure, worth checking the pressure sensors on the oil cooler housing, as they are known to go. Lastly drop the sump, the pickup may well be blocked slightly with crud. On my valver, the baffle in the sump that attaches to the pickup, had broken clips. It would tilt back and forward and occasionally cause the alarm to go off by blocking off the pickup slightly.

They're not particularly quick raising, but it shouldn't be really slow. May be worth a bit of maintenance. http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?51125-Spoiler-motor-cleaning-and-repair

Can you post a picture of the machine you used, so I can see what type of thing to look at please. We have an industrial compressor at work, but its locked away and maintained by a contracted company so don't know what its like and the spec. Don't think it has a water trap or filter either so probably not I good idea to use it for paint. Kip, the problem I have is the cracking on the front seats. I don't know if its worth re-colouring the whole interior as I'd probably need to scrub off all the colour anyway?

Which flavour Rotrex you running Rams? Have you done any GB work yet to aid traction too? Very nice install by the way, look forward to seeing the Dyno Plots!

Cheers Kip, yeah I saw your thread for using it the Furniture Clinic stuff and using Matt effect. Did you need the Large, or Extra Large Kit for the full interior including Door Cards, and what type of spray gun did you use if not the one for the cans? Also did you send a sample for colour matching? Good tip for the plastics too! I'll see how I get on, as I'd rather re-trim them - dependant on finding a reasonably priced colour matched covering, but that's a very good alternative. I know the boot cover plastic is painted, as mine has some scuffs that have gone through, so that's good to know that I can paint it. :thumbleft:

Yes we're known as Pinkies too! And thanks! :grin:

Emphasis on the Engineering then mate. TBF, the Weapons bit is quite broad in the Engineering Branch. It incorporates Weapons (obviously), Sensors (Radar/Sonar etc), CIS (computers), and Comms/Electronic Warfare - which is what I deal with. Maintaining and fixing Transmitter/Receivers, Encryption systems, Integrated systems and networks, Exchanges, CCTV, Infra Red, etc etc........ Sounds more exciting than it is though mate.

:nono: Bugger off Sean, I'm not an armourer! I'm a Petty Officer Engineering Technician (Weapons Engineer). Or PO ET(WE) for short. RN not Army mate. Senior Service and all that! :salute::grin:

Rob, did you mean the C4 for exterior plastics? Its obviously quite expensive (£25 for 15ml) and is best used for exterior not interior, and won't go very far on your interior! If your gonna use BH Surfex like I have on my leather, make sure you condition it afterwards, as its quite a harsh chemical even at a high dilution ratio, so will dry the leather out.

Indeed Jim! I feel your pain brother! Well didn't get as much done as I would have liked today. Decided to start on the wiring, but when I got there, I realised I'd left the cable for the laptop at home, and battery is knackered so only lasted 2 minutes. Reason I need the laptop is that I only have the Bentley on CD for the wiring diagrams. This was the state of it all behind the dash! As you can see, like the rest of the car, its a hell of a mess! I'm an Weapons Engineering Technician by trade, but even this made me mutter a few profanities! I don't envy me!!! I've just tidied it all up for now and put everything back in for the time being. Will visit it at a later date when I have a bit of enthusiasm for it, as Friday a'noons aren't the best time to dive into this type of work! Bad news for getting parts for next month too. Got a phone call from the Letting Agent that manages our house in Plymouth that we rent out today, and the Boilers playing up. Got someone round to have a look, and apparently its the diverter valve. All in all its gonna cost me £400! Bang goes the budget for next month now! Will just have to get the essentials I think. Gonna start again probably Monday or Tuesday. Will begin putting everything back in I think, before tackling the bodywork.

Actually you'd be surprised how poor the finish is on brand new cars! BMW I've noticed are especially bad..........