Aqua blue pearl VR - p.34 bonnet cable repair

[fla 9]

Small update but no pics sadly - assembled and installed my uprated loom for the main beam. tested the lights in the day and they are significantly improved. Should be easier to judge in the evening. had to solder some of the old joints from the first cheapo relay i installed some years back. mistakes you make early on eh! One thing though, when you install the loom, make sure you are clear about the cable routes otherwise wires end up crossing over and looking a mess..........like mine is! Project for next time to reroute them.

Also changed the ignition switch and derattled the steering column cowl.

Edited April 6, 2014 by fla

[fla 9]

spent this afternoon cleaning and polishing the tt 6-spokes. Well i only got two done the other two are still in a dire condition. Thought i'd post these pics up to show what some serious elbow grease, some wonder wheels and some polish can do. Hopefully if i can get the other two finished tomorrow i'll fit them and post some fitted shots up too.

[Rams 0]

What a difference!

 

Wax on wax off

[fla 9]

some pics with the new wheels fitted. The ride quality has hardly changed despite the 17s. I have tried to get some pics showing the inner side of the wheel as well, but i havent been able to capture it very well. Just thought i'd compare one side with the Ronals and the other with the Speedies for comparison!

And i need some centre caps...

[fla 9]

minor jobs but hopefully will contribute to the refresh of the car. Plastic trims rubbed down and painted with bumper trim paint.

Did teh roof strips with Halfords rubberised paint, not sure if it was a good idea though...

 

Did the cup underneath the front engine mount with hammerite, but it doesnt look great - looks absolutely vile in the pics! I have some stainless nuts to replace the rusty old ones, one of which needed the Irwins.

Is it worth spraying this with the rubberised paint as well?

[fla 9]

Its been a while since i updated this - mainly been working on finishing the OBD2 loom (will have a spare one soon if anyones interested) and freshening up the spare manifold and rocker cover.

Also stripped and painted the fuel rail, ultrasonic cleaning of the injectors (this takes ages as each one sits there for about 40 minutes), new o-rings, resprayed bodies (which is not great to be fair).

 

Light grease on the o-rings before refitting to the fuel rail.

 

I've also got some new tyres for the tt comps which were powder coated recently.

Will post some pics shortly.

[seanl82 23]

Good work Hasan. I've just bought an ultrasonic cleaner to do my injectors too. What did you use as a solution to clean them, or was it just warm water? Also how much of the body did you submerge, or was it just the tip? Just worried about causing damage to any electrical components within is all. To be fair, the tips of mine look spotless, but who knows how much crud is hiding in the main body..........

[fla 9]

i bought some of the cleaning solution they recommend. Just submerged the whole thing with warm water on the 480 second cycle about 6 times per injector.

And like yours the tips on mine looked perfect. I'm going to make aup a little 'pulsing' rig to apply pulsed power to the injectors whilst spraying some carb cleaner through them. I've got about 10 spare injectors (!) so worth experimenting.

However, i'm assuming that once refitted any remaining gunk will get cleaned out with a few tankfuls of premium petrol

[fla 9]

here we go:

 

I've painted the alternator pulley as well in gloss black and actually it doesnt look bad - not in that pic though,looks dreadful! Main round connector bracket is a satin black, for some reason it looks dusty, but its actually a very nice even colour.

Tinted one side of the spare rear lights red, need to do the housing black and then a few coats of lacquer.

Manifold and rocker have come out quite well i think. I've polished the two ends of the rocker cover but cant photograph them very well.

 

Once the tt comps are fitted, the Ronels will be up for sale - polished up as per how they were when i fitted them.

Edited April 6, 2014 by fla

[science 0]

Nice work!

Manifold and rocker look smoooooth, which paint did you use?

[robrado974 1]

All looking great Hassan , you have been quiet lately . Can't beat a nice clean bay .

Rob

[fla 9]

Nice work!

Manifold and rocker look smoooooth, which paint did you use?

 

Thanks for the kind words, just need to put it all together, lol.

 

Rubbed it down with a flap wheel and then some 240 grit. Two coats of halfords high temp paint and two coats of lacquer. There are still some casting marks which, as its the 2.8 inlet, I thought I'd leave it as is. On the 2.9 I'll spend a bit more time.

 

The two ends of the rocker were done with 240 grit and then polished with 2 mops on the drill. No lacquer on them, just Belgom alu polish.

 

Rob - thanks, but not a patch on yours.

[fla 9]

Took off the manifold and associated bits today in preparation of doing the cams. As it took a few hours, i'm thinking i might as well do the OBD2 conversion at the same time. I'll post some pics of the bay, although its nothing new to most. The only problem is you see grubby looking parts and think 'ok i'll just take that off clean and refit' and then you see something else. Kind of goes on and on... I just hate putting nice clean parts on with old rubbishy ones in place.

[robrado974 1]

Rob - thanks, but not a patch on yours.

You and a few others have said that Hassan . Yes ive had a full respray and the bay is clean and ive cleaned what i can get to engine wise . But ive not had the chance to go to the lengths that you and others are going to . For me yes the body work looks great ,but its like a polished body sat on old bits if that makes sense ?. I am working on a plan at the moment to try and reach the standards that you and alot of others are reaching . Every time i see what you and others are doing ,i think , this is what i should be doing .After this week the interior will be sorted rattle n squeek wise . But i still need to paint the front seats . KKeep up the good work mate .

Rob

[fla 9]

here we go:

 

Pretty manky at present. Its been on the drive sorn'd since October and i've not really given it much of a wash either. Cams and OBD2 hopefully as the current project, then tie rod ends, refurbed alloys back on, soundproofing and derattling again (its ongoing!) and then small mods like lighting etc.

 

Also need to get a proper BMC bracket and strap - the jubilee clamp I've got is really not nice,just don't know where to get one.

 

I've repainted the control fan bracket and had some aramid fibre gasket material so i cut a piece of this and put it on between the screws and the bracket to protect the paint.

Edited April 9, 2014 by fla

[fla 9]

removed the terrible looking heatshield, and cleaned it up with a wire wheel on the drill. Ended up with a few shiny patches at the front but otherwise pretty smooth. Good clean with white spirit to remove any oil etc and then gave it a few coats of high temp paint. I'll perhaps lacquer it tomorrow - question though, will the lacquer be able to withstand the heat?

 

Also got my tyres fitted - Vredesteins, so should be quite quiet.

[ChrisL 18]

The heat shield looks good, personally I would leave it as it is and not bother lacquering it.

[daves16v 1]

Hasan, not sure if you know but I do the BMC bracket and am about to release the strap, both in polished Stainless of course.

 

Dave

[fla 9]

Thanks Dave - its the strap I'm really after. Any details for a due date?

[daves16v 1]

A couple of weeks.

[fla 9]

cleaned the two engine covers with white spirit and let them cook for a bit in the sun! Roughed up slightly with a scotchbrite pad and another quick clean. A couple of coats of paint and they're looking a lot nicer than before.

 

Might sell one, not quite sure why I have two!

[fla 9]

Finally fitted the 264 cams. didn't take many pics tbh, as i still need to jack the car up to manually turn the engine and check everything is ok.

Just for reference here are some pics of the 264s versus the standard cams (i only took pics of one). On initial viewing they look pretty similar but comparing them end to end you can see the lobes of the 264s are very slightly different, ie at slightly different angles. Hope this is clear from the photos. new cam on the left (grey coloured sprocket)

Edited June 11, 2014 by fla

[fla 9]

cams finally fitted! Out by one link, so front cam removed, chain lifted and rear cam lined up. Rechecked timing from crank pulley against the notch on the block - looks slightly out but i think thats just a parallax error. Front cam refitted - a bit worried about not being straight but then realised that there is some chain slack to be taken up.

Temporarily fit the polished & painted rocker cover to see how it looks, but it just makes everything else look even worse! Anyway, i'll be turning it over to get the oil pressure up before refitting the sparks and the newly cleaned injectors and fuel rail.

 

Then its on to OBD2...

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Wasn't Parallax the baddie in The Green Lantern? :D

 

Good work Hasan! I do not approve of the use of adjustable wrenches when undoing cam sprocket bolts though :lol:

 

Is it the crank pulley mark that doesn't quite line up? That one isn't always bang on. It's more of a guide. The important marks are the intermediate shaft, cam tool slotting in easily and the notch on the crank sprocket (can't see in situ). If those 3 are all good and the crank pulley mark is a few mill off, I wouldn't worry. What I do is preload the chain (with a bolt and a washer pressing hard on the upper pad) and turn the motor over 4 times. If all still lines up properly, I go ahead and put it all back together.

 

Piper 264s eh? You'll have to let us know what they're like!

[fla 9]

Certainly will do!

I've never really understood the intermediate sprocket position well as I wasn't able to tell whether it was out of position or not as I could see it clearly from above and had no reference position. Could you elaborate on that a bit?