Evening all,

Circumstances have changed in our household so after a few years of working together and only needing one car - we now need 2. Had a look at a few options but decided to pick up another BA for daily travels to work.
Here she is:

ZXI with a few nixe extras; RX8 alloys, backbox, samco hoses and induction kit.
I wasn't a huge fan of the large oval exits on the fitted exhaust so we went straight to the workshop for a change.


The previous owner Stuart (pleasure to meet you by the way) gave us a new mid section which needed a little modding to fit but needed to go on as the old one was pretty poorly rusted.

Much happier with how it looks now. Also changed the rear lights back to standard. Personally I think the standard lights look better on a red BA so will have a set of Lexus style lights going spare.
Finished up with an oil and filter change just for peace of mind. Got a little list piecing together of things I want to get done but all in good time.
Big thanks to hugs for taking me down to get it and use of the workshop....well sort of

Exhaust looks awesome chap! Credit to the welder

Get it lowered before I start calling you Serena

Congrats on the new acquisition, looks great! Hope it gives you many miles of reliable commuting.

Patrick

Lovely car, Lee - nice find! A pity the ex-Maddy red rocker cover you gave me is for a 1.5, or you could have had that back!

S

Nice car, nice exhaust.I've never been into twin tip exhaust, but they look okay when they are at the two sides of the car(4 tips).Maybe one little correction for leveling them up and they will be perfect.

Spent most of today with the meguiars.....weapons of choice

Decided to tackle the front drivers side wing first


Then got the whole drivers side done


Then on to the bonnet and passenger side. The bonnet was quite bad for horrible watermarks so took a few cuts with the DA but managed to get 95% of them out.


Passenger side


Tried a couple of reflection shots but the camera on my phone isn't great


That's all for now

WOW you find a really good one... with all the kitts of v6 (splitter, flutes, skirts) and that paint is beautifull and good...

nice buy!

CSR

Proper stunning ZXi Lerch old son, that back box looks the biz too, looks loads better than it did in Hugs hedge

Can't believe it was even cheaper than mine

Back home now after a day at the inlaws. Was handy as you can drive in to their back garden via gates at the side - great for hose and power access.

Got home and quickly cleaned the windows and detailed the roof.

Hopefully this reflection shot looks better

That'll do for today. More after work tomorrow

Looks like a good find, coming up beautifully

Absolutely stunning, that's a hell if a find.

Looking good, the red's come up really well.

Patrick

Beautiful matey!!

More progress tonight.
First of all I compounded, polished and waxed the front and rear bumpers. This means the whole car has been done once but there are a few places that could do some more correction. Also fitted some new LED side lights





Then moved on to the rear. We gave the exhaust a quick clean when fitting on Sunday but it needed another going over
Before

After




Unfortunately the spoiler is too far gone so can't be saved with the DA. Paint required and already purchased

I used some other 501 LEDs to change the interior lighting also.


Got this pic to finish.

Wow! that's some shine.

Come up much better than my white I must say.

Well done!

Patrick

Thanks matey!

I must admit, I tried the DA on a friends white MR2 before and it didn't seem to have the same effect but then its more about keeping white super clean than a deep shine as the color just doesn't have it (unless you have a fancy shade of white).

In some light angles you can still see some watermarks on the bonnet but i don't think I'll be able to get them out after 2 passes with the DA already It's shiny anyway so it'll do for now

Got to get Vulcan ready for JDM combe tomorrow so back to Maddy2 on Sunday

I can see you're someone with experience... i.e. practice on someone else's car first!!!

I think the problem is white is so bright and colour invariant so it drowns out any reflections off the top surface. Black is also colour invariant but with (nominally) no return light from the paint you see the reflection off the surface.

However white is good at hiding water marks!

I had a 2010 Subaru Forester with a pearl white (Toyotas of the same vintage often have it too...likely a 'job lot' of paint, even in Japan! ) which did shine up better, but was still rather disappointing.

Almost sounds like you have 3 children...

Patrick

Today I've been doing a few bits and pieces
Changed the reflector panel to one with an eternal flame badge....thanks John


Then took the rear wiper off and covered the hole with a sticker I bought at jdm Combe

Rear spoiler came off too for some love BUT I ran out of paint XD


Before I did all this I spent some time hand brushing all the black plastics with some tyre gel. I find this real helps with the black plastics. I leave it to cure for about 30 mins then buff with a cloth and it works quite well.


Managed to get all this done in the time the daughter had a nap so hopefully more to follow tonight

Got home and got the rest of the paint out the garage.

The paint I used was utterly garbage, reacted in a few places and the lacquer was the worst lacquer i have ever used so got annoyed and just threw it back on the car.

you can see how bad it is but it'll do for now

added a club sticker too

*EDIT* new paint ordered

More work going from my evenings this week!

Some of you may of heard me moaning about my foot at JDM Combe the weekend so I went to get it checked out last night, turns out I have a cyst on a nerve in my foot booo! Waiting to hear whether its an injection or operation jobby. But stuff needs to be done all the same

One thing I really wanted to get done with this car is to rust treat and proof as much as I could now so that it doesn't become an issue in the future. So last night I got the a**e end off he floor and started.

I'm using a rust treatment and proofing solution used by the Navy (will get the proper name when I get home) but it paints on in a white/blue film then dries black. Haven't used any other product so not sure whether this is normal or whether it differs to other treatments...

Plan of attack
-Wire brush as much of the surface rubbish off as I can
-Blow/brush the loose crap off
-Attack the areas with surface rust with a thick coat and all other area with a thin but full coat
-Wait for it to dry and re-apply if required

There are some parts that I just can't reach with a brush so I've filled an old squirty bottle with the treatment solution so I'm just spraying that where I can

I also got some hammered black Hammerite for the calipers, disc's & dust shields.

Pictures to follow soon.

Found out the solution is called 'NeutraRust' Got the other side done this evening:

The overspray on the strut and spring made me laugh

Hopefully that'll keep the rust monkeys at bay for a while. I did both sills too, gave the outer sill a coat to protect and the inner sill to try and fight the small present patches but there's nothing under there that worries me too much at this point. Next up is the front

More progress tonight
Ordered some Anthracite metallic black alloy paint off eBay and started on the rears

Rubbed down and removed most of the kerbing/corrosion marks, masked, primered, top coated, lacquered

Primer supplied was like a Matt black

Both top coated - shows colour better

A good 2 thick coats of clear lacquer

Both done


Left to dry overnight but pretty happy with them so far

The big reveal

Tyre gel treated

Front corners rust trusted and painted


Test fitted one of the painted alloys - silver wheel nuts look gash!!!!!

Got the other 2 wheels off and painted them tonight along with the centre caps




Hopefully they'll be nice and dry ready to fit tomorrow

All done and back on the car



Dead chuffed

Nice job Lerch, good colour too

Very nice!

Amazed how quickly you get through things.

Did you prep/spray all the exposed wheel, i.e. the inside part of the rims as well, ad with everything (primer, colour, lacquer)?

Patrick

Direnza springs fitted





Just realised the reflection in this shot is quite nice:)




Happy with that!

Ermmmm nope literally just the face of the wheel really

Time for another update.

After fitting the springs I didn't go out for a test drive as I had other things to do so she sat over night. Went to drive Maddy home on Friday, in to gear, slowly off the clutch and nothing.....clutch came all the way up and no drive. Instantly thought the clutch had gone....nooooo!!!

Tried a few other things and found that she would go through the box without even touching the clutch pedal which made me pretty sure it was that gone.

Towed her up the local garage as I hadn't got the time to properly inspect or fit a new clutch over the weekend. Got a call from them saying the issue was the drive shaft drivers side and that it needed a whole new one.....bit suspect I thought....1. it's in 2 parts so I'd be very surprised if both parts had gone & 2. how can a drive shaft break from the car being jacked up and down.

Anyway they quoted me £330 to replace it. I told them to try and find the parts which they couldn't so I towed it home and had a look myself after a trip to AndyM's to pick up a spare drive shaft.

After all that - turns out the problem was with the small security/spring clip ring thing on the end of the outer drive shaft that slots in to the CV joint. The ring has broken and drive shaft was falling out of the joint when turning hard right.....what a ballache but managed to get it fixed and all back together

One side effect from the new springs is that the exhaust is now knocking on the subframe when I turn right only.....must just be the way it swings but its a really loud knock. Something for me to do the weekend

Few pics from tonight

Decided to tint the side lights


Added some subtle stickers to the wheels as I had them kicking about

And just one I quite liked