Now that I'm finished university until September, I'm compelled to get on with the job, regarding this car! Funds are somewhat lacking at the moment, until I start my summer job. Until then, I'm concentrating on the cheaper aspects of the car. I've still not got the rear bumper and petrol tank collected, as the chap who has them works abroad a lot. He says he'll be back in the next week or so, so hopefully, I'll get them fitted sooner than later! As regards the front valance, I'll need to make a concerted effort to acquire a better one soon. The fuel pump I've been using to run the car until now isn't up to the job, so I'm researching the options. I think I'll go for a facet pump, as this project is being done on a tight budget, and it's not one that'll be sitting around in traffic much at all. Other than this, I also need to rebuild the nearside front caliper, as it's leaking badly, and it doesn't appear to be the hose. The car was started yesterday, and ran beautifully, considering the circumstances! The exhaust is all sitting, awaiting fitting. Alas, in my haste, I've got lovely PD Gough sections in the original bore size, but, I correctly acquired big bore front pipes. Is it possible to fabricate/buy an adaptor, so that I can use the stainless sections, with the big bore front pipes?
Anyway, yesterday was spent making the car look rather better again. I felt guilty about the car looking quite oxidised, so I spent three or four hours washing, polishing and waxing it! As you can see in the before shots, the bootlid, and bonnet were particularly bad. They're still slightly stained in places, but a lot better than they were. The rest of the bodywork, bubbles aside, has a nice paint finish, which has responded quite well! The vinyl roof lets it down rather, as there are quite a few pieces where the vinyl has peeled off, and there are white spots, or a previous owner has used some black filler. It'll never look great, but if it looks acceptable on the road, and from ten paces, then I'll be happy enough!
For those interested, I used the two bucket method, (no snowfoam this time), with Zymol car shampoo. I then dried the car off, before going round it twice with Autoglym super resin polish, three times on the bonnet and boot. I then waxed the car with Collinite 476 to add a bit of protection. I blackened up, and protected what's left of the vinyl roof with Autoglym bumper care, as well as doing the side pillars. I did the wheels with turtle wax because I saw no point in using anything else on the poorly painted alloys. I dressed the tyres with Meguiars Endurance tyre gel. I'm fairly happy with the result. It's not getting it onto the road any quicker, but it incentivises me to work harder, if the car looks nice.
The first two photos show the car before, and the rest are a mixture of half-finished, and finished shots. I'll clean it a bit more before it goes onto the road, but it's okay for now.