Booth11

Don’t take this the wrong way, but is it absolutely properly shut, as it’s possible for the latch to catch and lock but not be fully shut. The tailgate usually wobbles a bit if that happens.

😂 My work here is done. 😜

Thanks Nathan. I was feeling either brave or stupid. 😁

Sod that! I’m not taking my car anywhere near the midlands, turn my back and the bumper, wheels, if not the whole car will be gone. 🤣 I’ll be sticking to the A1.

How much further north? I go up north twice a year to see my parents, if you’re on my route, leave your car out and I’ll give it a speed detail as I pass by. I’ll post the bill through your door. My rates ain’t cheap. 😂

I was tempted to keep going and drive up to London to buy a loaf of bread as apparently it’s cheap there, but I didn’t fancy getting another FPN. 😁

Yes, you read it right, I painted them wheels on through the spokes. Unfortunately I don’t have a trolley jack and axle stands atm so I decided to give it a go, wheels on. Could have gone horribly wrong but I was pretty confident. I have a degree in Fine Art (Painting) so I thought I’d put it to good use. 😁 Not a stranger to daubing a bit of paint. Probably an easier job for a woman too with smaller hands, I have long fingers too which helps. I did half a hub, then rolled the car forwards and did the other half, each side. Discs were masked and amazingly no paint on the Prets! Phew!

Yeah they are scored. They look worse than usual though as the cars not been moved for a while. I took it quickly round the block today to get rid of the rust on the discs that resulted from washing it the other day. Did someone not mention B pillars! 😁

Painted the rear rusty hubs (in-situ wheels on!) Before After

Finished working from home early, so decided to take advantage of the good weather and paint my rusty rear hubs. Only about 4 years overdue as they started rusting after a few months from new, but better later than never as they say! I don’t have the necessary decent jacking gear at home and I’ll likely be replacing the discs this year, but I got sick of being greeted by the sight of the disgusting rust, so thought I’d practice a steady hand with a small paintbrush and do them in-situ, wheels still on. 😱 I gave the hubs a rub down with wire wool first then masked off the discs and caliper, and used a couple of small artists paintbrushes with the long handles snapped in half to allow access through the Pret spokes. I was extra careful not to get any paint at the very edge where disc mates with the wheel, leaving about 1/2mm free of paint. Used Hammerite Direct to Rust metal paint in Smooth Silver which looks good with silver Prets. Obviously it is far preferable to do it wheels off but it worked out very well. They look so much better. At the same time I painted my wheel weights to match them in. I forgot to take before pics today, but this is a pic taken a few months back (very dirty wheels!) showing the extent of the rust. Before After Fronts are ok so as the hub material is different and fares much better, so left those as they are. Shame I still have rusty brake guards but hey ho!

Nice choice Neil. I’m just awaiting delivery of two of their lambswool mitts to replace old ones (my all time fav wash mitts), their 8 pc pack of foam applicators (for applying tyre dressing) and a new clay mitt, as my old one had gone rock hard! Fortunately I had some traditional clay but I do like the Wo-Wo clay mitt, it’s great on the larger panels. Nice to get the 20% forum discount too!

I just put around 1.5” - 2” of the BHAF solution in a 1litre lance bottle and top it up to near full with water. I find that’s fine for effective cleansing without prematurely diminishing the protection. It clings fine and is all run off the car around 5 mins. Dwell time can be affected by the protection on the car though, some very slick protection can mean snow foams don’t cling very well and not for long at all. I adjust the dial on the snow foam lance to get the best consistency, but be aware that BHAF is on the slightly runnier side of snow foams, but actually very similar to ValetPro Advanced Neutral consistency wise. Both are good because they aren’t too thick and so do actually run off the car taking the loose dirt with them, unlike shaving foam consistency snow foam which can just sit of the panels doing little, more show than go. You just need to play about with the mix in the bottle and the dilution flow dial on the lance until you hit the sweet spot of a reasonable consistency that clings enough to work on the dirty surface, but not for too long.

I use a pad spurring brush. This one https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/chemical-guys-pad-conditioning-brush I use the brush to spur (clean) my pads after every few section passes. I do the necessary number of section passes, then stop and clean the pad using spurring brush. I run the brush across the pad a few times with the machine running at low speed, or just spin the pad, and the brush will remove caked polish and recondition and freshen the pad. Can be used on foam pads and microfibre and wool pads. If you use microfibre pads the brush fluffs them back up nicely. Alternatively, a toothbrush or a nail brush works too. This is me spurring a microfibre pad in between polishing panels.

Welcome along to VWROC Team Cowie. Hope you find a suitable R for your racing project? If you do, be great to see it on the track in motion, all dressed up with your livery.

Thanks Stawbs! Car has been a bit neglected of late so nice to be able to spend some dedicated time on it. Hopefully you’ll be able to bring it back to its best. I’d forgotten just how lovely the DBP flake looks when polished and refined. Hard work but it’s worth the effort. Just got the rest of it to do now!