Vince's XM...213k and slowing....

[vince]

Well another car done today under the Pallas A.R. moniker...A well loved by its owner Volvo 960 turbo. The car looked ok from a few steps away but the laquer is failing on the bonnet, top edges of the wings (they have been badly painted in the past), the roof has a patch of laquer overspray and the passenger side rear door has also been painted and again poorly laquered

Normally it takes me only a few minutes to figure out what combination of pad and polish i need to use to get the correction work done, then the refinishing side is a set trusty combo i have always used as it will apply to any car really and never lets me down

This car however demanded 3 different pad and polish combo's as i worked on different parts of the car. On the rear drivers side door i was hard pushed to finish it down without any hologramming...it was a bugger! It took around 40 minutes on that one panel alone...i cracked it though in the end

Anyway peole only ever want to see pictures so here they are....the first shots show you the sterling level of shine and reflection the paint had to begin with

As i said. this first shot shows you it doesnt look bad from a few steps away....but then the following shots show you the true finish up close.







Getting ready for work....


Ill skip the work in the progress shots and jump the finished shots
Roof -


Drivers side -

Passengers side -

Stepping back a bit -







The owner was over the moon with the end result. He was a bit tentative as he thought it was tidy in the first place....i did say ive never had an unhappy customer, but every car is so different and only show their true cards when you start on them

I do like the end results but the work is on another level when working on older cars as they require so much extra work...especially Volvo's as the laquer is hard as a rock!

Time taken = 8.5 hours ! Non stop

Ill bring some cards down to the cxm...i might get lucky and hook an old Citroen to work on

[Citroenmad]

Another excellent result Vince, I bet the owner is well pleased with that

[davetherave]

Jesus vince, Thats damn good. I have to admit I thought you had ballsed up by taking a picture of the wrong vehicle through a tinted red lense! then realised it was a reflection!

[bxzx16v]

Nice work Vince

Mark

[vince]

Thank god its the weekend . Im recovering after a very hard week working. Last weekend a mate of mine contacted me and asked if i could get his car ready for a show he is going to this weekend. He is an old school VW guy so is down at the Edition 38 show in the midlands. Its a huge show, ive been before when i had the passat years back. The standard of cars there is on another level of phenomenal, so his needed to be at least presentable as it was just a H reg faded and milky red Golf automatic...albeit slammed to the floor on BBS RM's which are worth more than the car. I didnt want to let him down so decided to do it over 2 evenings this week. That saw me working from 8:30 till 17:30 at GSF and then home and changed and then a second shift of 7:00 till 11:30 at the garage for two days straight. The car took me 8.5 hours give or take but it was so enjoyable as the colour was beautiful being a Mars Red which has a tinge of orange in it. I didnt get many good shots as i was that busy trying to get it done in time, so he is going to take some this weekend so i can put them up on my blogsite http://pallasautorefinishing.wordpress.com/
I am still adding cars ive done to this so it will be more conclusive soon enough.

To give you a sneak preview of why it was so knackering ive got a before and after shot of the front scuttle area:



On the XM front, i really havent got much done at all recently, and today its raining...again I think we are heading for Waterworld before long...it will keep Kevin Costner busy i suppose

Im really looking forward to the CXM as i have a few bits i need being brought up i think by other forum members

One thing i have got done albeit crudely is sewing up the front edge of the drivers seat (thats actually not bad im Ok at sewing), but i dont htink id make a good autotrimmer, the front headlining hanging down did my head in so its pinned up with drawing pins (you cant really see them easily) as fabric glue just didnt seem to work after a few days it dropped again.

I ve realised i need to get some work done on the rear bumper area. On the passenger side the side mount for the bumper to wing has rotten away (not too hard to devise a fix for that) but to fix that the bumper would need to come off. From looking underneath the same side has had a minor bump in the past and the rust protection has cracked no doubt so where the bumper is bolted to the rear lower panel its a bit rusty...nothing dramatic but i figure whilst the bumper is oof it might aswell be fixed up properly and re sealed....i might do that myself as i dont mind some bodywork jobs

Anyway, thats all for now see you next week.

[citroenxm]

Vince .. hoping to appear on Sunday.. Re send me a wants list so i can try sort stuff this week for you

[Citroenmad]

I bet the owner of that Mk2 Golf was very pleased with that result, its red again! I have been th the Edition38 show a couple of times, its a very good one and massive too, trouble is that scene is all very 'samey' now

[vince]

Very true Chris, he texted me this morning to say thankyou again and that his car looked "unreal" It did look amazing when it was done....ill stick some more pics up when i get round to it.

Ive just had a Volvo T5R book in aswell for the weekend after the CXM.....it seems to be keeping me quite busy recently which helps the pocket money side of things of course, but all work and no rest won't do me much good in the long run im sure.....that said, i love doing these cars as the feeling you get when the owner says how great your work is cant be matched in my normal day job.

Paul, Andmcit is apparently bringing some stuff with him if he makes it to the show? A couple of bits i could do with though are

a) The turbo boost guage sensor if you have one
b) the oil level guage sensor
c) the drivers side door window scraper seal....the one that your arm rests on if you drive with you arm out of the window (thats the easiest way i could think of describing it) Currently when i open the drivers door after its been parked up in the rain for a while it all gushed out of the bottom drain hole when i open the door so its obviously getting in past this seal...the reason it will be that is it doesnt hug the window as part of it looks to be missing.

That should do for now.....if you can help on those Paul?

Andmcit said he was bringing:
a dipstick
the tailgate mounted taillights
the clock and ext temp display which has bled

I think that was all......

Paul if you are struggling to get down, you are welcome to come over to Manchester on the saturday and travel down with me There will be somewhere to bunk no doubt

[tim leech]

Thanks for the drive on Sunday Vince, very impressed with the XM, especially as it is a nice "simple" one.

[Xantianut]

Cor!

I hope that's shiny enough!

[vince]

Thanks for the drive on Sunday Vince, very impressed with the XM, especially as it is a nice "simple" one.

No problem tim

[vince]

Well finally ive managed to get the mark 2 vw golf pictures loaded to my blog site. Our laptop has died so im using Jame's computer whilst he is at school and i have a day off.

Firstly i really enjoyed the CXM and it was a fantastic turnout of cars and people and also the weather was glorious! A great drive there and back was had in the xm and via Tim's facebook page i have been talking to the one of the past owners of my xm too

The last show of the year i will try my hardest to attend is the classic car show at the NEC. I absolutely love that show so will pull out all the stops to get there

Anyway, have a look at the mk2 golf transformation. To me its up there as one of the most enjoyable cars ive done....the colour depth was fantastic and isnt really captured to its fullest on the pictures....it had a nice hidden depth of orange in the red. A really great colour to work on.

http://pallasautorefinishing.wordpress. ... 2-vw-golf/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Citroenmad]

That is a stunningly red Golf, I bet the owner is thinking he has a new Gold MK2 after all that work

The classic car show at the NEC is an excellent event, I have been every year for the last 7. I am considering not going this year, what with the trip to the Conservatoire coming up and all the other events I have been to this year, they soon mount up! Though I'll probably drive down just for the Saturday/Sunday, I usually go for the full weeked as there is so much to see.

[vince]

True....i usually just go down for one day....probably be the same this year.. hopefully with pockets full of cash There are always things to buy down there.

[CitroJim]

I'd love to go to the NEC, not been for a few years now. Perhaps this year if I'm up to it and maybe by train...

Last time I was there I drolled over just one car the Matra Bagheera Everything else just paled into insignificance against that. It's always been my dream car. Funny choice but there you go...

I don't want to go to the NEC on my own, anyone care to keep me company and push me round in a wheelchair?