When i worked as a wheel refurbisher i painted my wheels a special mix of silver/black, which came out a bit like a bronze gunmetal. They looked good, but imo made the car look a bit dirty, so one of the tasks this week was to paint them silver again.
We have a manual bead breaker which made light work of the tyres so the wheel could be prepped properly, the end result now looks like this -
For some time now the NS b pillar had started to bubble and i knew surgery was required, so i bite the bullet and chopped it all out, sandblasted behind it and started to plate it tacking it in bit by bit to avoid distortion as the metal is not that thick.
There was also some bubbling at the NS rear C pillar join at the back of the sill, after some probing i also found another hole at the back on the sill, so this had to be cut out.
Unfortunalty not long after i took this picture i decided to cut through my thumb with the angle grinder when i turned it on, let me tell you now the pain is pretty bad but after some pain killers and some strapping to keep it together and finished off the welding.
It wasnt long before it was in the filler stage and the wheels were put back on bringing it to this stage -
Then the primer went on -
And then a couple of hours later, it was painted -
The end result is pretty good as i've not done bodywork for over a year.
I've also had to overhaul the braking system, replacing all the flexy hoses, rear brake pipes and the entire line from front to back and one of the fittings stripped as it came undone, however its never simple..
I fitted a big brake conversion 2 years ago and over time they have failed to perform as expected, the pads were not a decent fit on the discs and they were binding, so i decided to fit standard discs and race pads as i dont drive it that hard anymore.
For some reason they were binding and the system wasnt even bled! It appears the extended brackets that space the caliper out to accomadate the bigger disc had put excess leverage on the mounting holes on the hub, this was now causing the caliper carrier to bind on the disc.
At this point ive left the car as with extensive injuries like getting something in my eye and causing me agony (its better now) cutting my knee and the brake caliper dropping onto my little finger i wanted a bit of time out. I did tap the mounting lug on the hub and it bent back a couple of mm which stopped the binding, so i will do the same to the other side aswel, replace the other wheel cylinder and get the system bled.
The plan was to get it mot'ed this Sat but i simply run out of time encountering various problems that slowed me down. I definatly dont miss welding thats for sure but the end result will be worth it! Now its time for a rest before work on Monday and hopefully it should be sorted before my birthday in a few weeks, which will be my present!
Gareth
