Thanks again all, this is probably a bit new for you guys but I got a 'runaround' to take the BMW off the road for a little while; the MOT has run out and I know it needs rear brake pipes, as I need a car for work and don't want to rush the work I figured it best to get something else......so I got a Honda accord.
As I can't help myself, I give you my 'new' 1999 Honda Accord 2.0i VTEC SE Executive
Now, it needs a bit of work to get it to a point I'm happy with. Here are the faults:
Various dents, worst one being the lower part of the front passenger wing. None of them have damaged the paint though can hopefully be removed completely or made a lot better by some PDR.
All the window trims have started to crack, common fault:
Drivers seat bolster needs some scuff-master:
Plus a bunch of other niggles like the electric aerial is stuck, minor chips and scuffs etc wheels need a bit of tarting up oh and the interior map light bulbs being blown. I'm sure I'll find more.
Before you start calling me insane, I do this on every car I own; make a list of every single fault and go about sorting them. Not throwing money at it though but I'm a firm believer in '
the devil is in the detail'.
Speaking of which, today's job were as follows:
The headlights are plastic and go cloudy (like a lot of early e39's) so I compounded them:
Before:
After:
It's hard to see any difference in photo's but in the metal it looks a lot better now.
Also, the wiper arms looked really tired. This is something you can see as you drive along and it really makes the car
feel tatty.
So.....what do you do if have all the paints etc anyway....:embarrassed
Sand them down, etch prime and satin black them of course.
What can I say, I can't help myself :hihi
So...the wheels were looking a bit worse for wear, some curbing had bubbled up the paint in places. Short of a full re-furb, they will never look like new again but sand down the bubbled parts and brush paint some ford moondust silver over the damaged areas and it definitely takes your eye off it and spruces them up.
Before:
During:
After:
Also, the 'H' logo on the centre caps should be black and had faded, so I used some peugeot black touch up paint to touch these in.
Again, it's the little things that don't cost anything that make a big difference to the overall impression the car gives.
As it was up in the air I blasted off all the arches.
Also cleaned the engine bay, a quick spray on degreaser and power wash down followed by a high pressure air nozzle to get rid of the water and a liberal coating of silicone spray.
I replaced two missing plastic clips here two (you can see in the older pictures one of them is missing on the bonnet latch trim piece)
I also had my PDR guy come round and sort the little (and large) dents out. Some of them couldn't be removed 100% but it's a lot better than before.
The aerial was snapped and 'propped' up with a combination of tape and a drill bit :lol: Usually you can replace them easily but I had to remove the whole motor and take it apart to remove the remains and replace with a new one:
When I re-fitted it I noticed the motor was making a horrible noise when retracting, so I whipped it back off and took the actual motor off (the metal cylinder part at the top), greased it all up and put it all back together:
Now all quiet and working as it should.
I also gave the interior
my kind of deep clean so it's now spotless: it had that grime that can only build up over the years and the grease on the seat runners were practically furry with dust etc :lol:
I've got a thing for a nice interior so:
Driver seat before:
After:
So I blew the exhaust apart:
As you can see, both flanges (the ones that join the backbox to the centre section) have been replaced with a sleeve; I'm guessing they rusted apart and were then chopped off.
I got my hands on some scrap exhaust so I'm in the process of making a join and fixing it as we speak.
While I was under there though I noticed something alarming, the rear bumper bar mounts were rotten! The drivers side one was completely broken, so the bar was bouncing around between the bumper and rear panel, that would explain the weird noise...
So, something I wasn't expecting to have to fix was added to the list. I had a quick look online and it turns out it's fairly common, so finding a good second hand one was out of the question. Oh well, fire up the welder and get creative.
Chop off the rusty old mounts and make some new ones:
Mount everything and rivet together (I test fitted the bumper to make sure there was clearance)
Weld together to be sure:
Waxoyl it because, why not?
Also fixed the backbox; made a section of pipe to bend the various angles needed (real pain in the
!!), welded that to the backbox and then joined that to the rest of the exhaust with a bolt on sleeve. No pictures as lets face it, you're not bothered lol
I won't update this any more unless it's to do with the BMW, promise.
my shameless self-pimping has meant I have to pay to ugrade the account lol
On the lookout for something a touch bigger though as the 15s seem lost in the arches a little.
, couldn't agree more about not having to spend a fortune. Unfortunately that ship has kinda sailed with this car, however most of the modifications have been done because I could get the parts for a good price, or as a trade for some work. 
