adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,915
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Apr 22, 2024 21:04:45 GMT
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Been a little while since an update on the Crossfire. Nothing much has changed on the rust front, with it raining so much and it being outside, there just hasn't really been an opportunity to make much progress on that, plus I've been focusing on getting the Kawasaki done. That's nearly out of the way now though so the Crossfire is next in the queue. I have however been doing some bodywork on the Front wings which I've been smoothing off where the fake side vents and strakes used to mount. This has been a bit of an experimentation with building up P38 filler, flatting it back, then trying to get it reasonably flat. This has been made a bit trickier by the fact that I'm working in an indent in the wing so sanding into the corners is tricky. I eventually got annoyed with chasing my tail so chucked some filler primer on it so it was all in one colour to show up the low spots I did end up going back over with more filler, then sanded back until I was pretty happy It's not finished yet as the coat of filler primer highlighted some smoothing required in the corners of the recess, so a bit more work to do, but I'm pretty happy with the look and have been working on getting the other wing up to a similar level Plus if that wasn't enough, while I had the filler out, I thought why not smooth off the side reflectors on the rear bumper. They're only there because they're side markers on US models but it would look cleaner without them The bumper had some previously very poorly done paintwork in some areas anyway so I didn't feel bad about messing with it ![(rofl)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/rofl.png) Lastly, I have stripped the foglights and numberplate plinth off the front bumper as primarily it has some scuffs so would benefit from a freshen up, but I've also been considering if there is a cleaner way to mount the front plate than a screw on plinth.. So yeah, messing about with smoothing, some rust repair, then put it all back together. I needed to move it on the drive the other weekend, so hooked up the battery and a few loose earths and it fired up happily enough ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) I am looking forward to driving it properly again
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,915
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Overdue a bit of an update here, I have been continuing to mess about with the wings and bumper as and when I get a chance. I threw some black paint on the rear bumper where I smoothed over the reflectors to get an idea of how smooth it was Wasn't too bad but I could still see a faint outline of where the reflectors were so they need a bit more work. I have since picked up some Dolphin Glaze so I think with a thin skim of that, I should be able to get it all smoothed out. I did get a bit distracted by trying to sand off the historic lazy paint repair on the nearside corner of the rear bumper, but it will all get smoothed out when I prep the whole bumper for paint. On the front wings, I've been going around the arches and sanding back any surface rust as best I can, particularly in the return where dirt likes to hide. I've then gone over any remaining rust with a rust converter Then as a rather overkill measure, I gave the back side of each wing a scuff up, degrease and brushed on some gloss black paint just as a bit of extra protection over that provided by the factory One wing just needs the front side flatting back before some paint, the other one still needs the filler smoothing out a bit but it's not too far off now. I'm not shooting for perfection at the moment, that can come in the future if it hangs around long enough! Fast forward to today and the car has been collected and dropped off in Coventry for the welding work to be sorted. I bit the bullet and outsourced it in the end as I wasn't going to get it all done any time soon. I drove it up onto the trailer and through the industrial estate a bit at the other end, feels very different to drive to the Almera, the controls feel very much more assisted, and I was reminded of my dislike for the fly by wire throttle... Anyway, I should get the car back later this week which will be great, then it'll be on me to get the remaining bodywork finished and fitted, then start thinking about MOT...
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,915
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Oh and how could I forget, I dug the "proper" wheels back out of the garage. In my infinite wisdom I painted these white then went to the nurburgring, waited a while to clean off the brake dust and found it was well embedded 🙃 I had then left them for a while as I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of stripping tyres off, splitting the wheels to repaint the centres. With the Crossfire nearing some form of completion, and with the original wheels and tyres in no fit state for an MOT, I revisited the Rays wheels with some more aggressive wheel cleaner, a clay bar and a light scotch pad, which actually managed to get a fair bit of the dust off and leave them looking pretty white (the above pic is after I cleaned them). They're far from perfect and will need a repaint at some point but they'll do for now. I also now have a pair of 17x10s which I want to try on the back and see how that looks 😏
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,915
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Jul 16, 2024 22:09:58 GMT
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Ought to do a quick update on this as when I dropped off the Crossfire on the Monday, it was back with me by the Friday, all finished ![(rofl)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/rofl.png) All the rust cut out, patches in, painted up, jobs a good'un. Now my task is not only to finish off filling and painting the front wings, front bumper and rear bumper, but also to remember where all the various screws I've taken out go.. Headlights have gone in though, and I discovered that the bonnet has a full vertical service mode which I hadn't noticed before haha Just been getting over the flu and hopefully the rain will sod off so I can get the thing back together
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,915
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Well I soon paid for playing around with the bonnet strut last time, as when I went to next put the bonnet up, the strut had failed ![(rofl)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/rofl.png) replacement wasn't hard to come by at least so that's now sorted. Took a while to shake off the flu/possible covid, still got the cough, but my past few weeks has been largely focused on filling, sanding, priming, sanding, painting. A lot of this The headline at the moment is that I've done the clear coat on the Drivers front wing and it's ready to go back on. It's far from perfect, but then the rear wing on the car has lost it's lacquer, so if I like the car enough to keep it long term, it'll need a repaint regardless Got the good wheels back on the car today, both passenger side wheels had lost pressure in storage, I've pumped them up for now in the hope that will magically fix them.. I've set myself a bit of a deadline to get the car done, the Collecting Cars coffee run is at Bicester on the 14th September, went earlier in the year with some mates so be good to go in the Crossfire rather than the Almera this time! Rear bumper is nearly done with filler, I've just gone over a little bit where I could feel a dip, so that will likely be the next part for paint. The passenger wing needs filler sanding and the front bumper should hopefully just be a sanding job with minimal filler now. Otherwise it's not too far off an MOT
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I've not seen one of these on the road for a while now, and I like what your doing with yours.
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,915
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Thanks ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) It's been a good while since I last saw one on the road, they're not a particularly common sight Did a couple more bits since my last update, cleaned up a few bits of surface rust on the underside of the bonnet, hit them with some rust converter and gloss black Now very annoyingly, that row of small holes should have a sealing strip clipped into them and I had this all ready with what I thought were brand new versions of the original broken clips, only for them to be not quite big enough for the holes. So now I need to find some clips that actually fit the holes, it's not the end of the world but it will bug me haha I also chucked the drivers side wing on Despite being somewhat organised with all the fixings, it did take a bit of head scratching to get them all back in the right places ![(rofl)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/rofl.png) It didn't take too much to get it fairly well aligned either (by my eye at least) While I was at it, I put some new clips on the drivers side skirt and got that fitted too Still got to do all the fixings underneath but it's pretty much on there now. I've been doing more of the usual sanding/painting stuff tonight but also in prep for the MOT I chucked the standard steering wheel back in Looks like the front left and rear right tyres are losing air so I'll need to get both of those off and work out where they're leaking from ![::)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/eyesroll.png)
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