The story so far....
In a driveway, not that far away from chichester...... yeah...ok...moving on.
As most of you are aware, I am currently giving my current black V6 Xpack, manual, 50k Cat a complete makeover before I sell her.
Due to my ever expanding family, I am in the market for a Renault Grand Espace, so the Cat (
) has to go.
OK. She who must be obeyed (SWMBO) went back to Yorkshire for a week so I took my chance and took over the kitchen/breakfast room. Turned it into my Cougar workshop. Below is a picture diary of all the work done to date. Rain preventing me from being MUCH further forward than I would have hoped.
Car was stripped internally:
The car was in dire need of a good vac:
After a few hours hard work:
As you can see, the previous owner had a dog, so I was stuck with dog hair in places:
So after some work with sticky tape and tweezers:
Not perfect but after an hour, I couldn't do any more....I was going cross eyed!
Next was prepping the interior pieces. I had painted some silver before, but due to time constraints I hadn't done as good a job as I would have hoped, so I re-did everything I had done, plus a load more pieces:
Some pieces were done with plastic filler primer first, to help fill any scratches etc:
Work on the door cards:
More interior parts in paint:
Centre console:
Whilst the various layers of paint and primer were drying (24hrs between primer and paint then paint and lacquer), I removed the wheels:
These were filthy and required some specialist alloy wheel cleaner/degreaser to clean them up:
You can see how any slight kerbing and stone chips etc caused the alloy to corrode and thus the lacquer to lift:
I taped up the lower parts of the spoke so if I slipped with the sanding wheel I wouldn't scratch the paint:
I then worked on a small test section with differant pads etc until I was happy I had the one that worked best:
I then did the whole rim:
I then did the other wheels, with just the inside lip left to do, before the bloody weather stopped play and I haven't had a big enough break in the clouds to do anymore. I need to machine buff them to a high finish and then re-lacquer
Whilst the wheels were off, I decided to spruce up the very ugly looking brakes:
Using my drill and a polishing/sanding disc I removed as much rust/debris as possible and then applied 6 coats (yes 6 !!) of red caliper paint:
After all 4 calipers were painted, it was time to start putting the interior back together. Whilst I had it all out, I decided to give everything a dam good clean. However, when wiping down one of the switches, this happened:
Time to rummage through my big plastic box of Cougar odds and sods, and I found this:
Phew, problem solved.....onto putting it all back in. I also fitted my brand new leather gear lever boot and handbrake boot that have been living in my shed for about 2 years:
I was hoping to recover the headliner with some black alcantera I had left over from Thundercat, however it was just too small.....bugger:
Carpet on the boot lid not cleaned in this photo:
I spotted a brake in the clouds yesterday so "just" managed to wash and clay and then wash the car again. This was the clay after the bonnet which I didn't think looked too bad:
Today, I started to machine polish the bonnet but managed less than 1 hour till the heavens opene'd up yet a bloody gain !! Not a great photo, but hopefully you will see a line down the right hand side of the photo showing the side I have cut and the side I haven't. This was just my first cut and I need to go over it with a final cut, then a liquid glaze and then some DoDo Juice wax:
So there you have it. I still have the wheels to finish off and then the bodywork. Just the bodywork itself I reckon will take me 4 - 5 days, so long as it doesn't rain......God I miss my garage :sad:
I'll update as and when Mother nature decides to stop raining for more than 30 seconds :incazzato:
In a driveway, not that far away from chichester...... yeah...ok...moving on.
As most of you are aware, I am currently giving my current black V6 Xpack, manual, 50k Cat a complete makeover before I sell her.
Due to my ever expanding family, I am in the market for a Renault Grand Espace, so the Cat (
) has to go.OK. She who must be obeyed (SWMBO) went back to Yorkshire for a week so I took my chance and took over the kitchen/breakfast room. Turned it into my Cougar workshop. Below is a picture diary of all the work done to date. Rain preventing me from being MUCH further forward than I would have hoped.
Car was stripped internally:
The car was in dire need of a good vac:
After a few hours hard work:
As you can see, the previous owner had a dog, so I was stuck with dog hair in places:
So after some work with sticky tape and tweezers:
Not perfect but after an hour, I couldn't do any more....I was going cross eyed!
Next was prepping the interior pieces. I had painted some silver before, but due to time constraints I hadn't done as good a job as I would have hoped, so I re-did everything I had done, plus a load more pieces:
Some pieces were done with plastic filler primer first, to help fill any scratches etc:
Work on the door cards:
More interior parts in paint:
Centre console:
Whilst the various layers of paint and primer were drying (24hrs between primer and paint then paint and lacquer), I removed the wheels:
These were filthy and required some specialist alloy wheel cleaner/degreaser to clean them up:
You can see how any slight kerbing and stone chips etc caused the alloy to corrode and thus the lacquer to lift:
I taped up the lower parts of the spoke so if I slipped with the sanding wheel I wouldn't scratch the paint:
I then worked on a small test section with differant pads etc until I was happy I had the one that worked best:
I then did the whole rim:
I then did the other wheels, with just the inside lip left to do, before the bloody weather stopped play and I haven't had a big enough break in the clouds to do anymore. I need to machine buff them to a high finish and then re-lacquer
Whilst the wheels were off, I decided to spruce up the very ugly looking brakes:
Using my drill and a polishing/sanding disc I removed as much rust/debris as possible and then applied 6 coats (yes 6 !!) of red caliper paint:
After all 4 calipers were painted, it was time to start putting the interior back together. Whilst I had it all out, I decided to give everything a dam good clean. However, when wiping down one of the switches, this happened:
Time to rummage through my big plastic box of Cougar odds and sods, and I found this:
Phew, problem solved.....onto putting it all back in. I also fitted my brand new leather gear lever boot and handbrake boot that have been living in my shed for about 2 years:
I was hoping to recover the headliner with some black alcantera I had left over from Thundercat, however it was just too small.....bugger:
Carpet on the boot lid not cleaned in this photo:
I spotted a brake in the clouds yesterday so "just" managed to wash and clay and then wash the car again. This was the clay after the bonnet which I didn't think looked too bad:
Today, I started to machine polish the bonnet but managed less than 1 hour till the heavens opene'd up yet a bloody gain !! Not a great photo, but hopefully you will see a line down the right hand side of the photo showing the side I have cut and the side I haven't. This was just my first cut and I need to go over it with a final cut, then a liquid glaze and then some DoDo Juice wax:
So there you have it. I still have the wheels to finish off and then the bodywork. Just the bodywork itself I reckon will take me 4 - 5 days, so long as it doesn't rain......God I miss my garage :sad:
I'll update as and when Mother nature decides to stop raining for more than 30 seconds :incazzato:
