Rexanne - Gold s2 restoration project

[David Nock (RIP)]

Do you figure on not replacing the dust shields Steve?

Will the MOT man comment?  I always thought that one day (faraway yet) I\'d have to get some new shields or get some fabbed up.

The guy Dave, near Cliff, who bought the Devon Silver S2 a few months back has this problem now and he was trying to seek out a fab shop to deal with it.

[Steve-A]

I have no plan to replace the dust shields. The big brake kits companies like hi-spec make, and the re-speed FC kit both often do away with the dust shields, so I figured it wasn\'t a problem.

It has been pointed out to me that the dust shields also channel cold air to the brakes, so I will need to fit some ducting to do this.

If it came to it I could soon knock something up to satisfy the MOT man

[TiddlesRX7]

I could be wrong but I\'m sure you can get them from Mazda for not mega money.

[Steve-A]

Cheers for the heads up mate, I\'ll check with Mazda before buying any from anywhere else.

I\'ve had a good couple of days to work on the FB this week, no major progress but some time consuming tasks done!

Following on from my last post, I was feeling brave so attacked the A pillar.



Here I\'ve cut out the rot. It appears to have been rotting from the outside in, and was only really perilously thin exactly where I poked the screw driver!

I made up a new piece and welded it in. In order to not melt the window seal I had to weld a spot, then quickly cool it, then do the next spot. It was very time consuming, but I\'m glad I\'ve managed to repair it without damaging the glass or window seal.

Where I\'ve cleaned up the welds, I have cut away at the some of the excess window sealant a little, but I can\'t see it having any impact on the sealing of the glass at all or it\'s strength.



After that I put some paint on the bare metal, and some sealer on it.

While I\'m waiting for parts to arrive there was little else mechanical I could do, so I stated on the paint. One of my mistakes early on was to not protect my paint from metal dust. The metal dust has stuck to the paint and made it feel very rough, and is rusting leaving orange patches.

According to the internet and friends who actually enjoy cleaning their cars, clay is the right product. So I went out and bought some and I\'m impressed. On the left of this photo is the paintwork as clean as I could get it with car shampoo and a sponge. On the right of the photo is a section I\'ve clayed.



After a couple of hours the rear quarter was looking very shiny!



Over the course of thursday evening and friday morning I did the whole car, I think it took over 8 hours all in :s

On friday the post man brought me these!



So I got them fitted up and them got to work with the arch roller. Three of the arches rolled fine, besides some paint flaking. The paint that flaked was already shot to be fair. Here\'s the drivers rear arch.



The rear axel will now tuck up till the watts link hits the body. I\'ve rolled the lips and pulled the rear arches by about 10mm. On the fronts I\'ve rolled the lips and pulled them by more like 15mm and it\'s still very close, but I\'m sure it\'ll be fine once I\'ve got a little more camber going on.

Unfortunately the passengers rear arch didn\'t fair so well. This was the most rotten of the arches, and I\'d already replaced much of the arch lip. When I started trying to pull it, it tried to split and wouldn\'t go very smooth. Some work with hammers later and it\'s gonna be ok, will need much more time shaping and smoothing than the other though.



With the arches, pulled and the tyres fitted and the paint clean, she\'s looking really good for herself.




In a way its a shame the rest of the paint is so good as I quite like a bit of patina and would happily rock the \'rat\' look, but aside from the areas in primer the rest of the paint is really good! There\'s nothing worse than fake patina, so I guess I\'ll have to try and make her look good

The post man had even more things for me this morning, so could be a busy weekend.

[A7RXY]

Looking good Steve, I like the look of the ride height.
 
   Dibs

[Steve-A]

Cheers Dibs

One thing I forgot to put in that post is that the rear should be staying about that high, and the front will come down fractionally when the coilovers are fitted, just to get the rake right.

[Ian65]

that\'s looking superb Steve.... when you think back to what the car was like this time last year, what you\'ve done to it is sensational..... it\'s a credit to you!

[David Nock (RIP)]

Gob Smacked.....Great Stuff Steve. My Hero.

[Will66]

Niiiiice work!  Look forward to seeing this beast on the road!

[spoddy]

its been worth all those nights, freezing to bits, welding etc.
so who is gonna respray her for you? you gonna try it yourself or book her into a body shop?

[johnnyboy]

According to the internet and friends who actually enjoy cleaning their cars, clay is the right product. So I went out and bought some and I\'m impressed. On the left of this photo is the paintwork as clean as I could get it with car shampoo and a sponge. On the right of the photo is a section I\'ve clayed.

At the risk of looking a complete idiot..... whaddayamean "clay"
 
Clay is what I have in the garden.... people make bricks and pottery out of it....
 
To make cars shiny I am used to words like "wet and dry" or "t-cut" or "Polish" or "elbow grease".... so where does "clay" come in?
 
John. (henceforward known as "out-of-date-and-behind-the-times-john")

[Casey]

Hi "out-of-date-and-behind-the-times-john". As someone else from the "T-Cit" era, and both showing our age....

I had never heard of this stuff either, until someone on the RX8 Owners Club introduced the Meguiars (Megs) range of cleaning products to me about 7 years ago. I\'m sure many other companies offer a "clay" product, but I\'ve used the Megs one for the past 7 years and it\'s really fantastic. Basically, the "clay" is a small bar of "Blu-tac" like stuff you rub over the paintwork in conjunction with a spray lubricant (a sophisticated soapy water solution). It is truely unbelievable to witness the paint "contaminents" that the process lifts off, sticking to the clay. The entire car can be done in about 30 minutes, if done regularly (I do mine 2-3 times a year), and it leaves a glassy smooth paint finish, ready for waxing. It can literally transform tired old paintwork. Megs also due some other "pre-treatments" that help to restore really bad paintwork.

I\'m sure the "Surf City" stuff that MRP sell can do an equally good job.

Highly recommended!

[Steve-A]

Posh blue tack and soapy water is a pretty good description I\'d say.

I was pretty dubious myself, but it was what friends and the internet said was the right man for the job. My paint surface felt like a piece of sand paper before I clayed it, there was so much metal dust stuck to it. After I\'d clayed it, it really did feel like glass. I\'m very impressed, and you can even use it on glass too!

I used a Mer kit, as it was available locally and was recommended by a friend.

It was a long tedious, time consuming job though, so next time I\'ll just protect my paint work before I do any metal work

[Steve-A]

Following on from the last photo in my previous update, I\'ve fitted the brake lines and callipers to the rear of the car.



Also pictured was a DIY windscreen chip repair kit. This is the worst of the chips I had to deal with  



And the results...



This chip is the one, out of four, that repaired the least perfectly. Using the kit was a bit of a faff. It required both shade and direct sunlight for specific time frames, but with some help from a parasol I was able to follow the instructions exactly and it does seem to have worked. Either way time will tell what the MOT man says....

Ross came over to give me a hand. He\'s often joked about wanting to polish things, so I set him to work on my wheels. Here\'s a before an after.







While Ross was polishing I started on filling my front wing ready to paint.



I\'ve put a good few evening hours into it this week and the arch and front sections are starting to get pretty close, but the sill need some work!!!!




Actually trying to get paint to look nice is something new to me! I\'ve been painting things like my bmx and various car bits for years, but I\'ve not had to deal with smoothing out lumps and bumps. It\'s a long old learning curve, but hopefully starting with this wing off the car will make the panels on the car easier as I\'ve be practiced.

I\'ve been lucky enough to have all of today to work on the car, and what a lovely day it\'s been. First up I was bored with sanding filler, so I made up the brackets to mount my electric fan.



They are now painted black. The fan looks pretty small there, but its the same fan as I ran on a much smaller rad with my 13b 6 port, and had no cooling issues, so should be up to the job.

Still feeling apathetic about spending more time on the wing, I thought i\'d try out the paint i\'ve had mixed up. Here she is prepped and ready to go.



And with the paint on, it\'s a really good match, I\'m very pleased



It\'s ready for a wet sand and some lacquer now

It looks like the dream of getting to Beaulieu on the 10th is slipping away, as not only have I not heard back from GAZ yet but also the Canadian postal force have been on strike and some the parts I ordered from re-speed have been sat in their depot for over a fortnight now :Hammer

[Ian65]

good work and a nice job with the chipped windscreen Gavin, er Steve!