I picked #459 up today from my mates garage in Grantham. His bodyshop had been doing a couple of little jobs for me. It looked stunning in his showroom but after 2 miles down the road in this weather it disappeared into clouds of rain and spray on the A1.
It it drove very well although with the amount of standing water I don't think I got up to 70!!!
The rain stopped when I got home so it was a wash and dry and into the garage.
Out with the hoover and my stiff detailing brush, it wasn't bad but there was the usual bits the previous owners hadn't bothered with down the sides of the seat runners and other books and crannies which can't be reached with a normal Hoover nozzle.
Then my favourite bit, the auto sheen trim sheen spray, smells lovely, I did all the black bits, inner sills, door rubbers then same in the boot. It all came up like new.
I Ispent a bit of time under the bonnet but that's for another day.
I then set to on fixing a couple of little bits. The vertical interior plastic trim up the back edge of the drivers door wasn't clipped on properly so a bit of warming and persuasion got that sorted. The fuel flap seemed a bit too recessed, it looked like there should be 2 rubber stops on the plastic neck part inside. A search in my grommet collection found two which fit perfectly so the flap now sits with the panel line.
I was going to leave the much discussed intermittent wiper stalk swap til another day but I was on a roll so I sorted that fairly quickly, another excuse for spraying trim sheen areas of the steering cowl normally hard to get to.
I then summoned up the courage to attack the peeled heater control. The "how to" page helped a great deal, a bit of a bugger to do but easier to connect the new one up than disconnect the old one. I found a small mirror was a great help. All connected only to find the lighting didn't work!!!!!
Now it's virtually impossible to remove and refit the bulbs with the unit connected to the cables so off they came. I found none of the bulbs in either the old or the replacement unit were working, I swapped them for a new pair and put it back together which by now was a breeze.
The car is fitted with a new set of the TPi anodised wheel bolts which I don't like so I cleaned up and sprayed the old bolts, they have come up very well so I will probably swapping those over tomorrow
I decided to call it a day at that.
Overall im very pleased with how the car has carried it's 70k miles. It's in remarkable condition, the interior, engine bay and boot are in great condition. The paintwork just has some slight fading to the door handles and roof strips which I'm going to get sorted. There are no dents, scratches or anything on the car.
My only plans for it are to fit a Cabasse auditorium head unit when I find one and get rid of the ktec carbon splitter and fit a genuine one (I know...they are dear!)
We are off up to Northumberland and the Borders in it for the week next week so see how it performs up there, I've done it a few times in the Elise and the RS200 so it will be a good comparison......and no doubt a cleaning job when we get home !!!
It it drove very well although with the amount of standing water I don't think I got up to 70!!!
The rain stopped when I got home so it was a wash and dry and into the garage.
Out with the hoover and my stiff detailing brush, it wasn't bad but there was the usual bits the previous owners hadn't bothered with down the sides of the seat runners and other books and crannies which can't be reached with a normal Hoover nozzle.
Then my favourite bit, the auto sheen trim sheen spray, smells lovely, I did all the black bits, inner sills, door rubbers then same in the boot. It all came up like new.
I Ispent a bit of time under the bonnet but that's for another day.
I then set to on fixing a couple of little bits. The vertical interior plastic trim up the back edge of the drivers door wasn't clipped on properly so a bit of warming and persuasion got that sorted. The fuel flap seemed a bit too recessed, it looked like there should be 2 rubber stops on the plastic neck part inside. A search in my grommet collection found two which fit perfectly so the flap now sits with the panel line.
I was going to leave the much discussed intermittent wiper stalk swap til another day but I was on a roll so I sorted that fairly quickly, another excuse for spraying trim sheen areas of the steering cowl normally hard to get to.
I then summoned up the courage to attack the peeled heater control. The "how to" page helped a great deal, a bit of a bugger to do but easier to connect the new one up than disconnect the old one. I found a small mirror was a great help. All connected only to find the lighting didn't work!!!!!
Now it's virtually impossible to remove and refit the bulbs with the unit connected to the cables so off they came. I found none of the bulbs in either the old or the replacement unit were working, I swapped them for a new pair and put it back together which by now was a breeze.
The car is fitted with a new set of the TPi anodised wheel bolts which I don't like so I cleaned up and sprayed the old bolts, they have come up very well so I will probably swapping those over tomorrow
I decided to call it a day at that.
Overall im very pleased with how the car has carried it's 70k miles. It's in remarkable condition, the interior, engine bay and boot are in great condition. The paintwork just has some slight fading to the door handles and roof strips which I'm going to get sorted. There are no dents, scratches or anything on the car.
My only plans for it are to fit a Cabasse auditorium head unit when I find one and get rid of the ktec carbon splitter and fit a genuine one (I know...they are dear!)
We are off up to Northumberland and the Borders in it for the week next week so see how it performs up there, I've done it a few times in the Elise and the RS200 so it will be a good comparison......and no doubt a cleaning job when we get home !!!
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449 yes....
