What have you done to your car today?

[ben g]

Bit of time to tinker this weekend, so decided to remove the grilles and then remove the bar behind it to strip the old powder coat off and repaint. 4 X Torx 30 bolts undone and out it came. I managed to peel the majority off by hand as seems it wasnt prepped before coating from new . Cleaning the corrosion off with emery cloth also gave a decent key for the new paint. Using my favourite of Plastikote, I then moved it into the 'paint booth' and gave it 4 coats of gloss black. I also painted the bolts black.

I also cleaned out the plastics and the crash bar didnt want to be black , more of a grey , white , so a bit of masking up and a few more coats of black and its all done. Looks a bit brown, but it was wet and dried a nice gloss black.

Also cleaned out many years of feathers, straw and other junk out the rads with a hoover while in there and bolted and clipped back into place to complete

I painted that bar in situ. I ended up using loads of ripped up bits of cat food boxes to protect the surrounding areas wish I had bothered to try and undo the bolts now, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Still came out fine in the end, for me

My coating was also flaking off the bare metal underneath. They must be really cheaply coated from the factory.

[parabolica]

Today I unblocked the drain holes. Left side was actually clear with no water. Right side let out quite a lot on the drive so I'm happy that's sorted (for a while).

I had the same a few weekends ago; ended up having to sacrifice a piece of sturdy-yet-flexible electrical cabling so I could ram it up and down the drain pipe to get the rubber unclogged; quite the torrent that came out eventually!

[Thrustyjust]

Bit of time to tinker this weekend, so decided to remove the grilles and then remove the bar behind it to strip the old powder coat off and repaint. 4 X Torx 30 bolts undone and out it came. I managed to peel the majority off by hand as seems it wasnt prepped before coating from new . Cleaning the corrosion off with emery cloth also gave a decent key for the new paint. Using my favourite of Plastikote, I then moved it into the 'paint booth' and gave it 4 coats of gloss black. I also painted the bolts black.

I also cleaned out the plastics and the crash bar didnt want to be black , more of a grey , white , so a bit of masking up and a few more coats of black and its all done. Looks a bit brown, but it was wet and dried a nice gloss black.

Also cleaned out many years of feathers, straw and other junk out the rads with a hoover while in there and bolted and clipped back into place to complete

I painted that bar in situ. I ended up using loads of ripped up bits of cat food boxes to protect the surrounding areas wish I had bothered to try and undo the bolts now, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Still came out fine in the end, for me

My coating was also flaking off the bare metal underneath. They must be really cheaply coated from the factory.

Must have taken you more time to mask up than it took me to paint it
My spray booth as seen was the front garden after I was painting motorbike bits in the garage and contaminated the Zed, last time the paint came out , so rather I got flies and bugs on it in the garden while painting than having to clay the whole car again
There did seem to be no etching of any kind on the bar which explains while it just fell off when I peeled it off.

[g3org3y]

I had the same a few weekends ago; ended up having to sacrifice a piece of sturdy-yet-flexible electrical cabling so I could ram it up and down the drain pipe to get the rubber unclogged; quite the torrent that came out eventually!

Wire coat hanger

Today I drove my car to work for the first time. Everyone said it looked 'very posh'. I told them it was my wife's car.

[mjennings23]

Mega drive this weekend. Stayed with a few mates in North Wales, so naturally made the most of the chance and did a lovely 150 mile loop round, taking in some fantastic roads (Horseshoe Pass and Llanberis Pass are some bloody stunning roads).

[Thrustyjust]

All of 30 seconds today so far in fitting the bonnet bump ejector thingy to lift the bonnet when you pull the lever. Thats both now changed . I have also given the Eibach front springs ( new) an additional coat of POR 15 black paint last night and may start swapping them in the next few days. Need to book a geo for Saturday if all goes to plan.

[Rocket]

I had to get some peanuts for the bird feeder so went to a shop 12 miles away. On the way home I decided I must find a shop further away next time. When I got home I noticed a few bits of dust on the car so decided to wash it again. Looked so good parked there I decided to take some pics of it. Typical Z day


DSC07376.jpg , on Flickr


DSC07382.jpg , on Flickr


DSC07388.jpg , on Flickr

[bz4kev]

Treated the zed to a Z4m carbon leather dash sick of looking at the aluminium

Screenshot_20190709-172934_eBay.jpg (41.56 KiB) Viewed 851 times

[Spaniarduk]

Took the front bumper off for the first time today with the aim of cleaning the xenon's, (they crazy dim and now I know why!), giving the lights a polish to remove the oxidation and to replace the angel eye bulbs with some LEDs to boost the brightness - overall, mixed results - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=115931

Clean xenon's look great so very pleased with that. Overall success or failure will based on getting them back in, in working order ....
2019-07-06 15.50.38.jpg

Oh!!! Geeeesasssss...!!!!!! All that muck! Was it only the front of the lens? How about the inner back side? Was it difficult to get the projectors out? Mine are not too bad, but i could do with a bit more light if I'm honest

[Thrustyjust]

Knackered..................... just done the front Eibachs fitting. That was a long few hours. Especially when you put the washer in the wrong place so the steering top bearing doesnt go round . Still after 3 hrs of humid spannering , I can say the car rides really nicely now . Only done about 10 miles and seems more compliant on smaller bumps and less rolling on roundabouts. Really happy and now need to book a geo at the weekend to complete the suspension mods for now.
I did check the steering bearings and I found them smooth and splodged a bit of grease in there as you can. Also the bump stops and gaitors were also great nick. Drop links for ARB had no play , so good to check while in bits.
No photos as really cant be arsed after all that work tonight . Maybe sneak a piccie tomorrow after I have removed my sweaty forehead prints and oily hands off the wings...........ooops
Officially owned the car 8 weeks today and loving it

[scarlet-jester]

Oh!!! Geeeesasssss...!!!!!! All that muck! Was it only the front of the lens? How about the inner back side? Was it difficult to get the projectors out? Mine are not too bad, but i could do with a bit more light if I'm honest

Crazy right! When I got the car I could not believe how dim the lights were - for me it was borderline dangerous how dim they were! Biggest hassle was getting the front bumper off as I broke one of the mounting brackets. Now having done it once, next time should be pretty straight forward.

Once you get the lights out (straightforward) getting the projectors out is simple as long as you have a half decent socket set. Cleaning was easy as there is plenty of room to get your hand inside to clean both sides of the lens - I found both sides were equally dirty.

[Z4C_er]

Boo Hoo...

[jamesditchy]

Finally got round to sanding and polishing the headlights

[Mr Tidy]

Boo Hoo...

Wow! That's hardly been run in - you need to enjoy it more. :laugh:

Mine has just gone past 90K miles, and I thought that was low!

[Big Andra]

Boo Hoo...

I hope you're still giving it a bed time story