Got a few things done today, including fitting interior LEDs (do it), LED sidelights (don’t bother if you have halogens!), touching up my black grilles and the annual AG roof treatment. The two big jobs were fitting spacers and having a go at repairing the scuff in my roof fabric.
Scuff first. I used this stuff - Liquid Vinyl:
Haven't seen much feedback about it anywhere - I believe it’s the type of stuff used by pro repair shops. Not invisible but very strong and flexible.
Here's my scuff, just above the driver's seat:
Pretty standard for the E85, unfortunately. It hasn't worsened much since I bought the car, so the dealer may have adjusted the roof and/or rubber seals.
I trimmed the excess fabric and masked off the area, leaving about 3mm for overlap of the repair (as advised by the instructions):
I created a clay “stamp” of the mohair fabric pattern and intended to try and texture the Liquid Vinyl to match, but this didn’t work at all. The stuff initially resembles very runny tar but the surface dries quickly and forms a skin. You can’t texture it because it remains liquified inside and just wrinkles like a blister - never mind.
The best way to apply it is to drop sizeable, smooth blobs of liquid into the damaged area and gently tease them into shape using a toothpick. You have to work very quickly but the drops flow quite nicely for a few seconds.
Here’s the repair drying (masking tape roll mainly to stop the cats!):
And here it is, dry:
You can see that it shrinks substantially when drying and actually feels really solid. I was in two minds whether to add more liquid to make it flush, but I wasn't sure how the additional layers would behave. Visually it's not perfect, but it’s discrete enough for me.
Spacers next. Nothing fancy here - I went with 12mm / 15mm because I think it’s about as far out as you can go without having to go lower to get the right look. Appreciate that this is a personal thing though.
Before:
etc. Just standard Sport suspension and MV2s.
After:
Not sure about the silver extended nuts yet - what do you think? Might paint them black.
Perfect day for a test drive too.
Scuff first. I used this stuff - Liquid Vinyl:
Haven't seen much feedback about it anywhere - I believe it’s the type of stuff used by pro repair shops. Not invisible but very strong and flexible.
Here's my scuff, just above the driver's seat:
Pretty standard for the E85, unfortunately. It hasn't worsened much since I bought the car, so the dealer may have adjusted the roof and/or rubber seals.
I trimmed the excess fabric and masked off the area, leaving about 3mm for overlap of the repair (as advised by the instructions):
I created a clay “stamp” of the mohair fabric pattern and intended to try and texture the Liquid Vinyl to match, but this didn’t work at all. The stuff initially resembles very runny tar but the surface dries quickly and forms a skin. You can’t texture it because it remains liquified inside and just wrinkles like a blister - never mind.
The best way to apply it is to drop sizeable, smooth blobs of liquid into the damaged area and gently tease them into shape using a toothpick. You have to work very quickly but the drops flow quite nicely for a few seconds.
Here’s the repair drying (masking tape roll mainly to stop the cats!):
And here it is, dry:
You can see that it shrinks substantially when drying and actually feels really solid. I was in two minds whether to add more liquid to make it flush, but I wasn't sure how the additional layers would behave. Visually it's not perfect, but it’s discrete enough for me.
Spacers next. Nothing fancy here - I went with 12mm / 15mm because I think it’s about as far out as you can go without having to go lower to get the right look. Appreciate that this is a personal thing though.
Before:
etc. Just standard Sport suspension and MV2s.
After:
Not sure about the silver extended nuts yet - what do you think? Might paint them black.
Perfect day for a test drive too.
