Typical!

[LawrenceW]

So, I’ve always been a bit neardy over my cars and always liked a clean car incl the oily bits too. So over the winter months I’ve taken my time to clean, refurb or replace the underside of my Z4MC, and working in a smallish garage at home was never going to be easy….Anyway 6 months later, all done and given I’ve only had the car 8 months I wanted the car to be given a proper look over too so I’d booked in for a level 2 insp service at Redish motorsport down in Bristol as I know the quality of their work incl restorations is leading standard IMO.
Now to the kicker, the plan is to use the car as a high days and drys days car, again a bit neardy. Now to the typical bit - the car was in for its service yesterday and the weather forecast was dry for getting the 100 miles down to Bristol as per the return journey - happy days I thought!
But o no, 15 miles into my journey the heavens opened up and upon arriving at Redish it looked like I’d been rallying and that clean underside looked like the men’s toilets at the Red Lion, 10pm on a Friday night!!!
Anyway the guys at Redish were awesome, the car was given a clean bill of health so that was a big sigh of relief.
For the drive home I skipped over the bridge into Newport and then drove back up to the Midlands through Monmouthshire which has some awesome driving roads.
Anyway, here’s some pics of what the car DID look like pre the weather gods having a laugh at my expense.
O yeh, happy Easter everyone

 

[john-e89]

Looks fabulous underneath...! Excellent work.

 

[LawrenceW]

Cheers John.
A few more pics…
Also, yep the delicate underside front covers were all toast so I replaced those. And the front panel had started to go scabby by the bonnet catch so did a refurb job on that too

 

[john-e89]

Looks like we’re on the same page Lawrence….just done my Imola roady…

 

[LawrenceW]

Loving your work John. I had read with interest about you dry icing your car, and thought the results were spot on. I’d seen this for for the first time at last years classic car show at the NEC last year and thought what a game changer.
Btw another imola red ZM too

 

[john-e89]

Loving your work John. I had read with interest about you dry icing your car, and thought the results were spot on. I’d seen this for for the first time at last years classic car show at the NEC last year and thought what a game changer.
Btw another imola red ZM too

Many thanks Lawrence, it's half done really, next winter it's going to get more detailing underneath but right now i want to use it over summer so it'll have to wait for now. Yours is better finished than mine right now, looks fantastic. Would be great to get both of them in the same pic...!

 

[LawrenceW]

Sounds like a plan to me!

 

[buzyg]

Nice and tidy.

 

[Pondrew]

Now I would buy a car from either of those two!

Cars are the second most expensive asset that most people own, so why would you not look after them? I will bet everybody has a vacuum cleaner for their house, so why would a car be different?

 

[pvr]

Really good looking

 

[DMike]

Fabulous I can see the mental image how you drive to the MOT and, when handing over the keys, ask the mechanic to wash his hands first

 

[LawrenceW]

Ha ha I’m not that bad…..I think
As I said at the start more a case of just typical

 

[IRD]

Very impressive. I would love my car to look like that.

 

[beanie]

Looks fantastic and it must be satisfying knowing it’s as good underneath as it is on top. Best of luck keeping it that way!

 

[Mr Tidy]

Mine doesn't look like that underneath. My excuse is it isn't Imola Red. :lol:

 

[mmm-five]

Mine's the same colour all over...dirty brown/rust

 

[LawrenceW]

Lol - anyway, back home all cleaned, happy days

 

[john-e89]

Took mine out for it's 'Shakedown', for want of a better word, test run today after all the mods, brakes were absolutely shite as expected until I'd done the heat cycles, sooooo much better now, again as expected, some adjustments needed to the bump, rebound, and ride height, but already feels night and day to stock.

 

[Justino]

I'm just fitting new discs and pads on the rear, and whilst there I am putting new handbrake shoes and fittings.

Having it all open and visible underneath, I can see the majority of bolts are rusty, and the alloy wishbone and diff casing are very crusty, with a white powdery residue. No doubt this is because it has lived outside between 2008 and 2019. At only 38,000 miles its letting the car down. the clips that hold the rubber gaiters in the drive shafts are particulalry unpleasant - real shame these weren't stainless

Would love to have the time to do as you guys have done, my problem is motivation, and then where do you stop cleaning, and stripping down and sending away to be coated/painted.

Are you using any special cleaning products, or is it just elbow grease?

 

[Justino]

My efforts today, I used a mild phosphoric acid to wipe off the general rust staining, and will apply a rust convertor that turns it black before reassembly. Should look good once all the new hardware arrives, then will disappear once the new discs are fitted.

before

after