My cheap(ish) 172 Cup

Louis said:

The one on the subframe

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Corrected myself. Having a blonde moment.

Parts cannon fired…..

The small thingy on top of the Jack is a plastic welding kit I’ll try. Apparently you pour the resin in place and use the UV light to cure it. It’s to repair the spoiler brake light which is cracked on the edge. Not sure how good it will be.

So the week after next I have a few jobs to do. In no particular order:

Refurb fog surrounds
Remove, repair and refit front bumper (still not sure if I should try a repaint or not!)
Repaint wiper arms
Fit an undertray
Repair air inlet pipe (the felt type one)
Repair drivers seat (it doesn't move well and some yellow bits came of the underneath!)
Remove dash top and stop all rattles (yeah, right!) and repair a broken vent
Fit new wheel nuts (I may have the wheels refurbed in the correct colour)
Clean the underside of the engine
Replace radio remote control thingy
Fit new number plates
Refit repaired splitter
Clean out scuttle drains
Fit missing headlight bolt after straightening a bent bracket (previous crash, I think)
Polish some marks on the headlights
Full buff and polish (better than the last one I did)
Remove side skirts and repair jackng points
Underseal the car where it's needed
Clean out drain holes for rear quarters and spray protective stuff inside (have to remove inside panels to do this)
Rear bumper off and clean and check for rust
Have a go at doing the engine mounts if I have time (although Birchdown can do this when it goes in for the rear brakes and MOT being done)

Just ordered a hand riveter and rivets to do the skirts. Hopefully there's no horror show I'll find to do with the usual rust areas and it'll be a clean, protect and refit job. I'm unsure about two things which are whether i'll need heat or not to straighten the front jacking points, and also how far I go with the bumpers regarding painting. I may only have time to repair damage and give the front one a quick spray over the repaired area. I may be best just leaving the repaint to the body shop as mentioned in previous posts. For me to spray the repair i'll have to look up rattle canning it and then using my polisher to blend it in etc.

Just get your bro’s gaff to do the paintwork. 👍

Matt Cup said:

Just get your bro’s gaff to do the paintwork. 👍

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I’ve asked if they can do it next week when the bumper is off because originally they wanted to do everything on the car which I was not happy about. If they can’t do it next week I will do the repair myself and spray just around where the repair is done. It’ll better than it is now and I’ll have it sprayed at a later date. The rear has a couple of scuffs too, but they are nothing horrendous. It adds character to the car lol.

I would steer you away from rattle canning it, it will look f**king dreadful😂

I agree. It would only be to cover the repair. I’m not going to attempt the whole lot.

Well, they want the bumper with the car to match up the paint. This means that I’ll repair it and just spray the area repaired. I’ve ordered some direct gloss D43 to do it as it’ll be a few weeks before it can go in. They’ll do the marks on the rear bumper, too.

So today I could get the car on the drive and start. Bumper off, striped, cleaned and filler where needed. Needs a little more work and the paint to arrive. Bumper is a mess to be honest. Previous spray job is crap and you can actually see the marks on the number plate where they used an angle grinder to remove the old plate screws. Cowboys!

The fog surrounds have a million stone chip marks in them and I think I can only get them good to pass the ‘10ft test’. The fogs themselves are pitted and I’m sure a good polish won’t do much except remove the overspray.

I tried to bend back the bracket that the n/s headlight screws into but it’s a no go. I used a jack in different positions to try and push the bracket back to the original position, but it’s clear that this was a past impact point and it would need a jig to get it straight. Too much work IMO as the headlight is secured by the other two bolts and you can’t really tell looking at the car with the bumper back on.

Plenty more to do over the next few days….

On with the jobs again today. Firstly, I had some problems with water getting into the fuse box area a few months back. I’ve made a really simple splash guard out of a 4L plastic milk bottle. It fits in the hole really tightly and it should do a good job. I’ve also just repaired the air inlet pipe which was split. I’ve used wiring loom tape, I think that’s what it is, and it’s gone on really well. Sod paying a massive amount of money for a new piece of pipe!

Bung those holes

They will be once the splash guards have been put back on.

What happened to your fuse box cover?

The OEM cover would help stop the water getting in.

I’ve no idea. The box part was in two pieces when I got the car and I repaired it. The top fits on but not securely as the clip is missing. I have a feeling that this car has a hidden past so Christ knows how or why they messed with the fuse box.

Plenty to be getting on with again today. First up was to give the bumper a quick spray with some 2K clear coat. I did the repair and it seems fine and I’m also really glad that I didn’t attempt to do the spraying myself. I’ve managed to repair the hole and give it a spray with a rattle can and even though it is the correct colour doesn’t match. I’ve done it so that the side panels of the bumper were not painted and then I then sanded everything down to 2000 grit and then this morning gave it a coat of the clear coat. It now doesn’t have the huge crack in it but at the front its not a great match. Also, I know the quality that has to be done to make a repair look good, and there was no way of achieving this, so I never tried to reach it. The car will go in in a few weeks and have the front and rear bumpers painted. This car has 1 billion tiny stone chips in it and it deserves a repaint, but that’s not happening anytime soon.

Good effort pal!

Anyway, all of that was a nightmare. I don’t recommend anybody even attempting this unless they have some kind of spray booth where the wind isn’t blowing, and there’s no chance of a pigeon shitting on your head!

The next job up was to remove the side skirts, straighten the front jacking points and do some protection on them. This actually went fairly well and I didn’t have to touch the rear jacking points as they are in good condition. None of this is perfect, but the main thing is there is no corrosion behind the side skirts. In front of the rear wheels, everything is solid and the only rusty parts were where the jacking points have been bent. I’ve used the spray paint as recommended by people on here, and now the jacking points are protected. The flat area behind the jacking points is a little bit squashed, but there’s no corrosion. I like the idea of a modification which strengthens this area so you can put a trolley jack on it. There was also 20 years worth of crap behind the skirts. I will try to refit the skirts later on, but another bonus was that all of the brackets seem to be in good condition so I don’t have to mess around with those.

I’ve also noticed that my rear calipers don’t seem to be original. Birchdown will be fitting some refurbished calipers for me in a few weeks, but I’m just wondering is there any value to these calipers that are on at the moment?

I actually bought the 2K clear coat to do my headlights and if it works well I will do my dad‘s headlights as his look shocking. I’m just pushed for time this week so I’m hoping I can get everything done that I want to do. I did want to remove the dash to fix a broken vent, but I think that can wait. I also want to get the interior panels out at the back so that I can clean up and protect the rear quarters. I had a look at them last year and they look in fairly good condition but considering I’ve bought these products I might as well use them.

Day 572… Well, it feels like it.

Last night I tried to refit the skirts, but the riveter I bought from eBay was made of cheese. It started to break apart after just three rivets being fitted. I had no extra fittings so I had to look online late last night to find out who stocks something locally. I didn’t want to buy another riveter so I opted to buy some Acme screws. I never knew they were called these and it took me quite a while to find them online. All of this set me back several hours. Today I went out to collect my wheels after they had been powder coated and I picked up some bits and pieces from Halfords and from my local motor shop to resecure the bumper, undertray, splitter and the side skirts. I got back and cleaned up the hubs and then fitted the wheels. I had a friend messaging me constantly and it distracted me resulting in me fitting the two rear wheels on the wrong sides. I was slightly pissed off with that! Anyway, the side skirts are on securely and I don’t mind the look of the screws. I could touch them up with some blue touchup paint, but I think I’ll leave them as they are.
I sanded my headlights this morning ready to apply some 2K clear coat. The sanding all went well, but I have to say the clear coat went on s**t. The headlights were panel wiped and everything but I just think there wasn’t enough clear coat left in the tin. There’s a real orangey peel effect on the headlights, but I’ve looked up that if I let them go off over the next couple of days, I can give them a 2000 grit sand and then polish them and they should look OK. Even now they look better than they did.
I also managed to remove the rear seat this afternoon. The bolts that go through the bodywork were an absolute nightmare to remove. Plenty of WD-40, wire brushing from underneath, and using my immense strength meant that I managed to undo them without stripping anything. Tomorrow I will be spraying inside the quarter panels with some of the Dinitrol paint that I bought last week.I also have to make sure that the drain holes in the corner are free of any paint or wax. Bodywork wise I think my car is pretty rust free. At least something is OK on it!

It could have been a bit worse when you took the side skirts off 🤣

It did cross my mind. There was someone on here a while back who asked about his rear area and was advised not to look. However, he looked and it wasn't pretty.

Day I’ve lost count….

This morning, I removed all of the rear interior so I could get to the inside of the rear quarters. One of the drain holes was completely clear, but the other one was not visible. After about 30 minutes of poking I managed to clear it so I could see the drive through the hole. I gave the inside a quick rub over with a brush and then vacuumed all the debris out. I then sprayed the Dynax 550 inside making sure that the drain holes were still clear. Some of the wax dripped out from the drain holes so I know that they were all OK. I also sprayed inside the box section for the chassis legs and just at the front of the sill where the splash guards are, the place that holes mud.
I then proceeded to fit the front end, put the headlights on, fit the front bumper, and the splitter. Because of some previous damage on the near side, it was quite difficult to line everything up. I’ve always had trouble on the left side, but not on the right side. Once everything was fitted, I checked all the lights were working and there were no problems. Except I did do a f**k up! I’ve noticed that the near side headlight is slightly out of position. This will mean, I have to remove the bumper again to sort it out. I didn’t notice it at first, but it’s definitely not in the correct position. I think it’s because of the previous damage and I think the solution to it is to have one or two washers behind the headlight bracket and in between the mounting point when I put the screw back in. That should just push it out a few millimeters . It’s a real pity because I thought I finished. f**k!
I really wanted to fit the dog bone, the top engine mount and also the upper gearbox mount, but I just don’t have time. I also have an under tray to be fitted, but I think I’ll leave that until it’s had the brakes and MOT done.
One other thing, the headlights. I did send them again this morning with 2000 grit and then I polished them with my polisher. They look much better than they did before, but they’re not perfect. They need a bit of work doing on them, but I’m sure I can bring them up to a good finish. I’ve noticed that the inside of the headlights are dirty, but does anyone know how you can clean out the inside?
The main thing is, I managed to do all of the sill work, inside of the rear quarters and some other bits and pieces. The wheels look really good and I’ll do some photos either later or tomorrow after it’s been washed.

On the bumper repair, I'm glad I didn't try and do a pro job myself in the back garden. Even under the carport I can see that the match is terrible despite using D43. It almost looks like an Artic bumper has been fitted but I'll get a better photo later. The repair is good but it'll be sprayed in a body shop in a few weeks. This repair has cost me £9.90 for the filler, £4.50 for the paint and £19.00 for the 2K (although it was also used for the headlights as well).

The first pic really shows the difference.

Wheels look really good! Paintwork for a spray can doesn’t look bad either so I wouldn’t worry too much about till you get it sorted professionally.

Mine looks weird in some angles (like a patchwork quilt) in direct sunlight too.

Please though upload the pics in full not thumbnails 👍

Here you go…👍

Bin those tyres bud.

I think they are 10 years old but with a lot of tread on them. To be fair they were good in the wet recently. However, I'll be fitting Rain Sport 5's soon.

Best price I can find is through Asda...4 fitted

Uniroyal
£371.96
RainSport 5
195/45R16 84V

Booked in for Saturday.

I swapped my rears to the front and the humming noise moved forward. I was told that Toyo's are prone to becoming misshaped, and it's not surprising with an older tyre.