Hi.
So had a day off from work yesterday as I have a few to use up before I leave at the end of this month - whoop!
So anyway, I decided almost nine years of crud, tar and salt was enough for my poor arches, so decided to give them a decent going over. Sadly, the day did not quite go to plan, with a mixture of piss poor weather and my jack/axle stands going walk about! Only two wheels and front arches were completed!
The car has also recently had a full new set of shocks, springs, drop links, bushes/wishbones, top mounts and track/tie rod ends.
Befores;
View attachment 55295
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View attachment 55299
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So oil, grime, tar, salt and god knows what else! Oh, chewing gum!
Sprayed with AS Triple Degreaser 1:40 as it's strong stuff and then agitated with an assortment of brushes brush, then rinsed off;
View attachment 55301
View attachment 55302
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This left me with A LOT of tar spots, so out with the trusty Tardis, which made short work of them;
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These spots were then wiped off using an old, but clean, MF towel. The arches were then rinsed down again and then left to air dry for an hour or so.
At this point I moved on to the wheels, which received basically the same treatment, save for dropping AS3 in favour of G101 at 1:4, again due to the fact that the wheels have never been removed and cleaned, as far as I was aware.
This showed...
View attachment 55307
View attachment 55308
G101 sprayed and agitated;
View attachment 55309
All tar spots and old wheel weight pads removed with Tardis, doing it's thang;
View attachment 55310
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View attachment 55312
Needless to say, there was a lot of brake dust on the rears and they were never going to come up perfectly without a refurb. However, with a potential new car and a move to London, I will not be spending the £300 needed to bring them back to 100%.
IronX, sprayed, agitated and then left to dwell;
View attachment 55313
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After the amount of gunge that came off, they were blasted down with the PW and Iron X reapplied and reagitated in the worst areas of built on brake dust. You can see the black areas behind the spokes. This is not grease, tar or dirt. It is purely brake dust build up. Sadly, due to ill preparation, I did not have anything more acidic on me to break this down further.
Second application of Iron X;
View attachment 55316
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To leave me with this (far from perfect, but a hell of a lot better and pretty much squeaky clean, where the paint was still intact!!);
View attachment 55318
Wheels were then polished by hand with Menz 203s on a German pad, wiped down with IPA and waxed with FK1000p to last me until the car leaves my hands;
View attachment 55319
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View attachment 55321
The arches (metal, springs, shocks, ARBs, droplinks etc) were also waxed using FK1000p, which came up surprisingly well, even on the plastics... I have another day off next Monday and I will most likely take the wheels off, snow foam APC throughout the arches, complete the rears and seal the plastics with GTechniq C4, just for s**ts and giggles!
Results;
View attachment 55322
View attachment 55323
View attachment 55324
View attachment 55325
View attachment 55326
View attachment 55327
View attachment 55328
View attachment 55329
View attachment 55330
View attachment 55331
Thanks for reading if you've got this far! Next update will be the final prep on the paint work.
Cheers,
Forearms.
So had a day off from work yesterday as I have a few to use up before I leave at the end of this month - whoop!
So anyway, I decided almost nine years of crud, tar and salt was enough for my poor arches, so decided to give them a decent going over. Sadly, the day did not quite go to plan, with a mixture of piss poor weather and my jack/axle stands going walk about! Only two wheels and front arches were completed!
The car has also recently had a full new set of shocks, springs, drop links, bushes/wishbones, top mounts and track/tie rod ends.
Befores;
View attachment 55295
View attachment 55296
View attachment 55297
View attachment 55298
View attachment 55299
View attachment 55300
So oil, grime, tar, salt and god knows what else! Oh, chewing gum!
Sprayed with AS Triple Degreaser 1:40 as it's strong stuff and then agitated with an assortment of brushes brush, then rinsed off;
View attachment 55301
View attachment 55302
View attachment 55303
View attachment 55304
This left me with A LOT of tar spots, so out with the trusty Tardis, which made short work of them;
View attachment 55305
View attachment 55306
These spots were then wiped off using an old, but clean, MF towel. The arches were then rinsed down again and then left to air dry for an hour or so.
At this point I moved on to the wheels, which received basically the same treatment, save for dropping AS3 in favour of G101 at 1:4, again due to the fact that the wheels have never been removed and cleaned, as far as I was aware.
This showed...
View attachment 55307
View attachment 55308
G101 sprayed and agitated;
View attachment 55309
All tar spots and old wheel weight pads removed with Tardis, doing it's thang;
View attachment 55310
View attachment 55311
View attachment 55312
Needless to say, there was a lot of brake dust on the rears and they were never going to come up perfectly without a refurb. However, with a potential new car and a move to London, I will not be spending the £300 needed to bring them back to 100%.
IronX, sprayed, agitated and then left to dwell;
View attachment 55313
View attachment 55314
View attachment 55315
After the amount of gunge that came off, they were blasted down with the PW and Iron X reapplied and reagitated in the worst areas of built on brake dust. You can see the black areas behind the spokes. This is not grease, tar or dirt. It is purely brake dust build up. Sadly, due to ill preparation, I did not have anything more acidic on me to break this down further.
Second application of Iron X;
View attachment 55316
View attachment 55317
To leave me with this (far from perfect, but a hell of a lot better and pretty much squeaky clean, where the paint was still intact!!);
View attachment 55318
Wheels were then polished by hand with Menz 203s on a German pad, wiped down with IPA and waxed with FK1000p to last me until the car leaves my hands;
View attachment 55319
View attachment 55320
View attachment 55321
The arches (metal, springs, shocks, ARBs, droplinks etc) were also waxed using FK1000p, which came up surprisingly well, even on the plastics... I have another day off next Monday and I will most likely take the wheels off, snow foam APC throughout the arches, complete the rears and seal the plastics with GTechniq C4, just for s**ts and giggles!
Results;
View attachment 55322
View attachment 55323
View attachment 55324
View attachment 55325
View attachment 55326
View attachment 55327
View attachment 55328
View attachment 55329
View attachment 55330
View attachment 55331
Thanks for reading if you've got this far! Next update will be the final prep on the paint work.
Cheers,
Forearms.
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