Myself and Gray had a day of attacking his wheels on the meg. Couldn't see evidence of them being removed and cleaned in a long time. So we set to work.
Car was washed down very briefly, with Grays supernatural shampoo.
Then onto the real reason we were here.
Wheels and arches were to be cleaned up.
Fresh from having tyres fitted yesterday: :dead:
Up she goes:
Back of passenger rear wheel:
Seemed as though there were several years worth of break dust built up around the inside of the wheel. Was well and truely baked on, as can be seen from the other shots.
In order to tackle it, we used an Autosmart wheel cleaner that Kieran had knocking about. The same used to remove the brake dust from his 172, after running PF97 pads :dead:
Diluted down roughly to 1:5
After:
Still caked in tar and crap. It also emerged that under the brake dust was what looked like CV boot grease splattered about, I'm guessing this wheel hadn't spent it's entire life on the rear of the car.
Attacked the wheel further with AG tar remover and engine & machine cleaner to remove any grease and tar from the wheel.
Once removed I was left with this:
Unfortunately there was one spot that even after repeatedly claying, would not come clean. This particular picture shows some of the imperfections we were looking at as well with the wheels:
It then got a bit of SRP and wheel sealant to help keep it clean in future.
By this time I'd spent 2 hours on the one wheel. Quickly realising I had only 2 more hours before I had to be out the house, we had to get a move on. Hence the half arsed attempt.
Arch cleaned up while the wheel was off:
Kieran sorted the dressing of the arch liners. With another Autosmart product I think, in a blank tin. Technical.
Onto the second wheel, and last of the day :dapprove:
Strange place for him to fall asleep :S
Mucky arch + Brembos
Shiney new gearbox! Only had the car back a fortnight since it had a brand new box fitted, courtesy of Renault!
The passenger front wheel was a lot better in regards to grease and baked on crap, but worse for tar spots and old wheel weight residue.
One for Gally, just to rub it in about our tropical weather:
Costa del Derbyshire iirc
Wheel cleaner doing its thing
Old wheel weight pads
Brake dust removed
...and wheel weight glue gone. (I must confess, Kieran was a lot better at getting these off than me, if it were my choice, I'd have used sand paper and fire)
While I was doing the wheel again, Kieran was left to do the arch, including plastics and calipers.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 4 pots.
Wheel finished & sealed again
Just a quick one to show the wonderful factory finish from Renault
Literally peeling off in places.
Now, hours had passed, and I'd done 2 wheels, but I'd run out of time, so had to leave it there. The other two got cleaned, but only with the pressure washer.
A few afters.... but funny story. It was that f*cking dry and windy yesterday, the amount of dust being blown about meant that by the time we'd got to finishing the 2nd wheel and putting back together again, the car was covered in that much dust, it was almost worse than when we started
Just missing the massacre of insects on the front bumper.
Nothing quite like a days work, with nothing to show for it
Car was washed down very briefly, with Grays supernatural shampoo.
Then onto the real reason we were here.
Wheels and arches were to be cleaned up.
Fresh from having tyres fitted yesterday: :dead:
Up she goes:
Back of passenger rear wheel:
Seemed as though there were several years worth of break dust built up around the inside of the wheel. Was well and truely baked on, as can be seen from the other shots.
In order to tackle it, we used an Autosmart wheel cleaner that Kieran had knocking about. The same used to remove the brake dust from his 172, after running PF97 pads :dead:
Diluted down roughly to 1:5
After:
Still caked in tar and crap. It also emerged that under the brake dust was what looked like CV boot grease splattered about, I'm guessing this wheel hadn't spent it's entire life on the rear of the car.
Attacked the wheel further with AG tar remover and engine & machine cleaner to remove any grease and tar from the wheel.
Once removed I was left with this:
Unfortunately there was one spot that even after repeatedly claying, would not come clean. This particular picture shows some of the imperfections we were looking at as well with the wheels:
It then got a bit of SRP and wheel sealant to help keep it clean in future.
By this time I'd spent 2 hours on the one wheel. Quickly realising I had only 2 more hours before I had to be out the house, we had to get a move on. Hence the half arsed attempt.
Arch cleaned up while the wheel was off:
Kieran sorted the dressing of the arch liners. With another Autosmart product I think, in a blank tin. Technical.
Onto the second wheel, and last of the day :dapprove:
Strange place for him to fall asleep :S
Mucky arch + Brembos
Shiney new gearbox! Only had the car back a fortnight since it had a brand new box fitted, courtesy of Renault!
The passenger front wheel was a lot better in regards to grease and baked on crap, but worse for tar spots and old wheel weight residue.
One for Gally, just to rub it in about our tropical weather:
Costa del Derbyshire iirc
Wheel cleaner doing its thing
Old wheel weight pads
Brake dust removed
...and wheel weight glue gone. (I must confess, Kieran was a lot better at getting these off than me, if it were my choice, I'd have used sand paper and fire)
While I was doing the wheel again, Kieran was left to do the arch, including plastics and calipers.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 4 pots.
Wheel finished & sealed again
Just a quick one to show the wonderful factory finish from Renault
Literally peeling off in places.
Now, hours had passed, and I'd done 2 wheels, but I'd run out of time, so had to leave it there. The other two got cleaned, but only with the pressure washer.
A few afters.... but funny story. It was that f*cking dry and windy yesterday, the amount of dust being blown about meant that by the time we'd got to finishing the 2nd wheel and putting back together again, the car was covered in that much dust, it was almost worse than when we started
Just missing the massacre of insects on the front bumper.Nothing quite like a days work, with nothing to show for it
