348 DIY "Restoration"

[stevew]

Nice work Jeff, looks like you got a bargain there

[Mulc]

Great job. However I am a little concerned that the 3M polish you are using is a fast cut. Very easy to "bust" through the laquer!! Especially on edges!!!
One can add a little water to make it less abrasive but can make one hell of a mess. Keep up the good work chum.

[philworrall]

Great job. However I am a little concerned that the 3M polish you are using is a fast cut. Very easy to "bust" through the laquer!! Especially on edges!!!
One can add a little water to make it less abrasive but can make one hell of a mess. Keep up the good work chum.

I don't think 348's had a lacquer finish, just a basic red paint......

P

[irarref]

Don't worry about the fast cut - its just to get some of the more major swirl/scratching out. Its mostly being done with just swirl remover :-)

Anyway as mentioned I wasn't happy about "blackness" of the back so took the grill off again today







So a light application of meguiars endurance tyre gel was applied to all the black surfaces and after it was allowed to dry any excess was wiped off with a cloth. Leaves a really nice shiny finish and is dry to the touch. Think theyre missing a trick in the marketing there! :-)





I use a farecla powerball to clean awkward spaces such as the rear bumper, lights and crevices etc. Really useful too. This was used in conunction with poorboys swirl remover followed by poorboys black hole then collinite polish and finally a wipe over with megs last touch.



To make it easier to put the screws in the centre of the grill back I wrap a tiny bit of tape round it to tape it to the screw driver - just pull away once the screw is started.



Put the new new number plate on using double sided adhesive tape - almost spells Ferrari ;-')

[irarref]

Forgot to mention that the existing number plate adhesive was removed with panel wipe an dthe outer grill was wiped down with panel wipe then a coat of G-Techniq permanant trim restorer.

[Greg]

Funny, just logged in at work and now i can see all the pics! Car looks great

[Nosevi]

Funny, just logged in at work and now i can see all the pics! Car looks great

Maybe it's something to do with your IE settings? I'm using IE 9 with sercurity set medium-high and privacy medium. I know IE obviously downloads pictures last, maybe your settings are stopping this happen? Just a thought.

p.s. If your wondering about the time this is being written, try telling a 3 and 5 year old that the clocks went back. Exercise in futility!

[irarref]

The bodywork being clean was starting to make the wheels look dirty so had a little go at them. I intend to take them off and do them all properly but in the meantime I thought Id give them a bit of a smarten up just so they dont look let the car down.

After spraying a bit of virosol on the calipers I used a toothbrush plus wheel brush to give themn a bit of a scrub.





Not perfect bit a great improvement :-)

[irarref]

Ive already cleaned my wheels with virosol which got most of the muck off but theres always the problem of sticky bits of tar and in my case sticky bits from where stick on weights have been removed.



Panel wipe to the rescue again! :-) Used a rag dipped in panel wipe to wipe the wheel over which disolves tar and weakens the sticky making it very easy to then scrape off with your finger nail. With most of it off just rub it again with panel wipe and it disappears.



After cleaning i used some chemical guys wheel sealant to stop the brake dust adhering and treated the tyres to some meguiars endurance gel. Finished result:





At some stage I'll do a proper job and remove the wheels and clean the calipers and all the backs of the wheels properly but for the moment that will have to do.

[irarref]

Had a little go at the inside too:

Door end was treated with virosol and scrubbed with a toothbrush then dried off and wioed over with panel wipe



Ive used loads of upholstery cleaners but despite its cheap price Ive always got th best reults with the cheap one from Tesco :-)



Just spray on - leave for about 30 secs and then wipe with a damp cloth - the idea is that the dirt is lifted out the cloth.



Hers the door finished. The leather was treayed with a leather and vinyl cleaner and scrubbed with a soft nail brush which brought all the nasty black marks out. It was then given a very light spray with cockpit shine and wiped over just so it didn't look dull.