Project 2016 (Dion's One)

[129c]

Looking great mate.

[awvc1]

take care of the small jobs, and the big ones take care of themselves. Its looking good mate keep it up

[ORO]

Right, I've done a few things myself and had some important things done by Phil, so since I last posted the list is as follows:

• Replacement Auto Gearbox

All done by Phil! Got the car transported from Swindon to Milton Keynes and then Phil did the work over 2 days. The car drives as smooth as a nut and has motivated me to get other important mechanicals done on the car soon (like the noisy crank idle pulley)!

• New Second Key

I had a full key made by Phil about a month ago but I have been having a nightmare trying to get anyone to cut it correctly. My local independent key cutter when through 2 spare blades Phil gave me and 2 of his own spare blades before eventually giving up and refusing to refund my money or get me replacement blades for the ones he wrecked!

But eventually I found a more competent independent key cutter in Swindon town centre who did it first time (albeit the key is a little stiff in the locks)! I told him about my experience and he said the first man I tried used to work for him and that he was an idiot! Oh well, the key is working now and I don't need to worry about losing my only one!

• Got the screen, radio and TV tuner all plugged back in and working

Unplugged these three things as I was worried they were causing my battery drain, it turned out to be my sat nav computer in the end. So the sat nav computer is in the house awaiting repair and the rest of the system in the car is all working again!

• Cleaned boot matt and sanded down boot board

I removed the boot matt and machined washed it, as it was smelling a little damp, that then revealed just how bad the boot board was so I gave it a thorough sanding so it didn't look quite as awful. quite happy with the result!

Before


After


The car's official name is now "Borris", but its too boring to explain how I came to such a dumb name

[Bolin]

Aran White with Aubergine and Crowns. Fantastic :drool:

Originally Posted by ORO

For the door cloth I just used hot soapy water and a microfibre cloth, all I did was essentially wipe those parts of the door clean as I was worried agitating it with a stiff brush would rip the delicate cloth, it was only for the vinyl parts of the door that I used a stiff brush (a large nail brush to be exact).

I did some more work today, I cleaned the top of the centre console as it was shockingly dirty, it had also yellowed a bit which didn't look too good, Its hard to see in the picture but it was very dirty and it let down the whole car! I used the same large nail brush on this as well, and for the sake of convenience I used Method cleaning spray (just a normal spray you would use to clean the kitchen sides, nothing special) It took about half an hour to get it to look how I wanted but now I am very happy with it.

So just another small job today, but still, humble beginnings!

Before



After

Dion, did the spray help with the yellowing and bring back the original colour?

I have tried everything I can to get the colour back without success, I even tried Nitromors paint stripper. That had no effect!

[ORO]

Originally Posted by Bolin

Aran White with Aubergine and Crowns. Fantastic

Dion, did the spray help with the yellowing and bring back the original colour?

I have tried everything I can to get the colour back without success, I even tried Nitromors paint stripper. That had no effect!

Thanks Bolin, the spray I tried did remove the very small amount of yellowing I had on mine, but for a paint stripper to not work it sounds like you have more serious yellowing than I had lol!

Got some more stuff done recently!

1.) Installed the Intravee 2 iPod system

I was getting infuriated by only being able to listen to Classic FM wherever I went (as its the only station I can pick up properly for some reason), so I splurged and bought this awesome system!

The only difficult part was trying to figure out how to wire a BMW CD changer loom into a Rover CD changer loom, after a lot of fettling I finally got it right and the system works! The only problem I have been getting is that sometimes there will be no audio from the iPhone until I do something like, go into the music app on the phone, or simply unplug it and plug it back in again. It seems random, I wonder if that iPhone is slowly breaking or something!

I'm really amazed that the system works without the sat nav computer being in the car, I guess its just working off the radio & TV modules?

2.) A Damn Good Cleaning!

I have been at it with Autoglym leather cleaner and leather balm, the car does look better for it but its changed the whole smell of the car, its wonderful! Its also nice to know that I'm helping the seats last longer before they need reupholstering, and trying to find a company that will supply aubergine leather is probably going to be a nightmare!

So a nice few things done then, gotta keep busy!

[Vanbursta]

Originally Posted by ORO

New Second Key

R2Key2

[Ravinder]

Nice work.

[The Rovering Member]

If you look after the seats there is no reason why they would ever need re-upholstering.

Nice looking car, great colour scheme.

[ORO]

Originally Posted by Vanbursta

R2Key2

That genuinely made me laugh out loud!

Originally Posted by The Rovering Member

If you look after the seats there is no reason why they would ever need re-upholstering.

Nice looking car, great colour scheme.

I hope your right! The only thing is I can see surface cracking on the leather and the colour flaking in some places which is probably from the years of neglect by previous owners. As long as it doesn't get any worse I don't mind never re-upholstering (and my wallet would love that too ).

[Scaramanga]

They are aubergine, here is a pic of my car to prove it (and show off)

[/QUOTE]

What a beautiful car and interior you have.

Stunning