Thursday 6 September 2012

Front bumper restoration

Cosmetic things are in second line at the moment as I have always said I wanted to concentrate on the mechanical side, to have a perfect and secure running car.

But some times, a small cosmetic repair can make a huge difference on the overall appearance of a car.
That was the case of my front bumper. Although it was structurally sound, with no important dents, all the surface had rust pitting and the chrome was covered by an ugly layer of brown rust.

Of course sending the bumper to rechrome was out of my scope, as possibly it could go up to 300 eur. But I thought maybe I could do something to try to recover if not all, at least most of its original shine.

I remembered that sport fire guns and rifles are usually maintained when rust pitting appears on the barrel with wd40 oil and very fine steel wool. I have done it in the past, and it really gives a great result.

Instead of using wd40, I just got a small pot filled with some diesel engine fuel, and with a 0000 steel wool, I started to rub down all the chrome surface….. the result came out very quick: a nice and shine chrome surface appeared.





Giving the treatment to all the bumper surface was only a 15 job, after which it was cleaned, and then a metal polish compound applied.

To finish the job, I sanded all the inside of the bumper with a 120 grit sanding sponge, to remove all the rust, loose chrome that was summing out, and then gave two coats of enamel black paint. Why??? I once chromed the bumpers of a nice range rover classic, and the company boss told me to paint all the inside one I receive it, because during the chrome process a much thinner layer will be on the inside of the bumper and can easily have rust problems. The outside will always have a much thicker layer. And it’s true that many original bumpers I have seen from RR and Mercedes, do come with painted on the inside to protect it.

Now I have a lovely restored bumper, witch although not perfect, is in a great used condition, just like I like it, for the total cost of just a small quantity of diesel fuel and paint. A nice weekend project, with just a small time investment that gives incredible results.

I was just wondering if I should give all the bumper a fine coat of clear lacquer to protect it. I think many people do it.

Two more images showing the result of cleaning the overriders




Wednesday 5 September 2012

Rusty nightmares



One of the common places on spridgets for severe rust problems is the inside of the wings where they meet the A pillar. My car showed some small rust bubbles on the area that of course was no good news.

One of my main concerns after dealing with all the mechanical side, was to verify as soon as possible the real situation of the body. After removing the seats and carpets, there were no sights of rust problems, except on the inside part of the A pillars that showed some small rust spots.

So now that I had a few spare days on holidays, I just had to take the opportunity and remove the front wings to inspect them….

Removing them was both difficult and easy…. Easy because one wing was just held by about 8 crews, and difficult because the second one was soldered on 2 or 3 spots. I had to use the dremel with the cut-off wheel to remove those solders, which took me some hours.

Once both wings where removed, my worst nightmare came true…… loads of mud and debris was accumulated and the inside of the wings and panels where affected by rust.

First step was to remove as much mud as I could. Using a wire wheel grinder, I removed as much rust as I could to prepare it for the POR15 system.



After cleaning all the surface, I first used the Marine Clean product to remove all grease and dust. Secondly, the Metal Ready was used to each the surface and convert the remaining rust. Metal Ready is supposed to give the best key for the por15 paint. Before painting I used the dremel cut-off wheel to make a square hole on the A pillar where it had a rust spot. That way I could clean the inside, and treat it. Fortunately the A pillar was not in too bad condition.



Two coats of por15 where applied waiting about 3 hours until the first coat was tacky.



Next day once the por15 paint was fully dry, I used a 120 grit sponge to scratch all the surface to give a good key for the blue paint and gave a nice coat. Once it was fully dryed, I gave a large amount of cavity wax to prevent future problems, and used some 2 component putty, to seal the holes I made on the A pillar to prevent any future ingress of water.





The wings will need to be repaired, but until I can tackle with it, I wanted to stop the rust and seal it. I used a rust converter from the Loctite/Henkel company that I had bought some years ago…. I remember it cost a fortune at about 50 eur the bottle. The product is a sort of milky liquid, that is brushed over the rust, and will convert it to a stable state. Once the conversion process has ended, the rust will have a black colour. A coat of black enamel paint was given and once it was dry, liberal amounts of cavity wax where aplied. That should stop the rust for some time, until I decide what to do. I will probably order some repair panels and send the wings to a metal workshop so they can cut and solder the new parts. New BHM wings are available but the 450-500 pounds cost per wing is out of my scope by the moment.






At least now the front of the car looks much nicer and I can sleep knowing there are no hidden rusty nightmares