FIRST CAR! And it's a good one!

[prizrak]

Originally Posted by sifu

depends a lot in what car the tints are.. + in finland you cant tint windscreen and front door windows as much as the rear ones so they tend to look bad on some cars.

Same here, but that doesn't stop me from having 25% on all side windows and 20% on the back Didn't do the windshield but tints on the windshield are not necessarily a good idea though I wouldn't mind doing something like a 95% or so just to make it look better.

[Blayde]

Originally Posted by Posmo

Can anyone recommend a good way of removing scratches from a windshield?

A bit late, but i've found that the best way to remove scratches is what i had done to my headlights, really really fine grit sandpaper and soapy water, and then a buffer to smoothen the glass. Mate of mine showed me nearly 30% improvement on easy to see scratches.

Method is ingeniously called wet sanding, some good articles to read up on to get it done right.

[nouseferaname90]

Keep the tints. Hell, I want to tint my car at this point. People keep complaining about the sun, and it has started to hit 90-100 on a daily basis.

[Posmo]

Originally Posted by Blayde

A bit late, but i've found that the best way to remove scratches is what i had done to my headlights, really really fine grit sandpaper and soapy water, and then a buffer to smoothen the glass. Mate of mine showed me nearly 30% improvement on easy to see scratches.

Method is ingeniously called wet sanding, some good articles to read up on to get it done right.

I know the sandpaper method, but frankly, Im scared of taking it to a windscreen. Headlights are not as picky, but I fear I would make the situation worse with sanding.. Glass is much harder than paint&plastic, so I might not be able to buff out the scratches created by the sandpaper. Also, you're not late, I've been sick for the last few days, and haven' even touched the car since tuesday

[Posmo]

I'm going to buy some better exhaust sealant today, and maybe look for some windscreen polishes. Let's get this beater MOT'd so I can buy something better

[darkshark0159]

Oh how quickly things change...

I'm going to miss your Sierra. This Escort better be good!

[Posmo]

Originally Posted by darkshark0159

Oh how quickly things change...

I'm going to miss your Sierra. This Escort better be good!

I'm still probably going to own this for a month or two, and perhaps I won't buy the escort at all. After all, I've only seen a general view of it at night, I need to inspect it carefully before throwing money at it. I'm still going to need to get an Mot for the car, even if I end up keeping it

EDIT: I'm also going to have a couple of small rust spots under the driver side doorseal and boot seal welded. I'm not the kind of person who just covers them up with a bit of filler and slaps the gaskets on (*COUGH* previous owner *COUGH*)..

I've got all the stuff I need for the MOT now (please god let the internet advice work on the windscreen polishing..) I'm dead tired and the Volvo + a trailer is blocking all access to the car, so I'll start fixing it up in the evening or early tomorrow. I got some exhaust bondo that was recommended to me by a friend, supposedly it makes excellent contact and seals very well, but it only lasts for a couple of months at most. Just the right kind of stuff for me, only cost 4.20€, so worth a try.

EDIT: List of things I got:

-CRC brand exhaust bondo.
-Farecla G3 polish
-Farecla G10 fine polish
-A foam pad designed to cut through hard surfaces. It's for an angle grinder, so I have to be VERY careful not to heat up the glass too much.. Would have preferred one that would fit my current polishing machine, but with an angle grinder I will atleast definately have enough RPM..

Going to start work tomorrow, dead tired atm..

[Posmo]

Started polishing the windshield this morning. First I took a cracked piece of glass from the garage, went over it with sandpaper, put a line of tape across it, and tried buffing it with the stuff I bought..




IT WORKS!!



..Sort of.


The G3 got rid of pretty much all of the smaller scratches on the surface, but the test patch was about 20cmx20cm, doing the whole windscreen will take maybe .. 5 hours or so? Iwent over the test piece with some 80 grit sandpaper, and the bigger scratches were unaffected after a couple of minutes polishing. I don't give a fuck though, all I have is time, and I'm just glad it works.

ATM I'm using a non-brand piece-of-shit polishing machine with a lamb wool cloth, for the test patch I used a lamb wool cloth connected to a drill, so it wouldn't take as long to see the results, but it heated up a bit too much, so I'm going to take it slow with the windscreen.

I'll post pics if you want, but pics of a windscreen being polished are not going to be terribly interesting, I suspect..

EDIT: Doing the whole windshield will take MORE than 5 hours.. I've gone over it well with the G3 on one side, and it's taken about 2 and a half hours, still need to do the other side and go over the whole thing with G10.. :\

EDIT: I know no-one wanted pictures, but hell, I did another test sheet, sicne it rained for a bit, and I'm amazed at how well this stuff works!

Went over a sheet of glass with 360 grit sandpaper, put some tape in the middle, and polished one side. First 2 minutes of water + farecla G3, then a wash and a minute of Farecla G10+water + a wash, results:





You can obviously tell which side is which

Yesterday I actually asked a couple of windscreen fixers (they were stationed outside motonet with a trailer, etc.) if it was possible to polish a windscreen. "No" was the answer, well what do you know..

Oh yeah, every one of the visible scratches on the "after" side of the glass is smaller than the biggest scratch I have on my windshield And bear in mind, instead of 3 minutes of polishing on the test sheet, im most likely going to spend 6 hours on the windshield

[Posmo]

Figured I would post some pictures since I have nothing better to do. Going to schedule an inspection for the car for next tuesday, it's likely to rain, and I'm hoping that the windshield scratches will be less noticable then

Pictures galore:

That's got rid of the leaking, finally.

Forgot to mention in the thread that the car is sitting on lower, stiffer springs, and has adjustable dampers at the rear, so I thought I'd post a general view to show the stance of the car

I'm lazy, still haven't fixed the front wing properly..

Adjustable dampers

Profile of the wing:

Cavernous boot. The cardboard box contains spare taillights, etc.

Couldn't resist taking a shot like this, since the Volvo is 300 km's away, and not blocking the yard

Interior shot again

Another one of the wing

New(original) gearknob and shifter bag thing. The old one was shot, so I had my mother make a new one out of leather

Stereo and the best CD a Finn could ever have in a car

Something I need to have welded before I sell the car on. I've gone over the car with a magnifying glass, and I've only found 3 spots which could do with a bit of welding, pretty good for a 23 year old car The rot pictured is the worst in the entire car.


There, some pics for you. Let's see if the miageshack resizing works, or if they come out as 3000x2000 again :\

[Posmo]

Valve clearance adjustment / cam cover painting pics:

Valve cover taken off:

Cam lobe wear, notice how about 1mm of the cam lobe top has worn off. That's what 283000km's does to your camshaft :\


Valve cover before:

Also painted the EFI text in the intake manifold, It was all silver before

Valves and shit, they do look quite beautiful, all glistening with oil
[img]
Newly painted camcover in the car:

Finished. General view of the engine bay

[sifu]

now clean the rest of the engine bay

[Posmo]

Originally Posted by sifu

now clean the rest of the engine bay

It's clean enough as it is, not exactly my top priority right now

I've come to the conclusion that just buffing the windshield won't yeild satisfactory results. The polishes get rid of scratches VERY well, but they are next to useless against very small stone chips, which my windshield is covered with.. I'm going to buy a sheet of 2000 grit sandpaper tomorrow, and test a 3cmx3cm patch with it, first sanding the stone chips away,then polishing the scratches away.. Lets see if it works..

[Hemihead]

About the camshaft, a Pinto engine that have been neglected in service eats camshafts. The gunk in the worn oil clogs the oil-sprayer pipe over the camshaft and kills it ASAP.

[Serj]

For the amount you're sweating the small stuff that people will never see in a buy/sale, you should just keep the car. It looks great, and something of this vintage would have either rusted away or been riced out in the states. On Tint; I think it looks fine, but if you're on the fence about it, Look it over nice and closely. Look for bubbles in the film, look for bluing/purpling. If it's NOT changing colors and was done properly, and looks like it's more than 5 years old, then just keep it, because what you'd be looking at is a professionally-done, good quality film that someone actually put some real money into. Personally I think it adds to the look.

For MOT and Emissions, a common trick to help with passing is let the car get nice and warmed up. Take it tooling around the long way to the test center, at least an hour's worth. this should help the gasket sealant seep into the gaps and close off any irregularities in the fit. Also helps the piston rings set up against the cylinder walls and lessens chance of oil burn/blow-by. For the windscreen, polish up what you can, and pay a glass guy to fill in the stone chips. cheaper than replacing the whole screen, and I personally agree that the inspector sounded like an asshole, since I've seen the "before" side of your test glass on some screens be fine(sucks in the sun though). Also, get some GOOD glass cleaner and some wadded up newsprint, hit both the inside and outside of the screen.

Drive it and as you go get it maybe a little spicier cam, de-gunk the valvetrain, make sure that Timing belt is solid and the tension is well adjusted, and maybe in 2-3months pull the headers and downpipe again, polish them up nice and hit'em with some High-Temp paint. It'll do wonders for under the bonnet appearance!

I'd probably go for more amber bulbs in the foglights. the lower color temperature will increase contrast and help visibility. I'd personally just get another "french" tail lamp so they match up(yeah, the french ones don't look as good but it's painfully obvious and a detriment to the car's looks by running one of each)

Once you get the fender fully painted I'd recommend going over it with a light coating of rubbing compound to weed all the paint imperfections out, help blend the new front fascia in, and then go over it with a multi-stage wax system (cleaner, carnuba, finisher, wax sealant, etc.)

Seriously, the car is pretty decent, and you've already nit-picked the car enough for me to tell that you could make it GREAT. I had a FWD slushboat for my first car with a 3-speed auto, poor handling, dry rotting tires, worn springs/shocks, and a hole in the exhaust, but i still to this day have fond memories of it. And I KNEW it wasn't that good, not anywhere near the proper driver you have there. Hold on to it, seriously.

[Posmo]

Originally Posted by Hemihead

About the camshaft, a Pinto engine that have been neglected in service eats camshafts. The gunk in the worn oil clogs the oil-sprayer pipe over the camshaft and kills it ASAP.

At this sort of km's, it doesn't even have to be neglected for the cam to look like that. If I end up keeping the car, I'm 90% surely going to take the head off, port it, fit new valve springs, etc. and buy a Burton camshaft. Also a new diff & a front strut brace wouldn't hurt

I've also been toying with the Idea of fitting a KKK, but I need Megasquirt, new brakes, etc. for that.

If I don't buy the escort, I'm basically going to make this car fast

EDIT: Just took the tints off all the rear windows. Still haven't decided whether I like the car without them, but hey, no going back now At least it looks far less chavvy now

[Serj]

I'd think with as much snow as your country gets less glare would be welcome.

[Posmo]

Originally Posted by Serj

I'd think with as much snow as your country gets less glare would be welcome.

The tints were only on the rear windows, so it didn't really matter. I'm always sitting on the drivers seat, so I don't care about whether the sun shines to the back seat a bit more Also, I reckon that with a bit of a wash, it looks better without the tints..

Also fixed the speaker wiring today, had to replace both of the wires for the right side speakers, but it fixed the rattling

Basically the only things that I want fixed in the car are:

-Worn cam, need to buy a burton one.
-3 rust spots that need welding. Overall maybe 5x5 cm of steel needed to fix all of them.
-Diff doesn't hold. Might buy a new one for the winter, but they are quite expensive, so I don't know yet..
-1 rim is bent, I'm going to put steelies with studless winter tyres on the rear axle after the MOT. I've also arranged to buy a set of Rial rims, but as I have no car atm, I can't go pick them up.
-No power steering. If I keep the car, I'm definately going to fit a faster steering rack&power steering for the winter. If I drove it in winter as it is, I'm about 80% sure I would crash at some point. The stock steering on these is lethally slow.
-New steering wheel, not crucial, but it would be nice.
-Front strut brace, again, not crucial, but would be nice.

After those, it'd be just about perfect for my needs

[nouseferaname90]

Originally Posted by Posmo

After those, it'd be just about perfect for my needs

You mean to say until you buy that escort

[Posmo]

Originally Posted by Serj

For the amount you're sweating the small stuff that people will never see in a buy/sale, you should just keep the car. It looks great, and something of this vintage would have either rusted away or been riced out in the states. On Tint; I think it looks fine, but if you're on the fence about it, Look it over nice and closely. Look for bubbles in the film, look for bluing/purpling. If it's NOT changing colors and was done properly, and looks like it's more than 5 years old, then just keep it, because what you'd be looking at is a professionally-done, good quality film that someone actually put some real money into. Personally I think it adds to the look.

For MOT and Emissions, a common trick to help with passing is let the car get nice and warmed up. Take it tooling around the long way to the test center, at least an hour's worth. this should help the gasket sealant seep into the gaps and close off any irregularities in the fit. Also helps the piston rings set up against the cylinder walls and lessens chance of oil burn/blow-by. For the windscreen, polish up what you can, and pay a glass guy to fill in the stone chips. cheaper than replacing the whole screen, and I personally agree that the inspector sounded like an asshole, since I've seen the "before" side of your test glass on some screens be fine(sucks in the sun though). Also, get some GOOD glass cleaner and some wadded up newsprint, hit both the inside and outside of the screen.

Drive it and as you go get it maybe a little spicier cam, de-gunk the valvetrain, make sure that Timing belt is solid and the tension is well adjusted, and maybe in 2-3months pull the headers and downpipe again, polish them up nice and hit'em with some High-Temp paint. It'll do wonders for under the bonnet appearance!

I'd probably go for more amber bulbs in the foglights. the lower color temperature will increase contrast and help visibility. I'd personally just get another "french" tail lamp so they match up(yeah, the french ones don't look as good but it's painfully obvious and a detriment to the car's looks by running one of each)

Once you get the fender fully painted I'd recommend going over it with a light coating of rubbing compound to weed all the paint imperfections out, help blend the new front fascia in, and then go over it with a multi-stage wax system (cleaner, carnuba, finisher, wax sealant, etc.)

Seriously, the car is pretty decent, and you've already nit-picked the car enough for me to tell that you could make it GREAT. I had a FWD slushboat for my first car with a 3-speed auto, poor handling, dry rotting tires, worn springs/shocks, and a hole in the exhaust, but i still to this day have fond memories of it. And I KNEW it wasn't that good, not anywhere near the proper driver you have there. Hold on to it, seriously.

Long ass post you wrote

I wasn't even planning on taking the tint film off, but when I was redoing the speaker wires today, I tried to pry it off with my fingernail, and it practically JUMPED off the glass, so I thought "why the hell not" It was a crap tinting job, and the tints were purpling.

The emissions test is most likely going to be ok. Last time the car failed due to too much oxygen , which can basically mean 2 things: exhaust leak or the engine is running lean The engine is running ok, and the exhaust was (and still is from the backbox/midsection connection) leaking quite a bit, especially from the downpipe/midsection join. It's going to be 100% leak free when I get it retested.

When I'm talking about stone chips in the glass I mean VERY small sort of white dots in the glass, not actual big chips. I couldn't find any 2000 grit paper today totry and wetsand them, so I'll do it later.

I have 2 sets of taillights, and I think Im going to tint one set completely red, sort of like this:

Completely red taillights are illegal, but I'll always have the other set, which I can slap on for the MOT, etc. Also, I think a red tint will get rid of the different colour indicators nicely

The cam will need to be replaced, and I'm definately not going the put another stock one in, and since you need to take the head off to get the cam off, I'm going to have a friend port the head for me aswell. The exhaust manifold might also be swapped for a steel one or (very unlikely atm) one that looks like this:



I ripped the old red small racing stripes off aswell today, Im probably going to replace them with black ones, and paint white lines in the bumpers, could anyone with photoshop help me out by shopping the red stripes in this pic black, and painting the black lines (faintly visible on the sides, they are chrome in the bumpers) white? In my mind I looks quite nice

[Posmo]

Originally Posted by Posmo

Basically the only things that I want fixed in the car are:

-Worn cam, need to buy a burton one.
-3 rust spots that need welding. Overall maybe 5x5 cm of steel needed to fix all of them.
-Diff doesn't hold. Might buy a new one for the winter, but they are quite expensive, so I don't know yet..
-1 rim is bent, I'm going to put steelies with studless winter tyres on the rear axle after the MOT. I've also arranged to buy a set of Rial rims, but as I have no car atm, I can't go pick them up.
-No power steering. If I keep the car, I'm definately going to fit a faster steering rack&power steering for the winter. If I drove it in winter as it is, I'm about 80% sure I would crash at some point. The stock steering on these is lethally slow.
-New steering wheel, not crucial, but it would be nice.
-Front strut brace, again, not crucial, but would be nice.

After those, it'd be just about perfect for my needs

After careful consideration, I'm not sure if I'll be able to sell this car on. I've already put quite a bit of time and money in it, and to be honest I really like it.. I'm still going to check the escort out, but if I end up keeping the Sierra, which is very likely, Im going to fix everything on that list before next year.
I've already got a "lead" on a cheap new viscous limited slip diff and I've already bid on a new steering wheel. The cam will come with head porting. I'm looking for power steering pumps, etc. online, and I think I should be able to find a wrecked car, or something to rip the stuff I need out of.

I have a new MOT time for tomorrow, but im not 100% sure I'm going to make the time, so It might be next week. Once I get the car back on the road, I can drive it to a friends garage where I can patch up all of the rust in the car. After the Mot, Im also going to get some steelies&crap tires for the rear axle, because of the bent rim, and the big negative camber at the rear ruining the tires that are currently on. Also need to patch up the front wing, but I'll do that when I fit the Cosworth front panel.