Hi everyone,
It’s been a while since I posted last. Reading other members’ threads more recently, everyone is moving forward in big ways and it’s been a timely motivator. I would love to make more inroads with engine mods but this has to be on slow-time, as I have other things to complete. In the months ahead, I want to ‘finish off’ my engine bay and complete the arch areas; this includes a break calliper refurb (pads have recently been replaced and discs have a couple more cycles left in them), tidy up the hubs, bushes replacement and to fit my coilovers, finally, and have the wheels refurbished in matt black with a lacquer shine.
Over this past couple of months, I’ve ordered some new top mounts with new bearings, Powerflex wishbone bushes (for a cast wb arm), a Powerflex Dog Bone bush, amongst other bits and pieces to service the coilovers and repaint the front and rear callipers and hubs.
Before moving onto the arches, I want to finish off the bay. As you may know, I finished making an enclosed induction set-up with a twin air feed towards the end of last year. I also replaced all the nuts and bolts for SS replacements when fitting the FMIC. All is holding up well. So, In the weeks ahead I want to:
1). Re-mop the charge pipe, to give it a fresh shine.
2). Re-mop the Inlet manifold and spray the rear in high-temp silver paint.
3). To finish off painting the throttle body; paint matt black and lacquer. I have bought a new gasket to fit, as recommended on removal.
4). Fill the dimples on the inlet manifold cover, prime paint and clear it.
5). Fill the holes on the engine cover to give a smooth finish and to repaint.
6). Re-paint the battery cover, as everything else is being tidied up.
7). Fit my oil catch can that I bought off a fellow member; it’s a SS 034 Motorsport can, with a breather. I’ll polish it with the 3-stage mop process to make it look like new again.
8). Finally, smooth and paint the windscreen washer cap, to tie in the theme.
The lacquered finish has lasted reasonably well on the painted items but is starting to look a bit tired. Having done a bit of reading, although I’ve not seen this done, I’ve purchased a 1kg pack of Carbon Fibre High Temperature Epoxy Resin from
www.carbonmods.com and this will be used as the final layer. It is reported that it cures to a perfectly clear finish, is durable and can cope with temps up to 140 deg.
So, progress so far.
I purchased a new manifold cover from SEAT for roughly nine pounds.
I used a product from Carbon Mods to fill the dimples.
Once cured, it was sanded and re-filled and was eventually ready for primer and paint. Here it is ready for it to be cleared.
The engine cover is currently in primer. More pictures of the earlier stages can be found in a previous post on page five.
The washer bottle cover is ready for clear, using lacquer, having had the washer logo sanded off, primed and finished in matt black, to match the other plastics.
The battery box has been sanded back with 1200 grit wet and dry, as the finish was good. It is just waiting to have a final coat of matt black. This will also be finished in lacquer. For reference, I’m using U-Pol Professional paint and Lacquer.
The fuse box has been re-wrapped in carbon fibre effect wrap and has received a few coats of lacquer, for a durable finish. The picture below is before lacquer to give you an idea.
Once all the plastics are finished, I’ll venture outside and de-gunk the bay and see to the odd jobs. Once finished, I hope that it’ll look nice and tidy and will last.
On a side note, my coil pack on bank 1 went recently and I have to say, I thought the worst. However, having read some detailed threads on here, I purchased four new coil packs and new spark plugs; it’s now running a treat. I did buy some Pulstar plugs but I haven’t fitted them yet as I wanted to be sure that the car was running reliably. The VW polo is running well as my daily and it takes the pressure off everything needing to be done at once.
Thanks for reading.
James