Grahams81-Leon 4wd, Big Turbo - Back in the saddle :-)

[ADAM_84]

Graham glad your gathering pace on your project again I couldn't find your build thread for ages. I really want a man tent too looks awesome to put the car in and work on.

 

[grahams81]

Graham glad your gathering pace on your project again I couldn't find your build thread for ages. I really want a man tent too looks awesome to put the car in and work on.

Thanks Adam

Well i travelled home from work nice and early this morning and my Man tent came mid morning.

I started putting it together after dinner but had to stop to go get some anchoring bolts.

Anyhow got the base frame laid out and then screwed it down with some m10 x 105 anchoring bolts.

A little while later i had the main frame up -

I couldn't resist so i reversed the company steed in

I'm quite happy with it so far, i'll hopefully get it finished tomorrow if it stays dry.

It's not massive but it's about as big as i can fit on the drive, also my Insignia is quite big so with the Leon in there it should be a bit more roomy.

 

[MarkWales]

looks a good size

 

[James23Parkin]

As said by many already Graham, I'm glad to read that you're gathering momentum with the build again. We're expecting our first chid in March, and like you I think, I've not been sure how the car/hobby will fit in with the busy routine ahead, but it sounds like that things are becoming a little more manageable now?

The car tent seems like a great idea. I've got a pop up gazebo to use to give a little bit more room to do things at either end if the weather isn't great, but as I've only just acquired a garage, we'll see how practical the pop up is...

So, did you decide on a colour for the exterior of the car? Will this be the next step you take? I think it'd be quite rewarding to spray your own car, especially as you have done everything else so far.

I look forward to reading the updates

 

[grahams81]

looks a good size

Thats what she said
Poor i know but i couldn't resist

As said by many already Graham, I'm glad to read that you're gathering momentum with the build again. We're expecting our first chid in March, and like you I think, I've not been sure how the car/hobby will fit in with the busy routine ahead, but it sounds like that things are becoming a little more manageable now?

The car tent seems like a great idea. I've got a pop up gazebo to use to give a little bit more room to do things at either end if the weather isn't great, but as I've only just acquired a garage, we'll see how practical the pop up is...

So, did you decide on a colour for the exterior of the car? Will this be the next step you take? I think it'd be quite rewarding to spray your own car, especially as you have done everything else so far.

I look forward to reading the updates

Thanks James, and congratulations on your upcoming arrival - it WILL change your life and for the better..... the only downside is the severe lack of time to yourself - but this is totally out weighed by the benefits of fatherhood. And yeh he's getting easier now he's 6 months old, i won't lie the first couple of months are really hard but once you get used to having no sleep it's easier

As for painting the car - i was going to get a local guy who just set up recently to do it - he came round to give me a quote and it was really enthusiastic and apparently does great work, but like everything i'm not sure if i can wait any longer (he's painting my mates Pontiac and is taking forever)

I still have the Matt black paint i bought for the project so i'm thinking of painting it myself in the black then if i'm not happy with it in a years time i could just have it repainted again later on.
Like you say it would be very rewarding to do absolutely everything on the car myself...... true DIY'er

This is the main reason i bought the Man tent, to get some free space to paint either in the garage or the tent....... who knows but all i can say is it isn't a million miles away from me laying down some paint

 

[ReDBull]

Thats what she said
Poor i know but i couldn't resist



Thanks James, and congratulations on your upcoming arrival - it WILL change your life and for the better..... the only downside is the severe lack of time to yourself - but this is totally out weighed by the benefits of fatherhood. And yeh he's getting easier now he's 6 months old, i won't lie the first couple of months are really hard but once you get used to having no sleep it's easier

Then they start walking and talking and that brings new challenges.
Like you said it's great being a Dad. Looking forward to seeing your project moving forward again.

 

[cupra-barn]

Loving the manly play house

 

[JayCee]

Your new man tent looks perfectly sized for the space! Any room for a space heater for the coldest winter months?!

 

[t0m]

Tent looks great mate. Will allow you to crack on over the winter

 

[grahams81]

Then they start walking and talking and that brings new challenges.
Like you said it's great being a Dad. Looking forward to seeing your project moving forward again.

Thanks Matey, yeh looking forward to the walking and crawling bit

Loving the manly play house

Your new man tent looks perfectly sized for the space! Any room for a space heater for the coldest winter months?!

Tent looks great mate. Will allow you to crack on over the winter

Thanks Guys, i might look into a space heater but i think it'll be another toy i have to store once i'm done.

Man Tent Update

Managed to get it finished off today, really happy with it - it's really sturdy and seems well built.

Unfortunately the instructions aren't that clear so i managed to pull the roof on the wrong way round first of all...... what a plonker. Anyhow quickly turned it round - inserted the poles to tension it and pulled it down a bit -

I then attached the end pieces / doors -

The doors are quite good a massive zip in the middle and 2 clips and even velcro to cover the zip up..... a bit of overkill but nice.
You can see in the photo the cover is still quite saggy, i then took the tension off and pulled the roof tight then tensioned the the outer straps first then pulled the sides down to finish off.

Nice and tight

Couple of shots from the outside -

So next weekend i can start filling it with parts so i've got a bit more room in the garage.

I think i'm gonna paint the car inside the garage (sides / door shuts & Roof) then move the car into the tent on axle stands and paint the rest of the bits in the garage.

Anyhow thanks for reading and i promise the updates will get a bit more exciting shortly

 

[matt g]

looking forward to seeing this move on.

oh, and the walking/talking bit is cute at first, but you need alot more energy for it, and eyes in the back of your head. teething aint fun either.

get them into nursery - its brings them on a bit better.

 

[ShizTheBiz]

nice wendy house!! will be perfect for paibting although the cold temps now may cause blemishes?

 

[grahams81]

looking forward to seeing this move on.

oh, and the walking/talking bit is cute at first, but you need alot more energy for it, and eyes in the back of your head. teething aint fun either.

get them into nursery - its brings them on a bit better.

Thanks, yeh i can imagine once he's mobile he's gonna be a right handful... as for nursery No way - the missus has packed in work now.... no way i'm paying for nursery Our lass already takes him to loads of group stuff / baby gyms etc.

nice wendy house!! will be perfect for paibting although the cold temps now may cause blemishes?

Thanks, im planning on just storing all the bits in the wendy house and painting in the Garage - i've got a heater in the garage and better light - the only issue will be waiting for a dry day for painting.

Update

The plan today was to get the car / garage ready to start painting or at least ready to finish the prep work.
I started by stripping the car and putting the bits in the Man tent.
Removed all the doors / bonnet / tailgate / wings -

Then started on the bumpers / headlights / front panel / radiator / intercooler -

Looking bare again now..

After that i spent an hour removing all the stuff out of the garage thats worthless / shouldn't be appealing to a tea leaf..... Managed to fill the tent pretty good.

I then cleaned all the paint / grinding dust out of the car.

The wife granted me an extra couple of hours to play out so i pulled the car back and started to line the garage out to try and limit the amount of dust while i paint.

The first job was to put plastic sheet up on the rafters. I used some quite thick plastic sheet and drawing pins to put it up, started off in the corner -

Then worked towards the door -

Tried the panoramic camera thingy on my iPhone -

I need to get some more lights sorted before i paint as it's not bright enough in there, also i'm planning on covering the walls / shelves etc with plastic.

I'm thinking about buying an extractor fan to suck the paint dust / fumes out. Thinking of mounting it in the top of the side door.

I've also managed to source some windows / other parts from Phill - big thanks to him

Anyhow thanks for reading,
Graham.

 

[cupra.al]

looks like things are in motion again its good to see.
wetting the floor whilst painting helps collect the dust too.

 

[MarkWales]

Get all the walls white - this will seals them and increase light reflection

 

[cupra-barn]

Glad to see some more progress top fella

 

[grahams81]

Get all the walls white - this will seals them and increase light reflection

Yeh i've already done 3 of them about 5 years ago.... i seem to remember getting distracted and started rebuilding my Ducati after i had a tumble at 60mph
I've still got the paint so i'm gonna paint the last remaining wall at the weekend.

looks like things are in motion again its good to see.
wetting the floor whilst painting helps collect the dust too.

Thanks for the tip Al, i wetted the walls and floor when i painted the wife's bike, it does help to keep the dust under control.

Glad to see some more progress top fella

Thanks Barn, i'm still plugging away slowly but surely

Garagey Update

So my latest plans have been to try and turn the garage into a spray booth for the upcoming painting of the car.
I already started boarding up / covering up the rafters with poly sheeting..... its about 75% done, i'll finish that off when i happy with the lighting.

A couple of weeks ago i ordered a 12" extractor fan with variable speeds and electric shutters etc. I was planning on mounting it in the side door of the garage but after seeing it it's quite big. So i bought to mdf and i plan on taking the side window out of the garage and using mdf to mount the fan into position.

So i started to tackle the lighting this weekend - i was originally going to order up some strip lights offof egay but i know they'd be smashed to bits and couldn't be chewed with the hassle of sending them back etc... so i just bought some 4ft lights from B&Q they were quite cheap actually about £12 each.
I'm going to order some light reflectors of egay as b&q didn't sell them

So hoyed them up and wired them in -

I've also got a lowbay light i "borrowed" from work when they were closing down the factory at the other end of the garage -

Gonna buy a couple more strip lights for beside the lowbay light, and maybe a couple of wall lights to mount lower down .......once i've also painted the last wall white i think it should be really light in there.

Then just got to finish off covering the rafters and remove all the shelving and coverup the stuff i can't remove.

I also got bored and dealt with a bit of rust around the boot / back light area.... ready for primer on drivers side, sorry didn't take anymore pics

Sorry to all about the boring update but hopefully should get some paint down next weekend as i've got a 5 day weekend

Cheers,
Graham.

 

[James23Parkin]

None of your updates are boring Graham. I think we're all looking foward to seeing you continue to move forward with your project. So with the primer going down soon, did you decide on the colour that you'll be using?

Keep it going buddy

 

[grahams81]

None of your updates are boring Graham. I think we're all looking foward to seeing you continue to move forward with your project. So with the primer going down soon, did you decide on the colour that you'll be using?

Keep it going buddy

Cheers James,

I'd love to paint it a Matt blue but as money's tight at the moment i'm just going with the Matt black that i bought a while ago.
It's the easiest to do, couple of coats of primer, flatten, then 2 coats of the matt black.
No clearcoat or messing around flattening / polishing.... just get the paint on and get it FINISHED

 

[cupra-barn]

Definately +1 to James post.

I think I speak for most of the forum when I say I wish I was closer to lend a hand lol