Today I.....

in9999 said:
She already thinks I may be obsessed with it anyway, don't need to give her any reason to confirm that belief.
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Lol the A2 is a car that gets under your skin
But I also have the same issue it’s not got under my wife’s skin and she used to own a 1.4 petrol


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depronman said:
The A2 ones that I refurbished. 2 sets from. Y reg and a 51 reg A2 where chrome
It was blunting my Dremel burrs very quickly so I took some of the swarf to work and had it analysed came back as mainly chromium with a little magnesium as well
Also the finished looked exactly like chrome
Was a process adopted by vag in the late 90’s and early 00’s

Paul


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Same as the 17" Competition wheels on the mk 1 TT that are also diamond cut and lacquered, with the same aluminium centre caps ?
 
Enjoyed the talk on the light 15"'s: I have a set which has languished in the For Sale section for ages but I'm minded to keep them now!

Anyhoo ... today I finally removed the faulty OpenSky roof from my project (Devon) car. Single-handed with no lifting gear, propped all four corners of roof up on rags, two thick dustsheets secured over rear of car and just lifted it half way back from inside. Whilst holding it worked my round to the rear and lowered it down the back of the car and onto the workshop floor. Rather than risk it falling off trestles I'll work on it down there I think. Easy to flip it over and it's on layers of dustsheets anyway.

Like many of these things, the thought of doing it was worse than reality. It's weighty but not as bad as I expected. I'd already removed the two sliding panels.

Will detail in its thread but for now it's out and nothing damaged or broken (yet).
 
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Getting on a bit these days and not as bendy, like a bit of comfort taking off the dash ....

Two wood offcuts of 4"x2" to protect the carpet and raise the level above the front seat wiring loom....
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...followed by two scaffolding boards..
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… why lie on a hard surface?, not one but two layers of nice comfy carpet underlay...
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... one pillow was not enough and had to use two.
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Andy
 
A2Z said:
Not wishing to appear confrontational but it is definitely lacquer and they need chemically dipping to strip them properly as otherwise, as you say it's very difficult to remove which I know as I stripped one wheel myself manually with the aid of nitro morse from memory but never again ?
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Same here. The lacquer was really tough and took several attempts with paint stripper / scraping to get down to the aluminium. Definitely no chrome plating so with various grades of wet n dry followed by a buffing wheel the mirror finish was restored.
Anyone considering restoration / re polishing, get them professionally chemical stripped first.

Cheers Spike
 
Hi all.
Today's challenge on this covid 19 lockdown. Headlamp restoration! Luckily have spare (not so good) driver's side headlamps. Tried both t cut and turtle wax headlight restoration kits on both. Had little improvement so went down the scary route of wet and dry on the headlights. This has been covered before but i finished on 1500 grit then polished/cleaned headlights then laquered them. Not a perfect finish but looks considerably better than the yellowish lamp i started with. Used halfords heavy duty pu laquer.
_20200502_170834.JPG
 
stevec said:
Hi all.
Today's challenge on this covid 19 lockdown. Headlamp restoration! Luckily have spare (not so good) driver's side headlamps. Tried both t cut and turtle wax headlight restoration kits on both. Had little improvement so went down the scary route of wet and dry on the headlights. This has been covered before but i finished on 1500 grit then polished/cleaned headlights then laquered them. Not a perfect finish but looks considerably better than the yellowish lamp i started with. Used halfords heavy duty pu laquer. View attachment 63752
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I think you will get a poor light image/output
If the new finish isn’t further refined
 
stevec said:
Hi all.
Today's challenge on this covid 19 lockdown. Headlamp restoration! Luckily have spare (not so good) driver's side headlamps. Tried both t cut and turtle wax headlight restoration kits on both. Had little improvement so went down the scary route of wet and dry on the headlights. This has been covered before but i finished on 1500 grit then polished/cleaned headlights then laquered them. Not a perfect finish but looks considerably better than the yellowish lamp i started with. Used halfords heavy duty pu laquer. View attachment 63752
Click to expand...

That’s all that needs now Steve is a cut back with compound in a few days time once it’s hardened. Should be nice and clear then.
 
.... after a fair wait for my connector pin removal tools to arrive from China they popped through the letterbox. Previously tried suggestions of paper clips, hair grips, panel pins etc. but to no avail and fiddly. Tried the larger one on a couple of pins on a coil connector and more or less straight away the pins popped out. They are small but comfortable to use with the handle resting nicely in the palm of my hand and you can get get hold of them firmly too.

image.jpeg


There are cheaper ones on eBay but they look more awkward to use so I bought these.

www.ebay.co.uk

Terminal Removal Tool 2MM/3MM Wire Connector Pin Puller Tool for Audi for VW MO | eBay

For BMW E90 E91 3 Series 4D 09-11 Kidney Grill Grille Gloss Black Dual Slat MO. Front Bumper Lip Body Chin Spoiler Splitter For Vauxhall Opel for Astra H MK5 MO. Front Bumper Lip Body Splitter Spoiler Chin Glossy Black For Ford Focus RS ST MO.
www.ebay.co.uk

Andy
 
stevec said:
Hi all.
Today's challenge on this covid 19 lockdown. Headlamp restoration! Luckily have spare (not so good) driver's side headlamps. Tried both t cut and turtle wax headlight restoration kits on both. Had little improvement so went down the scary route of wet and dry on the headlights. This has been covered before but i finished on 1500 grit then polished/cleaned headlights then laquered them. Not a perfect finish but looks considerably better than the yellowish lamp i started with. Used halfords heavy duty pu laquer. View attachment 63752
Click to expand...

Firstly you should add lacquer after sanding, not (!) after polishing because then surface will be too smooth and lacquer will not stick as it should.
After lacquer you should gently sand it again to remove "orange peel" and polish.
 
Decided to clean the boot floor of some suspicious stains.
Got out the interior shampoo and followed the instructions.
"Mop with a dry cloth" they said. sadly it kept on frothing.
image.jpgSo out with the pressure washer to give a good rinse.
Worked a treat. Didnt think to do a before.
 
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