Nose job

[pmessling]

been busy with the bumper removal yesterday, unfortunately i haven't been able to swap to the new bumper as i don't yet have it back from the body shop, but has i have a long list of things to be done i cracked on with adding the second horn, and replacing the cooling fan resister to an uprated one supplied by jules. Both were easy to do, took around 4 hours to do everything including cleaning out the washer bottle, was some rubbish at the bottem so worth doing, my K&N needs a clean so will order a recharge kit for when i replace the bumpers, and when i add the stainless steel crimped mesh. have already replace the indicator bulbs to the chromed ones. Bumper being picked up monday

Prepped bumper that myself and dad done, £100 for spraying starlight silver and lacquering.



before








chassis legs looking clean and free from corrosion

[pmessling]

More progress today, whilst the car is back together so i can use it, the other bumper is now ready and will be collecting it on Monday, been cutting the mesh up today so hopefully can complete the whole nose job on Monday and wash wax etc ready for comb on Saturday. Went and brought some extra leverage cutters so i didn't have to get the noisy grinder out. Had to buy a square metre of the mesh, £100 but should get two sets out so can either sell on or fit to the bumper that i'm going to take off and get sprayed as a spare. The mesh that i'm putting in is like that found on the mk1 zr's as well as zt's, better than the black stuff in the mk2. Also got a recharged cleaning kit for my K&N from halfords as the filter is dirty

Peter

[Jules]

Great Job Peter, so satisfying doing all those fit & forget front end tasks!
Excellent to change that God awful cheap steel mesh for the real McCoy Stainless stuff.

Even if some owners still want to retain the black look mesh for originality purposes, it is still worth upgrading to stainless so it doesn't rust.
Simply paint the stainless black before fitting.

(note to self. Get the Mesh fitted to my own car that Christopher sent me!)

[pmessling]

there are loads of companies about that do different types of mesh, the original mesh is called expanded mesh, and on one of the sites i visited done stainless steel, and even powder coated steel, as well as aluminum so there are manyy choices out there. As well as different wire thicknesses and hole size, the mesh i have is 1.5mm wire and 10mm holes.

[black olive]

nice work and nice to see some pics of WIP.
Isnt the air filter dirty

[pmessling]

air filter sure is dirty, was put in over a year ago, brought a K&N cleaning kit from halfords so will clean when i swap the bumpers over.

[Kearton]

Originally Posted by pmessling

More progress today, whilst the car is back together so i can use it, the other bumper is now ready and will be collecting it on Monday, been cutting the mesh up today so hopefully can complete the whole nose job on Monday and wash wax etc ready for comb on Saturday.

(... snip ...)

Hi Pete,
one tip a car repairer gave me was to wait at least 2 weeks after painting before waxing or putting Diamondbrite etc. on a surface. Apparently it allows all the remaining chemicals that need to dissipate to do so and gives a better finish in the longer term.

Regards,
Kearton

[Jules]

I've heard that too, but does that apply to 2 pack paints?

[pmessling]

the body shop told me to return the bumper when on the car so that they can do the final polish on it, so with any luck on the time front tomorrow i can get that done as well, thanks for the tip, but as jules said does that apply too the paint and that it has had a layer of 2 pack lacquer

[pmessling]

Finished off cutting and installing the mesh, cleaned my air filter, notice that it had been rubbing on the wiring loom behind it, looked as if it had only just rubbed through the insulation tape so wound some spiral rap around it to protect it. Also reduced the bonnet to bumper gap, fitted stainless steel bolts both on top and bellow. The hardest part was cutting the squarish holes for the power wash as the other bumper didn't have them.

Original bumper with the cut out

new bumper drilling and cutting





finished hole was bigger and a odd shape , the end fit was tight but was good enough

finish bumper













although the gap has been reduce the bumper now sits a bit higher than the bonnet so may have to address this again when off.

Peter