Action from yesterday (Saturday 31/3) ...
Set up and ready to go with my M6 forest in play doh...
and inners freshly sanded and wiped back with a barely damp cloth to pick up the dust...
Coat one of inners...
Second coat of inners done, with can in shot for colour reference...
This was a quick foam block sand down after coat one of the outer side of the panels had touch dried...
Second coat of outer sides drying...
Four coats completed on the outer side by the end of the day but I decided to resist fitting them until they’d had chance to dry overnight and hoping to grab five minutes today - Easter Sunday!
Now obviously I didn’t rest on my laurels waiting for paint to dry so in between each of the above photos I got cracking with the rest of my list ...
First of all I splodged some exterior metal black paint on the bare metal parts - weld point for new exhaust hook, new earth point for battery, and the holes that the side panel mount bolts go through ...
The next job on my list was to tidy up some wiring that I spotted whilst sorting my starter out - I’ve been meaning to sort it since I purchased the truck but had forgotten all about it. It’s some kind of ignition system hack / fix / aftermarket wiring so I wrapped the individual connectors up with self amalgamating tape, cable tied the cables together and covered in convoluted tubing and then cable tied that together...
Since taking the above photos I also wrapped the gaps in more self amalgamating tape and cable tied it up at the top of the engine bay which you might see in following photos.
Whilst I was there I looked at removing the standard air box that had been replaced with a foam aftermarket filter but left in situ by the previous owner, I could have removed it when I took the standard exhaust off last year but I hadn’t really properly looked underneath to see how it was mounted ....
Just a solitary 12mm headed bolt and she was off...
There were a couple of tubes going into it and a sensor of some kind - I need to check the manual to see what - but she’s been starting and running fine without this being used for over 700 miles since I bought it even though the air box was in situ but not actually used. I’ve started it since so all looks fine without it. I can always fit sensor into end of tubing on a bracket if needed but I’ve tied the tubes up out of the way for now.
Oh there’s the photo of the cabling up out of the way...
Next up was a bit of hammering / body shaping to try and straighten out a historical dent on passenger side that is more obvious now I have my lower side panel below it, although I’m not sure my hammering amounted to much.
Before...
After...
The next job was to fit a set of shallow wheel nuts from superforma - the previous nuts protruded the studs by about 4mm so although these are a bit extreme they’re definitely shorter than the studs and would also remain that way if I did fit alloy wheels again with a shallower nut recess.
Comparison in length...
One new fitted, one previous fitted...
All four fitted...
Next job on the list was to put an extra pair of bolts at the edge of the number plate, as suggested on here by
logicaluk to help support it due to any pressure from the flap weight / wind resistance. I did remove the plate to drill the holes in it but didn’t get a photo until it was back bolted onto the truck...
My only concern with the flap is the proximity of the holes to the edge of the rubber sheet due to me using a U channel bar, which is annoying as I’d originally planned to mount it by sandwiching it between 2 separate flat bar pieces but they were out of stock in b&q when I went to buy. I can see that being a change pretty soon, as a 20mm wide bar would give me an extra 10mm margin at the top of the rubber sheet above the holes, at least I’ve got a spare section of rubber sheet to use if I lose this one.
The last job of the day before the final two coats of paint on the side panels was to give it all a good clean, a rare occasion for it as I don’t mind it catching dirt but I wanted to give the underside and sections where I was mounting panels to a thorough clean.
First up a liberal spray of engine cleaner all over the mechanicals underneath ...
Which I left to stew whilst getting pressure washer out and filling a bucket before scrubbing with an old brush from a dustpan set, I seem to have accumulated four over the years. I then gave everything a blast with the pressure washer standard wide spray nozzle, not the fine focussed full strength scary nozzle.
I then washed all over, rinsed, sprayed with auto finesse aqua coat, rinsed...
... and then dried...
As it stands the panels have dried just how I’d hoped and I’m 12 bolts away from perfection. Hopefully I can bribe 5 year old with chocolate eggs to help me fit panels at some point today!
