Not a particluarly succesful day but some plus points: started out at 5am in the morning (never a good time to be awake) and I had only been going about an hour when the battery light came on, then the engine temperature needle started to rise, then the revometer failed then the speedo failed! Stopped at a service station and found that the water pump had collapsed and the fan belt had come off; couldn't fix myself so had to call the AA. They couldn't do anything so had to get both the truck and trailer towed to the centre of Leicster to get the pump replaced. Guys at the garage already had the part ready and got stuck into it straight away, job was done in a couple of hours and I eventually made it to Silverstone at 1330.
The next session was at 1405 so had to quickly get the car off the trailer and get all the way to the other side of the circuit to get signed on. Didn't have time to replace the tyres or sort out the engine so wasn't the greatest of sessions, more of a get to know the circuit session.
However things did start to get better from here. Everyone seemed to like the paint job and several people came up to me to chat about it. I spoke to the oricle of Mk1 MR2's (Mo Stoner), he knew exactly what the problem was with the car and so now I will be replacing the air filter and completely flushing the cooling system. Also sorted out the idle problem by adjusting the screw, Rick gave me a hand getting the wheels off and I managed to have the tyres changed for the last session.
Engine sounding a bit better and not cutting out on me everytime I stopped it was back out onto the circuit. The new Silverstone tyres have so much more grip than the old Yokohamas and I was really able to start throwing it about, I was still getting overtaken but not as quickly as in the first session and was even able to keep up with one car.
All in all not 100% sure 6+ hours of towing a trailer was really worth the 20 minutes good tracktime, we'll chalk this one up to experience.
Friday, 27 February 2009
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Cest Le Fine!
I have finally finished the respray, it only took a total of 6 days in the end! THe HVLP system worked very well once i got used to it. Very easy to use and clean and didn't make too much of a mess with overspray.
Spray diary:
Day 1 - removed lights etc and got garage set up, sanded down all plastic parts
Day 2 - finished sanding, didn't get around to masking up so now 1/2 day behind
Day 3 - applied 2 coats of red, first coat on one side looked awful as I had sprayed the paint on too thick, sorted that and the rest of the car looked good, spent the afternoon trying to sand out the drips and also a couple of areas where the paint hadn't stuck, now 1 day behind
Day 4 - applied 3rd coat of red, didn't go on brilliantly I think the mix may have been slightly too thin, spent some time trying to get rid of a couple of drips, applied 4th and final coat and it went on very well, bit of luck my best spray was the last!
Day 5 - masked up for grey and applied 2 coats, went on very well only a little bit of running on the spoiler, colour isn't grey however its white! I think there may have been a mistake at the paint factory, still 1 day behind
Day 6 - its a good job I had an extra day of work as a contingency, applied 1 coat of black, looked good to begin with but then started going a dark grey colour, not good, ran out of thinners so had to search Lincoln for a supplier, eventually found one and applied 2nd coat of black, now looks much better and i've finished the spraying! Left it for a couple of hours then removed all masking, paint overlap in a coule of places but nothing major, managed to get the 2 cars and scooter back in the garage in the evening.
I won't put any pictures of it up just yet as I can't get a good shot of it in the garage, I will wait until I have the sponsors logos on it and get Miles to take some good shots at Silverstone.
Spray diary:
Day 1 - removed lights etc and got garage set up, sanded down all plastic parts
Day 2 - finished sanding, didn't get around to masking up so now 1/2 day behind
Day 3 - applied 2 coats of red, first coat on one side looked awful as I had sprayed the paint on too thick, sorted that and the rest of the car looked good, spent the afternoon trying to sand out the drips and also a couple of areas where the paint hadn't stuck, now 1 day behind
Day 4 - applied 3rd coat of red, didn't go on brilliantly I think the mix may have been slightly too thin, spent some time trying to get rid of a couple of drips, applied 4th and final coat and it went on very well, bit of luck my best spray was the last!
Day 5 - masked up for grey and applied 2 coats, went on very well only a little bit of running on the spoiler, colour isn't grey however its white! I think there may have been a mistake at the paint factory, still 1 day behind
Day 6 - its a good job I had an extra day of work as a contingency, applied 1 coat of black, looked good to begin with but then started going a dark grey colour, not good, ran out of thinners so had to search Lincoln for a supplier, eventually found one and applied 2nd coat of black, now looks much better and i've finished the spraying! Left it for a couple of hours then removed all masking, paint overlap in a coule of places but nothing major, managed to get the 2 cars and scooter back in the garage in the evening.
I won't put any pictures of it up just yet as I can't get a good shot of it in the garage, I will wait until I have the sponsors logos on it and get Miles to take some good shots at Silverstone.
Friday, 6 February 2009
Well that didn't take too long did it?!
With a bit of help from the good Dr Bourke the MR2 now has two solid (ish) anti roll bar brackets. Started work around 8pm and eventually let the neighbours get some sleep at around 11.30pm. ET will probably be able to explain the process better than me as I was mostly on hole making and tea fetching duty.
Glad thats one less thing to do, but still a hell of a lot left!
Glad thats one less thing to do, but still a hell of a lot left!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)