In black really sets off the car nicely

Nice write up BTW

Black centers look the dogs bits on red ludes

Nice work Im sure they will be mint like the rest of your lude once you have done them

Mini update time.

Well following the time I started my Wheel refurb, Japshow Finale soon crept up.
Another quality show to meet up with the club, have a rag down the strip and (was hoping) to stick the lude in the show n’ shine comp on the Sunday of the show.

Cleaned her up a week beforehand and took some high level snaps above my driver (no headlight covers on):






However, as most of you may have read this happened on the Saturday:

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End result wasn’t ideal but could have been a lot worse – lucky in many ways.


I cleaned out most of the foam and powder on the Sunday after fixing the starter motor but then once I was home people informed me just how corrosive the powder is. So the Tuesday after the show I had a friend who works in a Vauxhall garage to give the engine bay a very quick steam clean.

This was how she looked when I got her home:



Still chunks of powder in the nooks and crannies when I moved the battery out the way:



Gave it a good going over with some Gunk cleaner, a brush and a watering can:





As you can see in the above pics the main casualty was my manifold heat shield which up until the fire looked like this:



This is what the powder will do to unprotected metal. I hadn’t even used some Autosol on it yet which would have been something:





Of it comes to see if it was salvageable:




Also more powder found under the plug cover:



…
…
…
…
Well some weekends have passed and a little elbow grease and the manifold heat shield is looking shiny again!





Wehey!

I’ve also been painstakingly battling through cleaning up each individual RAYS bolt on my Volk wheel refurb.

From this:



To this:



Not bad. That’s just cleaning old dirt and grime and overspray off with some paint stripper. Still yet to polish them up with some Autosol and my dremel + buffer pads. Should look good once done. I’m half way through the bags of bolts and these are only two wheels worth! I must be mad. It will be worth, honest!


Clean bag


I also forgot to post pics of the centre cap tool I got with the wheels, proper little metal RAYS spanner – expect I will refurb this too!





I’ve been continuing with the lips which seriously needed the surface of the bolt holes knocking down to get rid of the pitting around the bolts. Getting there too.

Plus I still havn’t decided on a colour for the centres!
Need to do some more photoshopping of some close-ups and stuff. Whatever I decide will look good, don’t you worry guys.


Aaaandd…all of the above to one side. I HAVE MORE MUGEN!

I have the best wife in the world who got me these for my birthday that I’ve been on about getting for a while now:





They look legite and she said she paid about £70 a while back now??? They look good enough for me. So gotta get them installed soon.


Plus I have some things in motion now for my engine plans – I shall post soon with pics and full build in the Project section.

Your car looks really nice from above and i like them pics.. The Black Roof also looks well cool...

Great job on cleaning the engine bay especially the heat shield..

Nicely done, Rob, glad you properly went to work getting rid of the powder, it truly is nasty stuff

With all the work you're putting into individual bolts for the wheels, i'd be sad if you went for anything other than original spec on them, i think you'll find they light up your car like nothing else when the silver shines. I just think black is too much for the busyness of the design.

I'm interested to know how the pedals feel when you get them on, they're certainly bling

Looking good man, and as Dave said, good work on getting the powder out properly, and awesome work on the sheild man

I'm looking forward to seeing her in the flesh on sunday dude Your paintwork's gonna put mine to shame though And as said, I'm glad you've managed to get your engine bay back to her former glory

As for the pedals, you have a fab missus... Mine roles her eyes at the thought of me having to put air in the tyres let alone modding it I've planned on getting a set of £25 ebay specials of those for a while now. Don't think I'll be looking too closely at yours now though... I like to fool myself

Those pedals are sweet. They are wide than stock on the accelerator to aid hel to toe downshifting which in the 4th and 5th Gens is hard.

nitin_s1: Cheers bud. Yeah I liked my old pic from above and don't appreciate the black roof enough. Shame I used my crap(ier) camera phone. Soooo need to buy a good camera one of these days or grab a fellow photographer buddy for a shoot. Just noticed your recent pics - WOW! Some slightly better photography than mine!

MaDMaXX: Yep, you and a few others freaked me out on the powder. A little googling and you were all on the money. It's annoying that powder is the most common for car fire extinguishers though - mainly because it puts out all types of fires.

We'll see on the wheels. I'm not so keen on the black too now - as you say losing the detail I don't want. We shall see - plenty of time to decide and get them done.

I'll let you know on the pedals once I get them fitted.

Cracy C: Cheers mate. I still can't believe I got the shield back to it's glory - it looked proper facked! lol:

Nath: See ya Sunday bud - numbers aren't looking amazing - at least need 5 to get a good price. Will be PMing some people now.

And yes the other half is one of a kind - loves cars too, helps me wash it at shows, films my drag runs, buys me Mugen - definitely a keeper don't you think?

Ratty: Sweet indeed! Didn't know that about the width. More mugen knowledge for me! MWUHAHA!

I'm loving the attention to detail you're putting into this. It really does make a difference.
Your wheels are going to look fantastic once they're done.

That powder seems to have got everywhere.
I've just received my powder extinguisher. Just hope I never have to use it.

When fitting your new Mugens, you may need to file a millimetre or two from the sides of your original pedal plates for them to fit properly.
I had to do this when fitting mine. They do fit nice and snug now though.

Cheers Push and thanks for the tip on the pedals.

If there's a dry period I may try and fit them tomorrow.

Great project buddy! But I thnk there is too much red in ebgine bay.
I have similiar shape wheels but I'm gonna make them gold inside like BBS RS.
Well done

Looks good Rob. Loving the pedals and glad it is all coming back together after the fire.

You have some commitment to doing those wheel bolts. Muchos respect!!!

I am seling my Mugen Airbox from the teg.

Fancy modifying it to a Prelude Mugen airbox??

Bartosz: I agree TBH. been meaning to get round to removing the plastic red hose/wire covers. Will be attacking the engine with a less is more approach soon. Bye bye, ABS, PAS & aircon. Maybe a battery relocate and some slight wire tucking. Perhaps one addition though.

What wheels do you have then? I thought about Gold the other day or perhaps some kind of bronze or light brown??? Got any pics of your progress?

Dino: Cheers bud. I bet you thought I was joking when I text you when you were in Siciliy?

The bolts slowly drain you one after the other. But span it over a few sessions and it's not too bad. Like I said I shall reap the rewards of my labour.

Funny you should mention your airbox, I nearly bought a carbon Mugen copy for a Teg early in the year to try and mod to go with the induction piping. I let it go in the end. Would have been a cool project. But I have other priorities right now for my cash.