So with the polishing now not happening, I decided to do a bit of detail work.
One thing that was bugging me was the chipped and tatty petrol cap. The silver paint had worn through in quite a large patch showing the black undercoat. The weird thing is that they bothered to paint these at the factory as I discovered that the ring is actually cast aluminium! I guess they didn't want to get lots of warranty claims when the metal ring went dull.
So I stripped the cap down to its component pieces and set to it with a few grades of wet and dry. I ought to mention that I wasn't going for a chromed look, more a satin appearance. That and I only have limited patience....
Rubbed down:
Lacquered:
Reassembled:
Back on the car:
Very far from perfect, but it does look nice! You'll notice that one of the 'hex bolts is missing - the metal retaining clip holding it in has rusted away, so I'll need a trip out for Araldite.
Then I turned my attention to the side air ducts. On the driver's side, it houses the cooling fan and on the passenger side, it's the air intake. The mesh in them corrodes and turns all white and manky.
I dug out a pot of Hamerite Satin black and set to it with a children's paint brush. A bit time consuming but therapeutic!
Waiting for them to dry so I can bung them back on the car!
Now, unfortunately there are two other mesh grills on the car - a small one just below the bonnet and and much larger one set into the bottom of the bonnet. Just debating when to start these as they may be a bit soul-destroying!
