Ians black series 3 Elford Turbo

[ian65]

Mine is still in the box .............

here's hoping you can leave it in there and don't need to use it.

[A7RXY]

I'll cross that bridge when I have to ......................

[ian65]

I'll cross that bridge when I have to ......................

yeah, I was going to do that but then, I wanted the new tank out of the way and the best place to keep it is on the car.... so on it went.

[RamoNZ]

Got to love a black S3.... Have you done anything with the wheels as yet?

A polish would contrast the black nicely, but can be pricey - they can do things like powder coat in a chrome colour as well.

Much harder wearing and hard to tell the difference from standard polished.

[ian65]

Got to love a black S3.... Have you done anything with the wheels as yet?

A polish would contrast the black nicely, but can be pricey - they can do things like powder coat in a chrome colour as well.

Much harder wearing and hard to tell the difference from standard polished.

to be honest, I haven't bothered until this weekend just gone... I hate cleaning / polishing cars and I'm more interested in how they go than how they look....

but last weekend, I looked at the wheels and thought that they do let the car down. As I've just done 3 grand on my Jag on repairs and maintenance, I don't want to send another load of £££££'s on the Mazda getting the wheels refurbed so I took one off and had a look at it.
The lacquer had crazed on the wheels like this...



so I got a really fine grit disc on the DA sander and cleaned the old lacquer off...





Next I'm going to put some 2000 grit wet and dry over it and then some cutting compound on the mop.... I reckon it'll come up like a mirror.... the inset bits of the wheel are good so I'll leave them as they are, just clean them up.
A fresh coat of lacquer and they'll be good to go...
Not as good as a machine cut re-face obviously but should be good enough for the time being. We'll see!
I've got a spare set of S3 alloys that I'll probably get professionally refurbed when I've recovered from my open wallet surgery!

[syebba]

It's amazing there was'nt more oxidation under the crazed lacquer,they look miles better already.
They'll lift the whole cars appearance.

[spoddy]

they do look alot better. i like the series 3 wheels and love the series 2 also.
you were saying your not into polishing and she looks well in the pics very good for original paint.
are you going to touch up around any paint surfaces that have a bit of surface corrosion?

i see a few edges needing a bit of repainting to keep the rust monster out.

[ian65]

yeah, I'll touch up the bits that need doing and keep on top of things... I'm not too worried about shiney paint though.... I'm more into how it goes and enjoying driving it.

[spoddy]

well she looks shiney enough, my brill black mx3 would be the same, stays shiney for a few days.
road grime or rain comes along and then she's all grubby again, so i would say its the same for yourself.

i didn't know how well an fb looked in black until i seen your pics. those wing mirrors look great, the fb looks very modern in front and side views when in black and the body moldings are black too. i wonder what the maroon pr red interior in a black fb would look like?

[RamoNZ]

No updates for a month? Come on Ian, we know you are secretly collecting bits to convert this lovely black car to a 13b turbo