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Good work

Can I ask what you polished your wheels with? The new Kleers metal polish is really fine, and leaves a very good protection on there, might help to keep them looking that good

with the metallic, remember to blend in on the panel wherever you can - so, paint your normal paint, just over the primered area, then mix that paint 1:1 with clearcoat, and go over a larger area, then mix that with 1:1 clearcoat and go even further - that way you will be thinning the paint out, and any shade difference will be lost on the panel Finally paint the complete panel with clearcoat, so you have no edges that can come back in the future.
If you have issues after painting the door, it might be worth blending on the front wing...sounds extreme I know, but otherwise you end up with a car like mine...bit of a patchwork quilt

Cheers chaps.

Marc, I just used Autosol and plenty of elbow grease on the wheels. I followed it up by a good waxing with a Meguiars wax that a friend of mine, who spends more time cleaning than driving his car, recommended. Last year I just polished them and didn't wax them or anything so they did deteriorate relativly quickly, but considering it'd been a year of all weather driving since they were polished they weren't so bad really.

Thanks for the painting tips too I've got a fair handle on what I'm doing in terms of process from painting the other side of the car with aerosols last year, but obviously I couldn't do things like blend the paint with the clear coat. That sounds interesting! My biggest challenge will be getting used to the workflow with the spray gun I think. In the past I've painted up to trim lines/panel edges to hide slight changes in paint colour, but as you say it can end up looking a little patch work.

One thing that plays in my favour is that the Maya Gold is only lightly metallic, my friend who likes to clean things worked in a body shop for a while and said it looks like one of the easiest metallic colours to spray he's seen. Still, as you say Ian, there's margin for error with runs and alike.

MOT passed! Just one advisory for a slightly weak hand brake. Happy with that

Excellent news

Nice one.... always a relief when you get the thumbs up

Good Stuff Steve.

When the MOT man's writing the VIN down on his sheet (like in your pic), recite it out loud to him complete, with your back turned to the car.
They're so shocked they daren't fail it then,.......works every time.

haha. I'll try that one next time!

I think in that photo they were doing the obligatory 'wheres the cambelt go on this then?'

Time for an update.

I've been working on the paint last weekend, most evenings this week and today, to try and get it sorted before the sun goes away again. The first thing I painted was the sunroof.



I'm pretty happy with how it came out, though my inexperience with a proper spray gun showed a little with the lacquer as it's not a great finish, I think I did too many light coats and so its a bit kinda dusty. I'm pretty sure once it's flatted and polished it'll be fine. I keep being tempted to get out and flat it, but I'm trying to be patient as I know with 1k spray you gotta wait till the paint has fully fully hardened to get the best finish.

Next up I tackled the passengers side of the car, and with a few lessons learnt from the sunroof I was full of confidence. I decided to paint everything under the trim line, there were some stone chips on the wing as well as the surface rust on the door I'd fixed, at the same time as painting the rear quarter and the rear valance. I thought it had gone well, till I saw the petrol filler area which had reacted.





I guess I hadn't got rid of enough petrol residue. So a bit more sanding and second time lucky it was ok. So I stuck some lacquer on it all and moved on. I got the lacquer finish much better this time. Once the lacquer had dried I noticed something odd, the join between my new paint and the original paint looked fine ( i.e. I couldn't see it!), but the paint I'd done on the arch lip last year now looked a bit crap. I'm not sure if its just the unflattened lacquer exaggerating the different paints, it's never been perfect. I guess time will tell and I might just have to have a 3rd shot at that rear quarter at some stage.



Anyway thats 2 sides of the car down, and 1 to go. It was looking a bit sorry for it's self though...



Today I painted the drivers rear quarter and sill leaving just the door to do.



Finally I got a finish I'm happy with on this quarter, and then ran out of lacquer :x So I best get shopping!

Good work... as always, and I'm slightly relieved I was half-expecting Rexanne to be rocking a certain blue Elford front bumper by now

I was tempted to just trip over near the bumper holding a pot of gold paint......