1.9 Re-Shell And Restoration - The Deathstar

[kyepan 291]

I've spent the past 6 months, possibly longer... hunting for a suitable shell for the vital organs (mi-16, bodies, suspension, fancy manifold) from my bashed up leaky rust box Blue Miami. Do i go Gti? Do i go base model sleeper? do i bin all the hard work and buy a Porsche... 996's are very cheap right now.

 

I've looked at shells in Bristol, Gloucester, London and many thanks in advance to Anthony for accompanying me to see a couple of them. All have not been quite what i was looking for. To say, mint shells are hard to come by, is an understatement, if you have one, and somewhere to store it, you're looking at the modern day mk 2 escort. The one in bristol had gone in every conceivable place, and he still wanted 1250 for it. It had rotten headlight panels, rotten sills, rear quarters, boot floor big time, roof between b and c pillar..all the worst bits of 205 shell related rust...

 

However there was an answer staring me right in the face. After looking for six months, Anthony's other black 1.9 became available again, I quite literally bit Ant's hand off.

 

It's had a respray, has a bit of micro-blistering, but other than that, is really solid in all the important areas, once we got it apart we found it was even more solid than expected, quite possibly one of the better ones out there. There are a couple of bits of restoration to do in a preventative capacity that made sense, but we'll get onto that later.

 

I've always wanted a black one, since i was about 7 and my second year teacher Mrs Simmons had a brand new 1.9, i distinctly remember thinking it was the best car i'd ever seen, it was black... This example is phase 2 k plate, half leather interior, and the price was more than reasonable.

 

There were a few minor issues highlighted during the previous attempted sale.... it supposedly had an exhaust pipe so leaky an entire race might get nearly gassed out of existence... and idle so uneven the vibrations caused major shifts in global plate tectonics and resulting catestrophic earthquakes, and it's killed at least the entire population of Alderan due to it's unlicensed badly mounted planet destroying laser canon. I was a little trepid about the purchase. But Ant assured me it had just completed a 3000 mile round trip across europe and had not resulted in any fatalities, skipped a beat or otherwise harmed any children, animals or baby kittens.

 

Ultimately none of the supposed and totally non existent issues mattered because, the simple fact was I was going to use it for a re-shell.....

 

 

Anyway...

 

I'll give some more updates and continued body count in the not too distant future.

I'm genuinely excited to be owning a nice example finally. Woo hoo.

[cheesegrater 43 1 Cars]

Make sure the engine doesn't fall out.

[kyepan 291]

Too late

 

 

 

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Edited February 21, 2014 by kyepan

[cheesegrater 43 1 Cars]

Don't smoke in this one Justin. I heard Anthony worked really hard to get the smell of fags out of it.

[kyepan 291]

​

 

 

Anyway, back on topic...

 

So the initial plan was roughly like this.

 

Weekend 1 - strip the blue car

Goal - remove all the parts intended to be kept from the blue car.

Rough primary job list

• remove engine
• loom
• beam
• pump
• suspension
• heater matrix
• trim
• interior
• stereo (speakers)

Weekend 2 - Do repairs to deathstar shell -

Goal - Fix the preventative bits of minor rust on the inner wings, boot floor and under tank, cut and fit bonnet pins.

Primary jobs list

• remove beam and tank, patch, weld, prime paint.
• Cut out inner wings, stitch in new primed section, prime paint under seal
• Measure, cut and fit bonnet pins
• weld plate under headlight top panels to strengthen.

Secondary tasks, fit new bumper mounts (that we took off the blue car) weld in a flexi to the exhaust, possibly paint manifold with high temp paint

Weekend 3 - Fix the components

Goal - Make the nessecary changes to the components removed from the blue car

Primary jobs list

• Swap the diff, and seals
• Remove clutch / flywheel, change crank oil seal
• remove stub axels, swap brakes and lines
• clean up any related oil slicks.

Weekend 4 - Swap the components to the deathstar.

Goal- Fully running deathstar with death bringing bodies

Primary jobs list

• Beam swap
• Swap suspension and front brakes
• wishbones
• driveshafts
• engine
• loom
• battery
• fuel pump
• manifold
• exhaust
• change speakers and stereo

Secondary - if no immobiliser, possibly install alarm.

unfortunately like many plans - this one never happened...

And the car ended going up to a good friend with a workshop and time was exchanged for money.

Edited February 21, 2014 by kyepan

[kyepan 291]

So to continue, as you can see from above we had quite a bit of restoration planned, whilst none of the shell needed it immediately, however to do it all would mean the shell was good for another ten years, hopefully more. To leave it would mean in three or four years it would require more attention. And personally I feel these cars have now become restoration items, rather than enthusiast consumables. And should be treated as such.. But that then begs the question what to do with the blue she'll, which whilst largely rust free is in super tatty condition - the oil on the underside keeps the rust away

[cheesegrater 43 1 Cars]

Can't wait to see this, good sounding car and for once a decent looking shell!

Edited February 21, 2014 by cheesegrater

[Kane 34]

If this turns out anything like your rebuild thread Justin it should be a good read! Subscribed

[welshpug 1,657]

Sooo, whats actually wrong with the blue shell?

[cheesegrater 43 1 Cars]

Rotten, dented, no lacquer, bits of trim missing

[welshpug 1,657]

Dibs!

[kyepan 291]

on the shell mei? Talk to me if you're interested, although i'm not sure if this is dry wit!

 

So...

As i said before, Instead of the four weekend job, now that I lived in london without a garage I opted to pay a good friend and auto mechanic to do the majority of the re shell work. With myself and Anthony lending a hand for one of the weekends to do the fiddly bits.

• We planned to convert my fancy zx armed, 22mm, 24mm ARB beam to discs.
• Swap the diff over to a new VTS box that came from Miles (thanks again miles)
• Change the crank Oil seal - more on that later.
• Cut and fit the bonnet pins.
• Do all the remedial preventative welding and painting.
• Choose the best bits from both cars, and make a good one.

I also planned to ditch the 307HDI brakes, and go back to standard stoppers, with M1144 pads, as they are lighter than light.

About 3 weeks ago, perhaps 4, I dropped the blue car off with ryan, the rough plan was give him a few days to strip it, of engine box, running gear, then Ant kindly dropped down the black car mid week. Again Ryan stripped that one, then we would rock up at the weekend, and get stuck in.

By the time we had arrived, Mine was up on blocks…

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engine removed,

​

the black car was also stripped and on the ramps. Ryan's only comment was that they had both been well looked after, as they came apart very easily and quickly.

He'd already welded the boot floor, he said it was only a minor patch.

​

The tank was already off, and we could see that the usual rust spot above the tank hadn't rusted through the top layer yet, there was discussion about leaving as it would not need attention for years, but eventually we opted to drill out the spot welds, peel the lower section back, cut out the tiny bit that was starting to go in the upper skin, and then stitch in a new section.

Here is the lower layer, as you can see, it's totally solid and in very good condition..

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Mean whilst, I did some work on the engine bay.

Here's one of the tool himself..grinding away.

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Here's it prior to the work, which involved a little work with the emery wheel on the angle grinder to knock the surface rust off, the bulkhead, chassis legs and around the rad seat / headlight panels.

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The battery tray came off, again all the rust got knocked off underneath it, and the tray itself got a good clean, and prep.

please excuse the s*ite photo.. this is with the tray off, getting to the bits underneath.

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Everything was then given a coat of rust stop, primer, some high impact paint for the road facing sections, top coat of pug black for the rest. and wax-oil for the chassis legs. Again we noted that the bit underneath the brake master cylinder, a usual rust trap, was solid. Win.

We also dropped the fuel lines, cleaned them up, painted with the impact paint and reconnected. Replaced all the in bay hoses, including fuel filter, as some were a little bit perished.

Resto-Ration... more later.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

This should be a good read.

 

Although your schedule made me chuckle! It's a old Peugeot, we'll see how that one unfolds!

[welshpug 1,657]

on the shell mei? Talk to me if you're interested, although i'm not sure if this is dry wit!

 

 

 

bit of both really Justin, you haven't yet shown anything that says that shell is dead yet

 

I haven't anywhere to put it though, but likely enough parts kicking about to make it run and drive

[kyepan 291]

Next was the fanimould, a touring car spec Dave maniflow special, i'd been a bit concerned about it rusting, so decided to give it a coat of high temp paint.

Before… it had a bit of surface, but again the angle grinder got that off and i was back to fresh metal.

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After.. a bit of a clean up

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After some painty paint.

and yes it did stink a bit whilst curing.. 5 mins on, 10 mins off, 5 mins on, 10 mins off… drive.

We also procured a small flexi section and welded that into the system. The reason for this was that… it needed a flexy, and the weakest link prior to that was the rubber mounts, which it was killing on a regular basis, and the 4-2 section join which was rattling from being heaved about under load. Whilst it was short, we also added a group N rear mount on the torsion link to settle the engine a bit more, and lead to less drivetrain shunt, and torque related angle changes. In hindsight, when asked if i wanted a flexi in, i should have said… YES… lesson learned there.

Oil seal - flywheel side, pissing out it was, reason for this, muggins here had put one of the cut down (or so i thought) bolts in and measured it wrong, leading to it puncturing through into where the seal sits. We removed the bolt, cut it down, chemical metalled the hole, sanded it back to a smooth finish suitable for the seal and plopped the new one in. Again, a mistake on my part. Ant converted the Replacement Be3 over to include the diff from my old box, then started on the beam. Here is it with the box on. We also replaced the diff bolts on the crown wheel, oil seals for diff, clutch and flywheel bolts.

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The sump was still weeping very slightly, but it's been reasonably sealed for a good long while so i'm less concerned about that.

Now… Ant doesn't usually swear, but after the sound of something big being hit with something heavy and hard for, perhaps half an hour, it would seem that the stub axel would not wind or drift out of the 1.9 beam. In fact it required nearly 20 tonnes to come out, and the sacrifical nut had taken the thread with it… So Ant kindly returned on sunday with a spare, and rebuilt the beam to take discs, he might have a photo of the pitting on the stub somewhere.

We also swapped pumps and tanks, then swapped them back, and refitted the original tank and pump, with a new and more reliable sender.

Onto the bonnet pins... now, Ryan welded some plates onto the headlight panels to stop them tearing. I also had to cut out new holes for the aerocatches in the black bonnet.

My plan was to - Remove the aero-catches, which was a two man job as getting to the backs of the nuts was a pain in some cases. Stick masking tape to the bonnet and draw on where the existing catch cutout was, transfer the patterns to the new bonnet and cut away.

Here is the old bonnet with catches removed.

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As it happened it took a few attempts to lift the pattern off without the separate bits of masking tape coming apart, but it worked.

Then onto the cutting, first a pilot hole at the center of either end, then the long runs cut with my oscillator, then the die grinder to do the radiuses. Going out on saturday night until about 3am with Ryan meant that using the die Grinder and compressor made my already heavy hangover slightly less bearable as it refilled. About 3 hours later, i'd cut away the the tops, and was working on cutting the sections out of the strengthening underneath to allow the catches to seat. A lick of primer (again a lesson learned from before) and some paint helped to make good the cut sections, in addition to making sure any sharp bits had the edges knocked off. It took the best part of a day to do, and that's after i'd done it once before.

The plan worked and the catches were in place. we test fitted the bonnet briefly to mark the holes for the pins on the headlight panels, and drilled / fitted. then primed and painted those holes too. I would have liked to show some more on the bonnet story, but i was more concerned with not yacking up and a headache than entertaining you monkeys weeks after.

In terms of what we set out to do we achieved everything. The welding and body restoration was done, with the additional items of engine bay, lines. The box, oil seal, beam and bonnet pins were done.

We ideally wanted to get the engine in, exhaust on, suspension on, and brakes so ryan had a rolling shell he could move off his ramps, although i forgot to bring the pads... but that didn't happen as it was late on sunday and we all had had enough.

And that was basically it for the weekend. Yes you could do more, but we did more than enough.

Big thanks to Anthony for coming down and helping do the box, beam and a whole list of other things that i've forgotten! And to ryan for working a weekend!

More to come....

[GLPoomobile 958]

Have you named this the Death Star as you expect it to blow up at some point?

[jackherer 543]

Have you named this the Death Star as you expect it to blow up at some point?

I assumed it was because of the vulnerability in the exhaust port...

 

We also procured a small flexi section and welded that into the system. The reason for this was that… it needed a flexy, and the weakest link prior to that was the rubber mounts, which it was killing on a regular basis, and the 4-2 section join which was rattling from being heaved about under load. Whilst it was short, we also added a group N rear mount on the torsion link to settle the engine a bit more, and lead to less drivetrain shunt, and torque related angle changes. In hindsight, when asked if i wanted a flexi in, i should have said… YES… lesson learned there.

[S@m 156]

This is inspiration indeed, i have a similar need to do a similar reshell. Hope all is well and you aren't left with any porsche hankerings by the end of it.....mine is for a 968.

[kyepan 291]

It may get renamed once it is shown it's true colours, the name stems from it's previous incarnation, that was for want of a better word, misrepresented.

[kyepan 291]

A couple of weeks pass, and i drop off some pads for ryan to rebuild the brakes.. then go back on friday after work.

Ryan had been doing it in the evenings, got the engine in, got the loom / dash / exhaust, suspension brakes, etc.

​

Upon returning one friday evening last week I find the car nearly done…. well when i say nearly done, I mean.

• The engine hadn't run
• The brakes hadn't been bled
• The bonnet hadn't been fitted with the aerocatches
• The headlights weren't in
• The fuel system hadn't been tested
• The lights were untested
• The exhaust wasn't checked after the welding
• Strut brace needed to go on

it was friday at 6pm, and i had karting the next morning in kent, at 8am… and needed to pick up my kit from london on the way.

So just a couple of things to do we set about getting on with it.

Gear linkage next, this was fouling on the long hollow gear rod when in 1st and 3rd.

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We ground it down as much as we could but the manifold was still 2 lateral pipes at that point, before the 2 into 1 union, just too wide. tried moving the engine on the gearbox mount to give a bit of angle, no joy, So we would have to tilt the engine a little and get it to go under the linkage, i'm loathed to say we elongated the lower torsion link where it mates to the large lower torsion bush. We also gave ourselves much needed clearance off the bulkhead from the spaghetti junction behind the engine.

It also fouled very very slightly on the forward and back rod. but this was again cured by the tilt.

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First engine related thing was to get a naughty fuel hose on, with the fact i have two fuel rails with two different diameters and we replaced all the hose for one size meant this this took a pair of mole grips… we'll come back to that.. yee ha..

Then we had to get the engine working, ryan said he'd tried but couldn't get it to fire, there was a solonoid somewhere under the dash clicking away of it's own merry accord, but from what i can tell all the dash lit up.

I brought along the laptop to plug in the DTA and check everything over sensor wise, we plugged in, turned the key and … nothing. We figured out the imobiliser and got it turning over OK, figured out that the wiring for my under dash multiplug was okay. Checked that both the ignition and fuel relays were getting 12v live, and getting the switched live from the key… so that left the ecu. Was this going to be a 500 quid bill….

As it turned out, the ecu was fine, but the earth in the engine bay needed tightening, bingo, ecu alive, turn the car over for a bit and eventually it fires into life.. Firstly the starter is way swifter than before. We have an engine.

As it warmed a little little smoke started rising from the manifold curing, then the fuel hose popped… key off, grab extinguisher…

Ryans standing there laughing… lucky it wasn't hotter or at some random time later!

Turns out using mole grips to put it on was a BAD idea.

Anyway we also notice a leak at the three way union, so off comes the bottom fuel rail feed, and we set about sealing up the leaky union, quick tweak and it's happy, new hose on the top, bit of WD40 and it's on, clips on. Take 2

This time, we're good, more smoke from fanimould curing… temps not really responding on the dash and we start looking at pinouts again. In the end we switch off to stop the smoke, and swap the sender with the one from the 1.9 engine.

Turnover and we're off again not much smoke, much better temp reading and we switch off

Next brakes, we've used the Brembo braided hoses on the front from the 307HDI calipers and they don't quite work, so off they come and on go the standard hoses.

Ten minutes later we had brake pressure.

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Mean wilst Ryan did a few other bits, I cleaned up the black road wheels, and gave them a polish, black with black… i'm not going back.. where's my plasticare

Bonnet, one of the armature bolts was sheered, so i taped around that to avoid vibrations and made a mental note to drill it out at some point in the future.

We lined up the bonnet and gave the pins a little tweak here and there, then fitted it.. bonnet wouldn't close.

Cutting away the insulation around the strut brace improved things, but still it wasn't all that great a shut, and needs to be closed left to right, i think winding out the bonnet pins very slightly would be a wise move, even if it does upset the shut lines, as i don't want a bent bonnet.

Next was toe, with no gauges and no garages open we would have to approximate, which is done with two very long poles across the tyre and down the sill, measuring to the milimeter, we got them both roughly paralell, with a smidge of toe in. Toe is go.

With the lights fitted, we could see something was amis, sidelights worked, no dipped, and no right hand front indicator, main beam ok.

As it turned out we had a duff left hand dipped bulb, and the earth missing from the right hand side. Lights are go.

Sat it there, fans cut in just as the temp got a bit on the .. is it running a bit too hot side… win.

We are a go for shake down, of we go, feels tight, go up and down the road a bit, wake up the dead, glorious sound of hammer! exhaust is quiet, car feels tight, drives straight, come back and put it on the ramps to check for….

The inevitable water leak…… from the rear water distribution block area… no… from the bottom of the cam cover…s*it….

Off came the cam cover, which due to the routing meant only moving the fuel filter and an appropriate amount of swearing, now… i've been running without a cam cover, so completely blame myself for the water pump internal seal going after only… 10000 miles. But i hear they do just go…

So we have complications - how much is it leaking with the engine off… drip every two seconds.. how much on.. 2 drips a second… s*it s*it s*it.. feel gutted walk around the workshop sick feeling in stomach.. gutted.. if only we'd spotted it, or bothered to check, but you just don't think of these things at the time. Should i drive it, should i risk it... is it going to get worse all of a sudden, the bearings seemed fine... ryan offered his car, we're so close to finishing mine.......

So… it's nearly midnight, car is ready to go, except it's loosing water… and a small weep of oil from the rear of the sump.

Whilst i think about it, this is a car worthy of my ownership, it's tried to set fire to itself, developed a hard to fix waterleak, i'll come onto how hard later, and it's got an oil leak.

How hard, well it's on verniers, mapped to the cam timing, and those that know Mi-16s will know that the precise cam timing is a combination of bottom pulley pin wiggle, front tension and rear tension…

Without the standard pulleys pinning is difficult, or impossible depending on the timing because you may not be able to pin it (by removing a retaining bolt from the vernier), accurate re timing is impossible because the new VTS box has no flywheel marker tab hole or, yes we could mark the bottom pulley but this would be.. inaccurate.

So the operation would require getting the top of the engine into roughly the correct position. Locking the cams by some alternate means so they won't move. Stopping the belt coming off the top and bottom pulleys, and marking the belt position, marking the pulleys position relative to each other and then the belt, then pinning the bottom, marking the amount of front and back tension. then winding off the tension, removing the belt from the pump without removing it from the pulleys or the bottom pulley. Then replacing the pump, putting the belt back on without moving anything… and then re-tensioning it with the correct front and back tension.

And re-tensioning alone as anyone who's done an MI belt in situ will know.. is a pain in the Ass, requires a little fiddly tool and generally results in a lot of swearing.

So..

Water leak - check

Oil Leak - check

Not much fuel - check

Car tried to set fire to itself - check.

Half past midnight - check.

I set off for london, via a 24 hour petrol station...

Made it for a fuel up.

​

Anyone who owns a pug, anyone who's built one from bits, anyone who's built an engine, done a head gasket will understand the hawk eye peripheral vision paranoia that is the temp gauge… How much coolant have i got? how much is left? do i need to turn the heater on and open the windows? will there be traffic? will there be diversions, random lights?!? it takes weeks or months for this paranoia of overheating to subside, sometimes it never does (Paul13)…

As it happened it used most of the header tank on the way home, although we didn't really bleed it that well.

Used a cup full on the way to karting,

Half a cup full on the way back… perhaps less.

Here it is at home...

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So as it stands - it needs a wash, needs some Plasticare, it needs the water pump doing, the exhaust touches on the rear valance under load, so I need some better rubbers and to shave off the valance slightly and it feels as tight as Miss Simpson might have back in 1986.

It's utterly french and it still doesn't have a name….

Cheers

Justin.

[Anthony 1,003]

Good to see the old girl getting (ab)used and enjoyed J

 

Miss not having it around to take for a blast to provide the antidote to a diesel 306 daily hack. In truth I'd grown quite attached to it after touring Europe in it last summer - might have "only" been a standard 1.9 GTi but it put a smile on my face and never missed a beat.

 

Still, it'll give me a kick up the backside to sort my remaining 205 out.

 

Bit of a pain about the waterpump deciding to start leaking just after putting the engine back in when it would have been so easy to replace while it was out, but such is life - particularly when there's a French car involved. Still, not too difficult to sort even in the car, just the added complications of the cam timing to check.

 

The strut brace fouling the bonnet will be likely down to the usual dubious French tolerances - I've had them when they've fitted one car perfectly only to fit so badly that the holes don't line up and/or the bonnet won't close on another despite them being theoretically the same. I just tried a couple of other strut braces until I found one that did fit the new car properly.

 

Only thing I'm not too sure about is the black C5 wheels on the black car, but clearly they're there for benefits that aren't aesthetic.

 

PS. I can't remember if I said but there's already a starter relay installed inside the cabin and thus that temporary one from your old car that you can see poking up in the engine bay pictures can be safely removed without starting worries.

[kyepan 291]

Ah knew I forgot something!

 

I do need to say a public thank you to Anthony, who has given up countless hours of his time, picked up the phone at odd hours to answer questions when I'm stumped, discussing the plan via email, helping get bits from pug, sourcing replacements and a host of other things I forgot . Thank you sir, you're a gentleman. Not many of those left in the world.

 

And also a plug for Ryan of RJAuto, who has toiled and burned the midnight oil to make what would be a long long epic, a well planned and executed project. He's based near Maidenhead, shout if you want his details.

 

J

[kyepan 291]

Yes i need to remove that relay!

 

and you've given me a thought about the strut brace, mine is adjustable and we did wind it out a bit to fit, perhaps winding it back in might move it down enough to clear the bonnet.

 

Also have plans to do a little restoration on the leather interior, and spank the utter tits off it down some sutable roads.

 

And double check the tracking.

 

A point of note to those with vague and wandery front ends.. your hubs are probably ovalled, same suspension setup, new hubs.. totally different handling. placeable, dependable, no rattles clanks bonks or clunks. Check your hubs have not been interfered with gentlemen, and seek a second set to get resleved if the car feels anything other than totally sorted at the front. (nb wishbone bushes need to be good)

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

My eye is still firmly glued!

Luckily the diesel doesn't have a temp gauge, so unless there's s*it loads of steam coming out its fine!

 

I'm happy to do tracking just give me a bit of notice and preferably a weekend

Edited March 6, 2014 by Paul_13

[kyepan 291]

Now - i'm not a massive fan of the show and shine brigade, partly because my last car didn't actually have an lacquer on it, and partly because mechanical and performance interests me far more. However, there are a few improvements to the Deathstar, that can be made, with a bucket of suds and some Plasticarethat won't compromise my personal beliefs too much.

 

I've used Plasticare before, and to be quite frank did a horrendous job of it. I got it on the paint, Got it on the red trim strips, got it on me, on the glass, i tried to use it on rubber... put it on with a sponge... i got it on everything except the f***ing trim.. and even then it was uneven, and looked streaky and s*it....

 

The reason for all of this was actually, it's a paint, or at least i think you have to treat it as a paint. Therefore this time i used a brush, masking tape (for the red trim) and took my time preparing the surfaces.

 

So this is prior to the trim being done, i'd like to tweak the photos, but you get the idea, general faded trim Phase 2 Car.

 

 

the bumper

​‹

 

Next up Was masking, reason for masking,was simple, the red trim is rare as hens teeth, and twice as expensive. I have a habit of rushing and breaking stuff, so this was a hide it under tape damage limitation exersise.

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Then with a craft knife i gently cut the lower excess off and made sure it was all covered.

 

All masked...

 

Then off we go with the paint brush, I used a reasonably large artists brush that i had lying around, it gave me good control over the edges and good coverage on the big bits, i would highly recommend spending a few quid on one as an alternative to a roller, or sponge, which by comparison didn't work.

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As the plasticare went on, i would go back over the surface with the brush working it in until there was no excess or uneveness of coat, just like painting, after a bit i would come back once it's starting tacky and do some long strokes to make sure there are absolutely no imperfections. This was something i failed to do last time because, i didn't have a brush and i didn't bother... both led to an uneven and patchy finish.

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I continued working round the bumper trim and then onto the wing mirrors -

Before

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After

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I also managed to do the badges, i think you could do these better by brushing over them completely, then going back with some thinners on a cotton bud and quickly wiping over the red, but that will do for now.

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So here is it done with the tape still on...

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And heypresto after removing the tape.

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Next - paint correction.. lots of swirls to polish out, without messing up the microblisters.

Cheers

JB

Edited March 11, 2014 by kyepan