D.I.Y. Mik

Ask Chris at inline, he has my old triton ute with 8 inch wheels. I put them on with nothing done to the suspension, Going from stock skinny ute wheels, and it was a huge difference. In a bad way. You have to really hold onto the steering wheel, or its all over the place. My Volks are wider than the gtst wheels and i can feel it with them as well, but not as bad as the old ute. Because ive got adjusty bits i have compensated a little, but it will affect other stuff if i go too far. Fine tuning the camber and castor helps. But it takes ages of fiddling around, and you really have to diy because most suspension shops wont be that specific. And say you did go to inline with exact specs, you need to measure it very carefully to get those specs, so you might as well diy while your at it. So.... Its actually very easy, just time consuming. Youtube taught me how to do it. If your careful it will be very accurate. You only need: A ruler, a level, a piece of string, a pencil and paper for maths. Some fancy angle measuring devices allow you to skip some of the maths. To get the car perfectly level, you need, some vynil tiles, clear tubing, a bucket of water, and a ruler. Dont give up on the beast, it just needs the right touch.

^^^^^^ Its nice to have options. Those have a very clean/oem look, I like the ones with the black bit. Change of colour on official paperwork today. A bug shat on it, ( omg!) and outside air is really dusty. Still wiping fingerprints off the door everytime i get in. Tyre black from a tyre shop re-balancing the fronts, all over the guards. It must have been the brush on stuff as there was a drip that seems to have dissolved my wax. Its like a run in the wax. Ive gotta get over it and not worry so much. After all, its a daily driver.

Wheel track makes a big difference. As in how wide they are. And its just the way it is, if you want wide wheels. You could probably compensate/compromise to some degree with settings, but you need adjusty bits for that. Mines bent and adjusted, it feels ok.

Fresh paint: Sand 1500, polish 5 or 6 times, wash, Lime prime light, Dodo hard candy, Dodo rainforest rub, Autoglym extra gloss protection. Some "black wow" on the old grey rubbers came up well.

I just painted my car, and the guy at the paint shop said Menzerna fg500 wasnt really up to it. He gave me a tub of "machine grade cutting compound" Which really did the job well. But thats really coarse stuff, i used Menzerna for the finer grades and it came out ok, but it took quite a few passes to get it right.

Fix car then organise cruise? Just in case we need to wait for a bush or something.

Mmmm. Good colour, i like the way it reflects the sky. Vibrant.

Cost $160. Its actually the cheapest option. No extra cost for plastic or colour or slim. It would cost more to get a new set off the shelf. Because it would be a new number, and changing the details in the system cost more than getting a new set made. Typical. Yeah ill pm a photo or two to you.

Got new plates, plastic, slim front, black w white letters. And put them on,

400! Fark thats epic. Ill bet its like a mirror. Yeah its more than i expected when i started.

Thanks, SAU was a great help, so thats all of you. Heaps of work, it takes ages, so dont do it unless your really committed to it. But the satisfaction is worth it.

Thanks guys. Photos look a bit better than it really is, but its still good, im very happy with it. Mainly the colour, its really just the way i wanted it, and the first time i saw it glowing in the sunset....... wow.

Thanks. Over 200 hours. Easy, i dont really know. Over 6 months. But it shows you really can polish a turd. How to: Disassemlbe as much as possible, wash, sand 40 grit to help the paint stripper, tape and mask up the car, paint stripper x2, wash, panel beating, wipe with prepsol then a tack rag, mask up, etch primer, bog, sand 120, bog, sand 180, dust off, prepsol, tack rag, mask up, 6 coats spray putty and a guide coat, block sand 400, bog and skim putty, guide coat, block sand 400, wash, prepsol, tack rag, if its good now you can mask up and do a coat of primer/sealer, a light sand 800, dust, 6 coats of colour, light sand 800, dust, prepsol, tack rag, re- mask, 1 coat of colour, 6 coats of clear, wait a month for it to cure, sand very carefully 1200-1500, coarse buffing x2, medium buffing x2, fine buffing, lime prime light to prep the paint, hard wax, soft wax, sealer, recondition the rubbers as much as possible, clean and detail everything else, polish all the fingerprints and dust off, park in the sun and admire. Thats about as short as i can describe it.

My new paint, done in my shed. I like how the colour reacts to different light conditions.

Thanks Rob, for helping out, you got some nice shots. So, its taken 6 months to put over 200 hours into it. So for me the effort justifies the music. I could crap on for ages about it.... fk that here it is. Put it on full screen, and enjoy.

Nice colour......

Jeremy,have you decided what to do with the paint? Just curious. I didnt check the mailbox yesterday, my new number plates are ready, i could of had them for this weekend. Oh well, monday. Getting exited, one last coat of sealant, its a liquid so its quick and easy. Then a bit of black wow on the rubbers, and clean the windows. That will be all done and detailed, ready for photos and showing off. Usually im not a showoff, but this time im exited about getting my car back, and the amount of work put in, feels like its justified. Sunny saturday.

Is that other line torque? That would pull like a train! Very flat for a long way, it must be the V8. Got the car into the sunlight for an inspection, cos i do most stuff at night. Polishing in the dark is tricky and you never know if its right. One more wax and a sealer to go. Anyway, so i took a step back to check the eveness of things overall, and i realized its now ALL MINE. Its the colour I chose in the shceme i want, with the wheels i waited 2 years to find. Engine bay, suspension, only a few bits inside need attention. Some of you may know what i mean, when theres enough of your blood spilt in love on the beast, it becomes........ i dont know how to describe it. Its like being totally in tune with the car or something. Like riding a bike. I dunno. Oh, and the colour in the sun..... smashing! Fantastic! Yeah baby.

Thats cheap cf vynil in the photo. Nasty stuff..... Oh your grille... oops Well i do have a compressor and spray guns, etc. If you went acrylic i have thinners and everything. For plastidip youd need a special spray gun. Aerosol is hard to avoid splatter. Vynil is best done in summer when its warm. Very difficult when cold. Black is a good idea, easy to do, cost hardly anything. Waiting for wax to dry a bit....... too cold.

I was told if the clear is peeling, like on the mirrors, there is a problem with the paint. You never know what the problem is, it could even be the primer, so you have to strip it all off. Thats why i stripped my car to metal, and im glad i did, there was a mix of acrylic, 2 pack, and who knows what else. From what i can see, its different on the bonnet. Lets hope so, or it will be expensive. The colour matching should be good as its not metallic, but because its red, it gets attacked by uv the most and will fade quicker than other colours. So you might get a small missmatch in colour after a couple of years. Thats why paint problems really suck, because you know it will need a full re-paint sooner or later when it starts looking crappy again.

Yeah Jeremy, i was thinking just the mirrors (no big flat areas to stuff up) and a dot with a paintbrush on the chip. But the bonnett is a whole different ball game. Totally. I wouldnt even try myself with your bonnett as its probly going to be too hard to get the flat flat sanding etc.... You need skills for that stuff.

Mirrors and a chip? How big is the chip? If you have plenty of free time atm you could do a lot of the prep and save money. Also $1000 buys a lot of nice tools............

Yes i know you want pics, but ive put a lot into it and i dont want to show it unfinished with shtty bits... well, ill fix as many shtty bits as i can. Gotta make it as shiny as possible first. Right now its fresh, unprotected paint, and acrylic is soft, a hard rub with terry towel scratched it. So i must wax it before i let it outside again.