GAH!!!! I have a set of wheels in for refurb at the moment, been WIP for about 2 weeks. Rang the refurb guys early last week to say, "Hi lads, sorry I haven't been in touch, got a lot on, probably won't be over til at least Monday, is that OK". "Yes mate, Monday is fine, don't worry about it.....etc". Went to Wolverhampton this morning to collect said wheels - 52 miles or something like that, only to find one of them is still a work in progress. FFS. I suppose lesson learned I should have phoned this morning before I left the house, but to be honest, when I was told they would have been ready for Friday just gone, I kind of thought I didn't have to. 100 miles wasted trip - I know it's not that far, but at 30 to a gallon it's the thick end of 20 quid for nothing.

In other news, desperately needed to get some oil for a top up and was surprised to not have to hunt high and low for this:

Millers Nanodrive CFS 5w40 - it's what was put in after the last oil service. It doesn't meet spec but it's supposed to be VERY good and almost unbelievably adds power (allegedly dyno proven). AKS swears by it and whilst I couldn't track down a 1l bottle, I bought 5l which works out per litre a lot less than buying 1l of something from Halfords. Just for topups, the 5l will keep me going for at least the next 30 months. My local factors stocks it too and it was cheaper than buying from Opie even with the various discounts on offer.

And another package

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Excited? Can you guess what it is yet?

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

I wanted another set of pressed plates after mine were stolen from outside the house and decided to try another ebay supplier in Rugby. Quality is as good as the Dubmeister ones, in fact the pressing and the style of them looks to be identical. They're let down slightly in comparison to Dubmeister's as the BS mark and the maker's name is engraved into the plate and it looks a bit rough, whereas Dubmeister's details are printed but they're nearly 50% cheaper than Dubmeister's so I'm not complaining too much.

More tomorrow....

Got a link to the plates john?

Dv turned up today aswell.

Cheers

Plates look great John - shame to hear you had to get another set! :(

 

Result on the price vs. Dubmeister too.

Cheers Steve, yeah defo a result on the price - that was £20 delivered with Hermes as well.

Got a link to the plates john?

Dv turned up today aswell.

Cheers

Good news, only posted that on Saturday morning.

Plates are here http://bit.ly/1aZdzmc

Ready!

image by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Back to a radius seat bolt then.

copper grease too? 

Yeah will use copper grease when I fit the wheels back on. Just had to clean 2 years of oxidation and god knows what else off them before I could reuse! I'd have bought some new ones, but that would have been another £25 at least.

Fairly productive day today. Car clean and a coat of wax. Played with Instagram after dark so proper pics tomorrow.

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Nice wheels

They stopping on or do you have something different up your sleeve?

Glad you approve

They're stopping on as winters, I've got yet another plan for summer wheels this year.

Ooh sounds interesting

That sits really well. Will it be going lower in summer or same setup?

Not sure. It might go down another 10mm without causing any problems but it catches the underside on speed bumps as it is. It's more go than show this is!

Couple more pics - took some with the camera earlier and I'll upload later.

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Mine is the same. Rubs when I have a full tank or got a few passengers. Sometimes when I am on my own but very rare.

 

I just love the stance of this. When I bring my rear down I think it may look similar. 

Although the band is quiet this time of year, at times I can have 80 kilos of equipment in the back and you can never tell whether you've got a route into a venue over speed bumps, rough ground, etc so I can't get it any lower really. On my own, it'll scrape on bumps if I don't stop and crawl over them and the big square ones are a no no. That's with no load and irrespective of the fuel load.

Yesterday turned out to be a fairly productive day. I got my new (to me) Zenith's back from refurb, got them fitted to the car, replaced the single 'emergency' caliper bracket on the front o/s and managed to even find time to give the car and wheels clean and a coat of wax. Go me.

The caliper bracket was, as it has been every time, a doddle of a job. Lift car and remove wheel, undo caliper bolts and remove caliper (with pads in place), remove disc and suspend caliper out of the way, remove 21mm carrier bolts and swap over brackets. Fit new bracket and torque up (I am going for 55 lb ft at the moment, which is hand tight plus a quarter turn and this seems perfectly adequate). Fitting is putting all of those bits back together and with the pads in place, they just slide over the discs - ten minute job.

I bought SNH's old Zeniths as I had decided that I wanted another OE set to run in winter, had sold the CVR 5 spokes and planned to sell the TDPR1.2s in preference of something I really wanted. But I'm not going to say what yet (say whaaaaaat?!). I'd also decided that it didn't matter to me how scruffy the Zeniths were, if they were going to be run in winter, it wasn't an issue. By the time I got home, I'd already decided that they were going to get repainted. Enter Midlands Car Care.

I've seen a lot of Smoked Chrome recently and was really liking it, so I spoke to Midlands Car Care who offer TWS Smoked Chrome at £199 including removal and refit of tyres if necessary and a 12 months guarantee on the finish. I believe the price is going up in March, so be quick if you want the same job done. Smoked Chrome is silver/chrome over a black base with the effect that the wheels can change their appearance from light to dark depending on how the light hits them. I really liked ChrisRs's Neptunes and wanted something that looked OE-ish with a difference, rather than going for black/grey/yellow/candy red with tiger stripes.

New wheels = new centre caps. Excuse the pics, the light is (was) miserable when I took these.

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

What I like about the Zeniths is that you can fit the Boxster calipers behind them.

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

See, plenty of room!

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

The must have accessory for a wheel with a black inner? Black wheel weights of course. I suppose you could Plasti-Dip them, but who could be bothered doing that?

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Now you see them....just

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

With the light not really fading until late in the day, I had time to crack on and get the car cleaned, the Insta-pics are up there, here are a few straight out of the camera.

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

I used Obsession Wax's Hybrid 86 on the paint and FK1000P just on the wheel faces. I was going to Nanolex the wheels when I picked them up, but the TWS lads started fitting and balancing the tyres and, in retrospect, I didn't really have time that day anyway.

Obligatory beading shot:

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Octavia vRS Feb 2014 by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Enjoy!

Looking good.

Interested to see what wheels you have in mind though

It's going to be a surprise

They're on order though, probably should have been here by now but never mind. I daresay I can't buy them until somebody has taken those PR1.2s off my hands!

https://m.facebook.com/home.php?soft=side-area#!/groups/380995178656846?ref=bookmark&_bt_=bmid.380995178656846%3Acount.25%3Afbtype.69%3Aitem_type.group%3Aitem_category.group_user

https://m.facebook.com/groups/565478646813103?ref=bookmark&_bt_=bmid.565478646813103%3Acount.25%3Afbtype.69%3Aitem_type.group%3Aitem_category.group_user

Try on there

Yeah I follow those groups and will probably end up putting them on.

Even with OEM wheels your Octy looks just perfect. What's the paint code on those wheels?

Cheers Zeb. They don't have a paint code that I'm aware of as it's just an own brand powder. The finish is called smoked chrome and it's one of the finished offered by the Wheel Specialist chain of franchises.

More rain = more beading

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

And dirty already FFS.

Untitled by jonnyguitar, on Flickr

Hhhmmm...Might get my stock wheels resprayed in that colour, looks lush Not a nice feeling when you car is back to dirtiness, especially in Silver. 

Ah I'm not bothered Zeb, as long as it's got a coat of wax it's no biggie - silver is supposed to be the best for hiding dirt, but it doesn't hide everything. Just got to suck it up!!