Stewpotz Mk1 Fabia vRS

[Stewpotz]

 

 

[Eoghan]

Paint stripper arrived today, god it is strong!!

 

Had 2 pairs of latex gloves and a pair of industrial gloves along with a long sleeve base layer and t shirt as well as a hoody to make sure none got on my arms

 

Took paint right off without any effort at all.

 

Pics will be up tomorrow when i get round to uploading them.

 

Have ordered myself some 15mm and 20mm spacers with extended bolts inc. locking bolts which will be here tomorrow, along with some poorboys wheel wax.

 

Should be getting spiders in the spray booth in the next day or so hopefully done by weekend so tires can be fitted start of next week

 

 

 

What paint stripper did you use? Hard to get decent stuff since nitromorse changed?

Edited 7 August, 2015 by Eoghan

[Stewpotz]

Starchem or strip away pro are the good stuff

[Stewpotz]

Well, finally decided to get my 256mm rears fitted, and you can tell the difference between those and the standard 232mm!
Car doesn't nose dive under braking anymore and stops dead, still getting used to where the new brake bite is as it also had a full brake fluid flush and 5.1 filled up.

 

Gave her a wash when i got back and polished the exhaust with some autosol (great stuff, best I have found for the job)

 

Rear anti roll bar painted as well and is ready to be fitted next week (maybe, depending on if I go for a drinking holiday to NI with a mate)

 

 

 

 

[FromTheDarkness]

Ohh come on... where are the pics of the alfas!! 

 

Car looking good tho man

 

Few questions if you dont mind ..

 

 - Can you point me to in the direction of that stripper you used (on the wheels, not last Friday night)

 - How many cans of primer/ paint for 4 alloys?

 - Where to get paint from, is Halfords expensive/ crap or ok.. ?

[Stewpotz]

The alfas might.... be fitted tomorrow, have a bit more money this month so will go and get some tyres fitted

 

this is the stuff i used, but ended up just getting them medium blasted as cba in the end but it did a really good job for what i did do.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PAINT-STRIPPER-5L-CAN-HEAVY-DUTY-SYNSTRIP-SYNSTRP-NOT-STARCHEM-OR-NITROMORS-BODY-/151783198192?hash=item2356fbcdf0

 

would probably say 1 can of primer, paint and lacquer per wheel to give a good coating

[Stewpotz]

Out with the old seats... and in with the nice new...

 

 

 

LEATHERS!!!

 

Seat Surgeon Retrims, drove down to Birmingham to pick them up from smithysmoo really nice guy, helped with fitting them for the drive home and WOW, they are so much nicer than the standard ones.

 

More slippy, but way more comfortable.

 

Got back home and finally had a look at why my rear brakes were squealing like a piggy, turns out my disk is not perfectly symetric/round, and the disk was rubbing on the anti squeal shims.  Took the shims off and also changed the pads for some EBC's slathered in copper slip and low and behold no more squeek!

 

Just need to change the front pads over now and fit my RARB now that i have found my hex kit.

[Stewpotz]

Curbed a second alloy badly coming out of national tyre centre after finding a screw in the centre of my tread!

 

Alfa Supersport's will be fitted next month after payday.

 

RARB is now fitted!

 

bit of a fight putting it on as the new u bolts were slightly thicker than the holes on the clamps... Drilled out to 13mm and persuaded them on with a hammer.

 

WOW!

 

Steering is lighter and my car makes less squeaking noises over bumps now.

[Stewpotz]

Not added much recently, but

 

SWEET BABY JESUS THESE ARE BIG!!!!

 

[Stewpotz]

First cost of paint on the brembos now, carriers have been primed not sure to go high temp white or satin black for these.

Edited 30 November, 2015 by Stewpotz

[Stewpotz]

Brembos fitted now, took 4hrs in all, 2.5hrs of that spent with scraped knuckles and swearing to get the lower carrier hub bolt off the 312 on one side (oh and a snapped spanner).

Think one of the pads is sticking slightly as I am getting a faint swiping noise when not braking and a louder rubbing noise when I do step on the pedal.

One hell of a better bite on these, barely even have to press down now to stop!

Slight bodge to get the hose to attach to the copper line as square hole and a larger circle hose end. Took for a spin and no leaked that I can see and pedal does not go to the floor indicating air getting in.

[Stewpotz]

Casualty

[Thomson]

Really like this car

[Lofty]

Ideally you need to file out the hole in the metal bracket on the inner wing to allow the braided hose to sit flush inside it. Its fiddly but do-able with a round hand file.

 

The copper brake line sits in much better then and it sits square in the bracket

[Stewpotz]

Ideally you need to file out the hole in the metal bracket on the inner wing to allow the braided hose to sit flush inside it. Its fiddly but do-able with a round hand file.

The copper brake line sits in much better then and it sits square in the bracket

Thought as much, I just turned the metal clip spring thing upside down to stop the copper pipe coming down but also stops the hose from going up.

Think it has made a full seal anyway as the threads seem to be longer than those on the standard lines

[Stewpotz]

Gave her a good wash, clay and quick BSD as running out of light.  Before this, had all wheels off and gave the arches/hubs a good cleaning.

 

 

Can you tell which side of the Alloy still has a load of CV grease...

[Stewpotz]

Changed pollen/cabin filter as it hadn't been changed in 67k miles or 8 years...

Not looking too bad for the age, but compared to a new one...

[Stewpotz]

 

Finally decided to remove my grill and spray the chrome surround.

 

 

 

Also decided to spray the grill its self, after taking a dremel to a couple of the fins to fit my new vRS badge (bolt through)

 

 

 

All primed, left near the radiator to dry overnight before giving it the top coat tomorrow before lacquer on Friday

 

Also sprayed my fog light surrounds (but forgot to take a picture).

Edited 10 February, 2016 by Stewpotz

[FromTheDarkness]

Grabbed the spiders from my mates and had them fitted with the toyo's

 

pics from before tyres

 

 

 

 

 

Alfas

 

 

Will be fitting them tomorrow after cleaning up the excess lube from tire fitters and giving them a couple of coats of poorboys wheel wax

6 months and no pics with those alfas :(

[Stewpotz]

6 months and no pics with those alfas :(

I know, keep kicking myself about it....

 

Once/if i get my cheque from highways england for refurbishment of my spiders, i will get them to put the tyres on the alfas instead.

 

Have been told 60-90 days before a verdict is made on my claim, but seeing as though it was a pothole on the M60 so a major motorway in the North West, I cant see why they could say that it was maintained correctly.

[Stewpotz]

Grill and fog light surrounds now sprayed.

 

You can see the modification to the grill (which looks very nice with a satin black coating rather than the original) which allows me to fit the MK2 bolt through front vRS badge

 

New front and rear badges arrived yesterday, so hopefully will remove the paint from the centre of the grill surround tomorrow and fit the new badges.

 

 

 

AMAX coils greased up, top mounts mostly fitted (waiting on correct offset spanners to fully do up the nuts) before a mate is helping fit them

[Stewpotz]

Rear disks and pads changed Thursday, running ebc turbo dimpled & grooved disks front and rear now along front and rear ebc yellow stuff pads.

[Stewpotz]

So, went out to change LCR brembos back to 288mm stock so I can refurb and paint.

Removing took 10 mins max from jacking up to caliper in my hands.

Fitting was a ballache as couldn't figure out how the pads sat in the shims... Finally figured it out after an hour of shouting and swearing.

And now the big OOOPS!

brembo brake line fittings are not the same as standard!

Trying to get my custom HEL lines to fit the stock brakes would not work!

LCR look like a m10x1.0 where as the banjo bolt fitting looks to be the same m10 but with a much greater pitch (1.25 at least).

So after much fluid everywhere, all over me, the drive and the calipers (which has ruined the paint) I admitted defeat and refitted the brembos and will have to look into getting some stock lines and banjo bolts :(.

[Stewpotz]

Decided to have a go at finding out why I was making a scrape over bumps and found out why..

Undertray not fixed at the rear. Duct tape to the rescue! And now all good

Also had a look at my egr as think it needs cleaning... Yep!


Also had a look at my console bushes as it had started to make squeak noises now and then...

Are these the voided fabia ones?

Edited 2 May, 2016 by Stewpotz

[stevobeavo]

Yep they sue look like it, however they look different to the ones I had. Maybe there the new x shaped ones from the octavia I believe.