What have you done to your car today?

Shame you're not closer, I'd have that nut off in seconds.
Unlikely stilsons will work, has to be mole grips really.
You could try knocking in an Allen key socket, then slide over an offset ring spanner, then attach a ratchet to the socket.
That's the slightly more professional way to do it, but whatever it takes.
 
After a very nice BBQ I decided to change all brake pads and one exhaust rubber mount.

These are the front pads after 4 track days only, they still had 1 maybe 2 more track days left on them, but I found them super soft, so I replaced with harder ones.

qJoCSHO.jpg


oorYiQv.jpg
 
Finally got round to applying the Fabsil weather proofer on the roof. The tin says use a paintbrush but that would have taken until next spring to finish so I dunked a microfibre cloth in a container of Fabsil and wiped that all over much much quicker. Will be interesting to see how long this lasts compared to Megs/Autoglym roof protector which is a few months typically.

tripple_1.jpg


I also used Autofinesse Tripple as had a bunch of small scratches from the fox paws and stuff which restored a nice deep wet look gloss.

tripple_2.jpg


Had a guy walk by a couple of times and stare as I was working away, on his final pass he stopped and asked what the polish was as it looked "well nice":D

Carbon black in this weather is truly a magnificent colour.
 
LuckyBenski said:
Thanks, not a bad shout as I've realised the top of the strut won't go down into the shock body itself. Need to find some grips or even a stilson? Most of my tools have been moved to our new house :(

Not got a rattle gun (or even a battery drill/impact driver - other house). But I have been spraying some WD-40 penetrating lube on daily for a week...

Click to expand...
As a home DIYer, when doing suspension work, an impact wrench is revolutionary. Definitely get it on your shopping list. It's Amazon prime day soon - have a look at the Ryobi one, it's great value for money. I've had mine for about 8 years now and it's done amazingly.
 
They'll probably get me on the renewal but just added another vehicle to my multicover insurance and it barely increased the cost. Seems a bit strange to speak positively of a car insurance company but was nice to see when I was expecting it to be £££.

EDIT: Oh and yeah I'm still paying monthly...
 
I've got replacement number plates arriving for my new (to me) car. Was a bit suspicious of how the current plate was mounted since the screw holes were in weird positions and I know BMW have existing holes and nuts fitted in boot lids for rear plates to go on so I popped the plate off earlier. I know people aren't a fan of plate holes being drilled in bumpers and neither am I, so this surprised me somewhat:

IMG-7463.jpg


IMG-7464.jpg


What kind of absolute weapon does that? Tomorrow's job will be sanding that area down and filling the holes in then painting over it. Fortunately my terrible skills will be masked by the plate, but I just want to stop any rusting.
 
I don't understand why you'd do that? Some car dealers are absolute morons. I mean, there is already plate holes with plastic grommet pressed inti the body work to screw plates into. Why would you randomly start drilling thought the bodywork like an utter biff?
 
Yeah it makes absolutely no sense. I've sanded it, filled it, sanded it some more and painted it now. The little dents around the holes are still there because there's no point going to too much effort for an area that will never be seen and the paint job looks pretty awful, but it shouldn't rust now and there's no more random holes for water ingress .

Quick and easy fix, just absolutely baffling as to why it was done like that. Clearly twice in the past since there are two sets of holes. Morons.
 
Phemo said:
Yeah it makes absolutely no sense. I've sanded it, filled it, sanded it some more and painted it now. The little dents around the holes are still there because there's no point going to too much effort for an area that will never be seen and the paint job looks pretty awful, but it shouldn't rust now and there's no more random holes for water ingress .

Quick and easy fix, just absolutely baffling as to why it was done like that. Clearly twice in the past since there are two sets of holes. Morons.
Click to expand...

Relative had a roof rails put on - dealer just drilled straight in making a right mess/multiple attempts, didn't use the proper kit for the holes (though they were billed for it) - didn't come to light until they started getting water ingress.
 
No pictures but a productive few days on the DC5 :)

- New spacers, old ones were 'hubcentric' but took up the whole lip and left nothing for the wheel to centre on. I had these custom made to get 5mm spacers with a lip for the wheel to sit on. ID matched the car and OD matched the wheel (essentially spigots built into the spacer) Hopefully it'll get rid of the wheel wobble, next long drive will tell. Was quoted c. £200 from a local machine shop, paid £38 incl postage from latvia

s-l500.jpg


- Took off the worn wiper arms & rattle canned satin black, made it look much fresher but makes the scuttle panel look really bad now!

- Service incl oil & new plugs, plugs that came out were wrong for the car, not iridium and a heat grade higher than they should've been, guess that'll make a little bit of a difference

- New Aux belt, slight whine still there but no play on any pulleys etc, told its normal but am more confident to believe it now :)

Still lots to do on the list but good to start ticking jobs off :)
 
Discovered a tapping noise...

CLK 320. When I'm in drive, there is a constant tapping noise coming from the engine bay, but goes away as soon as I put it in park. Hopefully the gearbox is not on its way out :(
 
SO far but not today per say but mostly daily/weekly as and when parts arrive I fit them... I've done all of this myself bar the v-band welding, the cambelt and the underside treatment.
OEM water pump cam belt rocker cover rad pipes coolant
OEM thermostat and aux belt
OEM cambelt/waterpump/aux belt - I did rad pipes/thermostat
Rear boot trim, shift boot
New clock spring for stock steering wheel
Recaro SR4 front and rear seats/doorcards
Enkei wheels
Pre-facelift rear lights
OEM rear light gasket seals
OEM fuel filler neck wheel arch cover and 4x oem clips
Rear wiper delete kit
OEM front and rear badges
New plates
Billet italian shift knob
OEM rear brake hardline brackets, clips, and bolts etc required for refresh
braided brake lines all round
New matts all round
cabin filters
OEM Coolant Temp sensor
OEM chassis underside bungs
2L MTF3 OEM gearbox oil
Hamp OEM modified oil filter
Bosch Super Pro windscreen wipers
NGK OEM plugs
Rear bumper
Momo steering wheel
Front wishbones
Front and rear droplinks
Front hub ball joints
Custom full stainless exhaust manifold to backbox with V-Band flange quick release manifold to cat downpipe welded in
Bigger front and rear anti rollbars
SuperPro poly ARB bushes
PowerFlex Poly bushed exhaust hangers
Brand new exhaust bolts/gaskets
Big brake kit all round brand new with fast road pads
New rear hubs and wheel bearings
Professional full underbody treatment - fuel tank and subframes dropped with all arch liners removed and bumpers, ground back to bare metal then epoxy primed and raptor coated front to back and above fuel tank whilst it was dropped...
Air Con Re-Gas
New steering rack and all rebuild parts
New front top mounts
New Sachs fast road/track spec shocks with Tein springs all round
HardRace tie rods with fast road setup alignment
New driveshafts
Eibach front camber bolts for shocks
OEM engine mounts/gearbox mounts then modified with poly bush inserts
OEM rear lower shock bolts
Modified rear trailing arm pick up points
Custom LED interior light kit
Red 18 led footwell lights wired into interior light when doors open
Mobil Super engine oil
New cat for mots
New pre and post cat lambda sensors
Cold air induction kit
Air filter heat shield

That do you?

If you wanna be bored more I could times this by ten with my last driftcar but that'd require like 10 pages!
 
Last edited:
keef247 said:
OEM water pump cam belt rocker cover rad pipes coolant
OEM thermostat and aux belt
OEM cambelt/waterpump/aux belt - I did rad pipes/thermostat
Rear boot trim, shift boot
New clock spring for stock steering wheel
Recaro SR4 front and rear seats/doorcards
Enkei wheels
Pre-facelift rear lights
OEM rear light gasket seals
OEM fuel filler neck wheel arch cover and 4x oem clips
Rear wiper delete kit
OEM front and rear badges
New plates
Billet italian shift knob
OEM rear brake hardline brackets, clips, and bolts etc required for refresh
braided brake lines all round
New matts all round
cabin filters
OEM Coolant Temp sensor
OEM chassis underside bungs
2L MTF3 OEM gearbox oil
Hamp OEM modified oil filter
Bosch Super Pro windscreen wipers
NGK OEM plugs
Rear bumper
Momo steering wheel
Front wishbones
Front and rear droplinks
Front hub ball joints
Custom full stainless exhaust manifold to backbox with V-Band flange quick release manifold to cat downpipe welded in
Bigger front and rear anti rollbars
SuperPro poly ARB bushes
PowerFlex Poly bushed exhaust hangers
Brand new exhaust bolts/gaskets
Big brake kit all round brand new with fast road pads
New rear hubs and wheel bearings
Professional full underbody treatment - fuel tank and subframes dropped with all arch liners removed and bumpers, ground back to bare metal then epoxy primed and raptor coated front to back and above fuel tank whilst it was dropped...
Air Con Re-Gas
New steering rack and all rebuild parts
New front top mounts
New Sachs fast road/track spec shocks with Tein springs all round
HardRace tie rods with fast road setup alignment
New driveshafts
Eibach front camber bolts for shocks
OEM engine mounts/gearbox mounts then modified with poly bush inserts
OEM rear lower shock bolts
Modified rear trailing arm pick up points
Custom LED interior light kit
Red 18 led footwell lights wired into interior light when doors open
Mobil Super engine oil
New cat for mots
New pre and post cat lambda sensors
Cold air induction kit
Air filter heat shield

That do you?

If you wanna be bored more I could times this by ten with my last driftcar but that'd require like 10 pages!
Click to expand...
And you did all that today?
 
Rroff said:
Wish I had the setup at home to be able to do some work like that at home, especially a decent way to get vehicles well off the ground safely would be a game changer instead of spending £££ at garage/dealer for work I'm completely capable of doing myself.



Strangely enough I've not seen that, or the more usual one with this kind of weather of a vehicle with its bonnet up having barely made it to the side of the road often with a nice cloud of smoke or steam from under the bonnet. Got a feeling that one might be more common over the coming weekend/early next week though.
Click to expand...
I have a tarmac drive that would dent if I even use a jack let alone axel stands etc... just get massive thick cuts of wood and then use them as platforms... buy a superlow entry jack with twin pistons so it saves you pumping it multiple times to get it high.

MANY will do you 480-550mm clearance no issue, pair that with another 4 thick pieces of wood for each 2-3tonne axel stand and raise the whole thing up and you can do most things, at worst I goto a mates with a lift at his unit - but so far the only time ive needed that is for welding/undercoating (when it needed to sit days at a time betweeen coats of epoxy primer/raptor) don't be put off by thinking you can't do it.

you learn by breaking shiz and replacing it - ALWAYS get new bolts/nuts/parts and any cheap grinder (screwfix and warranty and £8 for a pack of discs is your friend) and start off with say a lifetime garranty halfords advanced 220 piece toolkit and buy anything else ahead of doing it off ebay/whatever providing it doesn't require anything super strong/that might break etc if so buy a known brand. and get a decent torque wrench. you'll be surprised what you can do if you try... and at worst if something fails from being fused on/old/rounded you cut it off and replace the whole assembly... ie you need to do a wishbone... buy the wishbones/bushings AND anything ie the hub bolts/nuts/balljoint that attaches - i.e. you could the whole lot off if it screws you and fit all new.

you learn by doing.

get yourself a manual - even a haynes will get you started, watch as many videos as you can, and don't be afraid to get your hands dirty!
 
Last edited:
Wish I had the setup at home to be able to do some work like that at home, especially a decent way to get vehicles well off the ground safely would be a game changer instead of spending £££ at garage/dealer for work I'm completely capable of doing myself.

CaptainRAVE said:
Went on a small outing. So many cars on the side of the motorway with flat tyres.
Click to expand...

Strangely enough I've not seen that, or the more usual one with this kind of weather of a vehicle with its bonnet up having barely made it to the side of the road often with a nice cloud of smoke or steam from under the bonnet. Got a feeling that one might be more common over the coming weekend/early next week though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom