OV9

Gavster wrote: Fri Aug 04, 2023 10:21 am Can you get them powder coated or similar? They'll easily get scratched, especially if anyone is wearing jewellery when using them

Powder coat is a good suggestion. I was also reading a thread about engine bay detailing* and someone recommended powder coat for the side panels so I might end up with a batch of stuff to do.


* I have never detailed an engine bay in my life, but this one is different as it's a huge part of the car and permanently on display under glass.

mik wrote: Fri Aug 04, 2023 10:54 am I like the silver.

I kinda do as well. It makes it more obvious that it's there. Split the difference and colour code to match the exterior ?

I spoke with the guy who’s dealing with my car today. He’s called Steven Wren, so naturally was expecting a TAUC, but he was alright actually!

Italians are still on holiday

IanF wrote: Fri Aug 04, 2023 8:12 pm
Italians are still on holiday

An Italian client emailed at the start of the week with an enquiry and then signed off “enjoy the holidays” noting that she’d be back in the office in Sept

More cleaning. Magic eraser sponge & warm water is great for cleaning leather. Leather shouldn’t be shiny - it should be satin verging on matt. If it is shiny, it’s dirty.

This is the dirt from wiping down *one* door panel:



And this is the door panel afterwards:



It’s all very satisfying.

Swervin_Mervin wrote: Fri Aug 04, 2023 10:33 am

Gavin wrote: Fri Aug 04, 2023 9:54 am Well my new flat data cable and right angle adapter have allowed Android Auto to work, which has also stopped me from skipping tracks when indicating or going round a corner, which is nice.

Hi Gavin - have you got a link to the cable that you bought?

In other news - I decided it was high time I had a code reader for the 330i. Previously I've borrowed by bil's Creator C310 which helped when I had issues with coils. Decided that as it wasn't too pricey I'd get teh C502 instead. Hopefully will get chance to have a play with it at the weekend and see what's what. Hopefully won't find any codes...

Sundayjumper wrote: Fri Aug 04, 2023 9:00 pm More cleaning. Magic eraser sponge & warm water is great for cleaning leather. Leather shouldn’t be shiny - it should be satin verging on matt. If it is shiny, it’s dirty.

This is the dirt from wiping down *one* door panel:


IMG_1475.jpeg



And this is the door panel afterwards:


IMG_1474.jpeg



It’s all very satisfying.

That looks great. In my limited experience of having cars professionally detailed (I had it done once), the improvement to the leather is one of the biggest positives.

I’ve just dropped the 911 in to have the headlights swapped over as the new ones arrived in from Germany - on the way down I was thinking a lot of the leather, although 'clean' and leathery smelling, is too shiny so I think it could do with a better detailer than the place they took it to for the pre-sale prep (though they did do a good job of polishing to remove minor scratches and holograms).

This beast was also parked in the showroom along with no less than two brand new GT3 RSs

Weather has been atrocious today so I did a full service on the death machine

I gave it to the dealer last year to preserve the warranty, but it doesn’t seem to matter where you go as I always find a mistake. Discovered when I went to remove the front undertray that they never replaced the front 2 bolts - quite fortunate that it didn’t get ripped off in tall grass
Expected better from an old sidecar racing champion and his lead mechanic!

The next page of this thread will be page 911 so I hope we can restrict it to Porsche updates only.

Are we on page 911 yet ?

The Defender has its MOT next month, however last year my MOT guy said he’ll fail me on brakes next time so I got to changing them finally

Plenty of meat on the old ones still.

I think the rear calipers are pretty much toast though, the amount of effort to push back the pistons was 3 foot prybar bending type force. People usually change out the pistons to stainless which stops them rusting and seizing. I could do that but I rather fancy some LOF brakes.

Todays ‘fix’

Nephew came over as he’s got a knock on his Honda crv. He’d recently spent a load getting it through the mot so asked if I’d have a look / help fix it.

Took it for a spin down the road, sounded awful, thumping through the floor like a knackered inner cv.

Pulled it onto our drive so I could whip the wheel off and have a look. I could undo 3 of the 5 wheel nuts by hand

Checked the others and found another on the nsr only finger tight.

Mass produced vs. artisanal hand made

Centre console mat

I suspect that if it was mass produced it would actually fit




It’s just leather wrapped over a strip of aluminium. I’m very tempted to peel the leather back and trim it down slightly.

Sundayjumper wrote: Sun Aug 06, 2023 9:23 am Mass produced vs. artisanal hand made

Centre console mat

I suspect that if it was mass produced it would actually fit


IMG_1515.jpeg



IMG_1514.jpeg



It’s just leather wrapped over a strip of aluminium. I’m very tempted to peel the leather back and trim it down slightly.

Or colour the material underneath in with a sharpie

From the pics it looks like it needs more material not less!
It is possible that the leather has just shrunk a bit over however many years since it was made.

jamcg wrote: Sun Aug 06, 2023 10:15 am Or colour the material underneath in with a sharpie

That's a good idea. I was going to stick some black tape there. Pen is easier.

Mito Man wrote: Sun Aug 06, 2023 10:18 am From the pics it looks like it needs more material not less!
It is possible that the leather has just shrunk a bit over however many years since it was made.

If I trim it down It can slide towards the back a bit and the gap will be far less obvious at the other end.

Not shrunk. It's a piece of aluminium that's not shaped right, wrapped in leather.

That’s probably the kind of detail that will get Ferrari fanboys in a froth at a concours show. Can just imagine Iain Tyrrell bleating on about how they recreate this piece of leather and make it wonky on purpose because that’s how it was done back in the day etc

Mito Man wrote: Sun Aug 06, 2023 3:31 pm That’s probably the kind of detail that will get Ferrari fanboys in a froth at a concours show. Can just imagine Iain Tyrrell bleating on about how they recreate this piece of leather and make it wonky on purpose because that’s how it was done back in the day etc

And a 360 is a precision-engineered spacecraft compared to earlier models. I’d say your Defender is substantially better built than anything Ferrari (and Lamborghini) from 1975 to about 1995. Most kit cars have better chassis welding than every 308/328/365/512 I’ve looked at! Take a door card off a Miura and it looks like they’ve used whatever off it’s were on the shop floor to make the inner frame…

GG. wrote: Sat Aug 05, 2023 11:29 am

Ooof, that's lovely.

My car was serviced at a main dealer in January. I’ve just pulled the air filters and they are filthy, and dated 2008 !!