Restoration tip - get your black plastics back to black
It's Polo update time. A roofing repair and fence repairs delayed the start this morning as storm damage had to be put right. Then it was down to some preparatory work prior to starting the gearbox swap. Our visit to Matts breaker car yesterday yielded a spare nearside driveshaft, but it was still in the hub. Sadly he had not loosened the hub nut whilst the wheel was still on the car with the weight of the car to assist in holding it steady to loosen it. With the car partly dismantled he removed the full leg and hub along with the driveshaft. Our driveshaft only needs a new CV boot, but as we are doing the gearbox it makes sense to swap a replacement shaft in and then sperate ours at our convenience to recondition it later at our leisure.
Separating the two components proved more difficult than anticipated though. Holding the shaft in my biggest vice (after sex, drink and rock and roll) and trying to turn the nut with a 30mm socket and wrench was fruitless. I have a length of hydraulic tubing about a foot long which slips nicely over my socket wrench to provide extra moments of torque (or to the layman, more leverage) All this did was rotate the shaft in the vice. WD40 failed to release the locked threads. Maybe a little heat might get things moving? Nope, at least not before I ran out of gas in the blow torch.
Time for the big guns - an electric impact wrench. With enough clattering to rattle my wrist bones the nut still refused to budge, again simply spinning ther shaft in the vice, which had by now been tightened to max using the length of hydraulic pipe as an extra lever.
Well if that wouldn't shift it surely the whizzy gun on the air compressor would do the trick? It's probably worth noting at this point that whilst my whizzy gun is probably industrial standard my air compressor is definitely low capacity hobby stuff only. As a result I got about 6 seconds of use before the air fell below capacity and the compressor kicked in to recharge mode. 6 seconds was not enough to budge the stuck nut.
In the end I gave in and took the hub leg and shaft down to Coniston Bills Garage, where Dougie was able to separate the two parts without even breaking sweat with his proper grown up tools. Typically I had a wiper split on my own car on the way there, so ended up waiting an hour or so for Europrats to deliver a replacement before I could come home again.
With most of the day gone I have decided to postpone the gearbox swap until the weekend as I have a few days away this week. I also have two other projects on the go, a Ford Focus STY170 which is currently awaiting a spring and drop link, and a Hyosung motorcycle which is halfway through a respray, so they are being fitted in as in between jobs.
The one we picked up was dirty from years in storage, and even a clean up left it a faded dull grey colour. Well read and learn if you have a classic from the era of black plastic bumpers, prior to the body coloured bumper fad. The many products you can buy that claim to restore the shine to your bumpers are quite expensive, but very good at doing that, but, crucially only for a short period, sometimes only as long as it takes to dry, or until the first time it rains, or the sun shines.
Well now, I don't profess to understand the science of chemistry but I understand that oil is a key component to the production of plastics. I am lead to understand that the black plastics used in car bumpers go grey over time as they loose essential oil. Oil that is necessary that is, not fragranced essential oils. The best way to restore them then, is to replace some of that oil.
So gentlemen, head to the kitchen, and, using whatever distraction methods necessary, acquire an egg cup, some olive oil, kitchen roll and a microwave. fill the egg cup with olive oil, microwave for about two minutes until pleasantly warm but not boiling. Now using the kitchen roll rub the olive oil into your plastic components, copiously. Change the kitchen roll frequently as you'll see a lot of dirt coming off what you though was an already clean bumper or spoiler. Leave a while for the oils to sink in, ideally overnight, and then remover any olive oil residue with a lint free cloth and polish to a nice black shiny finish. See the photo for the before and after results. That's Martins restoration tip of the day - your for free.
Separating the two components proved more difficult than anticipated though. Holding the shaft in my biggest vice (after sex, drink and rock and roll) and trying to turn the nut with a 30mm socket and wrench was fruitless. I have a length of hydraulic tubing about a foot long which slips nicely over my socket wrench to provide extra moments of torque (or to the layman, more leverage) All this did was rotate the shaft in the vice. WD40 failed to release the locked threads. Maybe a little heat might get things moving? Nope, at least not before I ran out of gas in the blow torch.
Time for the big guns - an electric impact wrench. With enough clattering to rattle my wrist bones the nut still refused to budge, again simply spinning ther shaft in the vice, which had by now been tightened to max using the length of hydraulic pipe as an extra lever.
Well if that wouldn't shift it surely the whizzy gun on the air compressor would do the trick? It's probably worth noting at this point that whilst my whizzy gun is probably industrial standard my air compressor is definitely low capacity hobby stuff only. As a result I got about 6 seconds of use before the air fell below capacity and the compressor kicked in to recharge mode. 6 seconds was not enough to budge the stuck nut.
In the end I gave in and took the hub leg and shaft down to Coniston Bills Garage, where Dougie was able to separate the two parts without even breaking sweat with his proper grown up tools. Typically I had a wiper split on my own car on the way there, so ended up waiting an hour or so for Europrats to deliver a replacement before I could come home again.
With most of the day gone I have decided to postpone the gearbox swap until the weekend as I have a few days away this week. I also have two other projects on the go, a Ford Focus STY170 which is currently awaiting a spring and drop link, and a Hyosung motorcycle which is halfway through a respray, so they are being fitted in as in between jobs.
Tonight then was a chance to do something different for the Polo whilst I waited for paint to dry on the Hyosung tank. One of our purchases yesterday was the rear hatch spoiler - if you are familiar with the Breadvan you'll know the spoiler wraps around the entire rear window on the back hatch, similar to the Metro or XR2 of the same era. Ours, being a lowly CL doesn't have this as standard, but as it's an in period accessory we are going to fit one.
 |
After a thorough clean - left, still dull and grey.
After a treatment with hot Olive oil - right, black and shiny - did I mention I like shiny things?
|
Well now, I don't profess to understand the science of chemistry but I understand that oil is a key component to the production of plastics. I am lead to understand that the black plastics used in car bumpers go grey over time as they loose essential oil. Oil that is necessary that is, not fragranced essential oils. The best way to restore them then, is to replace some of that oil.
So gentlemen, head to the kitchen, and, using whatever distraction methods necessary, acquire an egg cup, some olive oil, kitchen roll and a microwave. fill the egg cup with olive oil, microwave for about two minutes until pleasantly warm but not boiling. Now using the kitchen roll rub the olive oil into your plastic components, copiously. Change the kitchen roll frequently as you'll see a lot of dirt coming off what you though was an already clean bumper or spoiler. Leave a while for the oils to sink in, ideally overnight, and then remover any olive oil residue with a lint free cloth and polish to a nice black shiny finish. See the photo for the before and after results. That's Martins restoration tip of the day - your for free.
Comments
Post a Comment