billybunters - from a bmw z4 to a mx5 se

[billybunter]

thanks for the comment. lucky yesterday -weather wise. today windy and rain and would be impossible to do it. i'd say I would have rubbed out probably close on 200 pin size stone chips on the front bar so it was worth doing regardless. for some reason only the front bar had the chips and the rest of the cars paint condition wise was not far behind the day it was painted.

I really think if I held out say 12 months max I could buy the nd in feather power alone and put this car aside. as to painting i really don't like that idea of painting cars much. I don't enjoy it as such. I just don't think i'd pay a pro spray painter to do the job. no doubt their work would be much better than mine but I am sure to get a full re-spray inside and out for $600 its not going to happen.

about 5 years back that mustang I painted 20 years ago came up on car sales with still the original colour paint I hit it with and the red horse transfer I applied either side. younger and foolish then so the paint does stay on

[billybunter]

early '90's this 66 stang came in from the states as just a rolling chassis. friend and I did the lot including the left to right steering conversion and got the engineering cleared and registered if I could find a photo of how it looked in the beginning - you'd passed on it at a wrecking yard.

I then painted it with a super beaver spray gun

[KevGoat]

Despite not enjoying doing it, you certainly do a nice job of it. All the cars you've shown look good after painting. You certainly like yellow but the white SE is still the stand out for me ....

[billybunter]

well I have been lured to yellow cars over the years. the yellow z3 is factory and the silver I had plans to paint yellow because it was a 3 litre but never happened....note the plates I purchased for it only problem they probably thought I had

[billybunter]

been giving the car an inside clean up. take a look at the doorsill I painted almost 6 years back -still looks like they were just painted

[billybunter]

the other end isn't too bad either. especially when you consider I didn't want to remove the doors for the painting as they are very hard to align or they are for me -so it took a fair bit of time and effort to paint here

[luzinit]

What happened to the interior? Is that plastidip?

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

[billybunter]

red paint

[billybunter]

like so. when I painted it 6 years back I was only in my late '50's -young and foolish disappointed with life - needed some excitement or I could say - I just like it

[billybunter]

today I decided I might take the SE out for a quick spin and see how it goes. after-all it's been about 5 weeks since I last got behind the wheel and I thought it would be interesting to see what it was like to drive again.

well it didn't start out too good. the battery was flat due to leaving the boot lid open days earlier plus I had no petrol or close to none. so I hooked up the battery charger and the wife was going down town so got her to get me 10 litres of 98 premium in the motorcycle container.

a couple of hour later the charge was good enough to kick it over and the juice was in the tank. kicked it over and gave it a minute or two to warm up and time to get in and on my way.

this car sounds extremely good and when running with the varex muffler in the open position it sounds deep and a bit like a small v8 with the pops and crackles filtering back into the driver's seat.

once I hit the 100kph zone I threw it back to 3rd and gave it a bit and there is no denying - this car has certainly got some guts!. but its not the sheer outright power its the way it delivers it's power. it is very well controlled and the car just takes off down the road and the faster you go - the louder the exhaust note runs with it

you just sit back in the seat gently holding the wheel and smiling away. the only drawbacks to avoid were the odd potholes as things happen pretty quick but overall for a stock standard suspension car running on 15" rims - it's not a bad car to drive at all.

back home I noticed I still had the high idle issue from the Northern Territory run so that has not gone away. I guess sooner or later I will look into that one. but overall it's a car which can be dríven just like the family runabout or when serious let loose the horses in a very controlled way.

so I have a bit to think about on this car following today's drive. it really is a pretty good package....sell or keep it! once home I was checking over my front end re-spray and noticed on my 35 klm run - I had totally forgotten to fit the front number plate to the bar - bit lucky today the blue boys weren't about

[Okibi]

I can just imagine you trying to convince a cop you'd "forgotten" your number plate.

[billybunter]

might be the last post so might as well have a sound track

https://youtu.be/V6N1anjdPJQ

[billybunter]

today I decided to swing the clock back to the factory black door card days. always wondered if it could be done and how much trouble it would be to do. I first masked off a small area to do a test run but decided not to fool about and get into it and do the complete door.

I wouldn't recommend doing this on the car like I did or in low temps below 10c but I am pretty used to painting car bits so can get away with it but a better idea would be remove and paint on a flat surface.

[93_Clubman]

Back in black - well done!

[billybunter]

about half way through the colour change from the red back to the black. at the moment I am more interested in getting the red out of the car and although I chose a black satin dye it won't match the original factory colour and you can see the cut off point.

no drama there anyway so once I get ever thing under control in the cabin I will then spray the whole dash black satin -after that all should be good. going back to the black has certainly toned down the interior somewhat. that was a pretty vibrant red so you can imagine the difference now.

plus I will have no choice either and the hand brake and gear shift gators will have to go for the solid black look too