Posted this on the RS forum, but thought i'd slap it n here as well for feedback ....
Decided this hot sunny weekend was the weekend to get a few odd jobs done.
Firstly I gave the car a bloody good wash and then got to work. First job was to take out two wheel nuts from each wheel and spray them black, with a few coats of lacquer for protection. I decided to do half the bolts as one job and then the other half. That way I didn't need to mess about jacking the car up and removing the wheels. Here's a shot at the halfway point, off the iphone ....
Then I got to work on my headlight washers. I removed them and sprayed them Renault Glacier White, with a couple of coats of clear lacquer on top. Then refitted them. Here's a quick shot ...
This was the first time, besides the wheel nuts, that I'd ever sprayed anything so it was a bit of a lesson and learn thing. I'm not 100% happy with the finish so when I have some free time I'll strip the paint and redo these when I have more time to let the lacquer fully dry. I used sewing needles to plug the jets. They look much better on the bonnet now I think, rather than ugly black plastic blobs.
Next job (now into Sunday, today) was to jack the car up and have a go at cleaning the front left brake caliper (and the right after wards if I had time, but didn't has I had a BBQ to start up!). The issue was it had started a while ago to squeal under heavy braking. This last week it was squealing pretty much every time I touched the brakes. So since it was doing my nut in so much I felt confident to tackle the job at hand. I've never done anything like this before so was another lesson for me. I was armed with my toolbag of new and ancient equipment, Richandgem's guide on my iphone over on clio197.net and some knowledge from Foxspeed, when he did similar work himself on my 182. Here's a few photos ....
It took me about one hour to do the whole job as I was trying to take it steady and ensure it all ran smoothly and I didn't cock anything up. So, first, off with the wheel. Next, use a drive punch (i didn't have one so used a torx screwdriver) and a hammer (funny enough I didn't have one so used the side of some ancient heavy mole grips! ). It did the trick and knocked both pins out without incident, with a little bit of heavy encouragement mind! The bracket popped out and gave me access to the pads. This was the difficult bit. They were stuck solid in the caliper with only a little piece of the pad backing to grip it was hard to remove them. But after another bit of encouragement with the side-swiping mole grips they let go. I cleaned the back of them and began cleaning out the caliper ....
Then got to work applying some copper grease to the backs of the pads (obviously!) and the sides where it rests in the caliper - Thanks to Foxspeed for his tips on this as this is the area muck accumulates and they weld themselves fast. Here's a shot of one ....
I was extra careful when handling and refitting the pads that I didn't get any copper on the friction side or the disc. They slotted in pretty smoothly and then refitted the clamp and pins without issue. Slapped the wheel back on and intended to take the car for a quick spin. But someone had parked behind me on the drive, blocking me in. So I CBA to move both so I decided to reverse as far back as possible on the hard standing and give the throttle a good poke before trying the brakes. They stopped on a t'upence! Plus no brake squeal! I was feeling rather happy with myself at this point and went and sat in the sun as a reward
Anyways, I now have eight wheel nuts resting after two coats of black paint and some lacquer. I then decided to remove my spoiler end caps too and spray the bolts. I didn't like how there were two silver bolts on show, lucking ugly. So I've sprayed them black too. Here's a little photo with them off (I'm still wearing gloves by the way, someone on RS thought I had zombie hands!!
....
Anyways, thats it. Just thought I'd share that with you, as if I can do it, I'm sure loads of others can too who thought not.
Decided this hot sunny weekend was the weekend to get a few odd jobs done.
Firstly I gave the car a bloody good wash and then got to work. First job was to take out two wheel nuts from each wheel and spray them black, with a few coats of lacquer for protection. I decided to do half the bolts as one job and then the other half. That way I didn't need to mess about jacking the car up and removing the wheels. Here's a shot at the halfway point, off the iphone ....
Then I got to work on my headlight washers. I removed them and sprayed them Renault Glacier White, with a couple of coats of clear lacquer on top. Then refitted them. Here's a quick shot ...
This was the first time, besides the wheel nuts, that I'd ever sprayed anything so it was a bit of a lesson and learn thing. I'm not 100% happy with the finish so when I have some free time I'll strip the paint and redo these when I have more time to let the lacquer fully dry. I used sewing needles to plug the jets. They look much better on the bonnet now I think, rather than ugly black plastic blobs.
Next job (now into Sunday, today) was to jack the car up and have a go at cleaning the front left brake caliper (and the right after wards if I had time, but didn't has I had a BBQ to start up!). The issue was it had started a while ago to squeal under heavy braking. This last week it was squealing pretty much every time I touched the brakes. So since it was doing my nut in so much I felt confident to tackle the job at hand. I've never done anything like this before so was another lesson for me. I was armed with my toolbag of new and ancient equipment, Richandgem's guide on my iphone over on clio197.net and some knowledge from Foxspeed, when he did similar work himself on my 182. Here's a few photos ....
It took me about one hour to do the whole job as I was trying to take it steady and ensure it all ran smoothly and I didn't cock anything up. So, first, off with the wheel. Next, use a drive punch (i didn't have one so used a torx screwdriver) and a hammer (funny enough I didn't have one so used the side of some ancient heavy mole grips! ). It did the trick and knocked both pins out without incident, with a little bit of heavy encouragement mind! The bracket popped out and gave me access to the pads. This was the difficult bit. They were stuck solid in the caliper with only a little piece of the pad backing to grip it was hard to remove them. But after another bit of encouragement with the side-swiping mole grips they let go. I cleaned the back of them and began cleaning out the caliper ....
Then got to work applying some copper grease to the backs of the pads (obviously!) and the sides where it rests in the caliper - Thanks to Foxspeed for his tips on this as this is the area muck accumulates and they weld themselves fast. Here's a shot of one ....
I was extra careful when handling and refitting the pads that I didn't get any copper on the friction side or the disc. They slotted in pretty smoothly and then refitted the clamp and pins without issue. Slapped the wheel back on and intended to take the car for a quick spin. But someone had parked behind me on the drive, blocking me in. So I CBA to move both so I decided to reverse as far back as possible on the hard standing and give the throttle a good poke before trying the brakes. They stopped on a t'upence! Plus no brake squeal! I was feeling rather happy with myself at this point and went and sat in the sun as a reward
Anyways, I now have eight wheel nuts resting after two coats of black paint and some lacquer. I then decided to remove my spoiler end caps too and spray the bolts. I didn't like how there were two silver bolts on show, lucking ugly. So I've sprayed them black too. Here's a little photo with them off (I'm still wearing gloves by the way, someone on RS thought I had zombie hands!!
....Anyways, thats it. Just thought I'd share that with you, as if I can do it, I'm sure loads of others can too who thought not.
