my new integrale

[Kevinlincs]

Vents fitted into bonnet, again mainly so they have somewhere safe to be stored!

Some of these pictures make the car look pink, I promise it hasn't faded already! The camera on my mobile doesn't seem to like red...

[Kevinlincs]

Hatch got fitted back to the car, then the refurbished number plate surround and rear window went on.

[Kevinlincs]

Car was finally starting to look like a car again!

[Kevinlincs]

The bumpers looked too bad to fit now, and the front one had been lacquered which was now peeling so best solution was just to paint them.


Once rubbed down it was clear that both the red and black bits would need doing, no point in half measures.

[Kevinlincs]

Satin black bits to be done first, masked off both bumpers together for ease of painting. You can see where the black had faded through, fine line masking tape for a crisp edge.

[Kevinlincs]

Left for a whiule to cure as I don't have an oven for it..

[Kevinlincs]

A few days later I could mask out the central black section to do the red. This all good some plasticisor added so it remains flexible enough. Adhesion promotors went onto the bare plastic first to prevent any flaking...

[Kevinlincs]

The bumpers all done, complete with pink looking paint from the phone camera! Honest, it's the correct red shade it should be...

[Iggy65]

Fabulous work, Kev. What a achievement!

[stanley sweet]

The amount of work you've put in and the quality is fantastic. When you say you've rubbed down things like the bumpers there must be a lot of dust floating around the place. How did you get the bumper absolutely clean and dust free again for painting?

[Kevinlincs]

Cheers guys! Yes, it's been a big effort but I'm getting there....it'll be out and about this year sometime..

For the painting and dust scenario the trick is to prepare well. If you can do the sanding outside that saves some cleaning for floors etc. I'm lucky that I have a half decent extractor in the little unit that takes away a lot of the airborne dust.

Once the piece is ready for priming then an airline gets the majority of the dust off, after that it's a case of wiping down with panel wipe which is amazing how much more dust that pulls out even when you think the piece is fairly clean. After that then tack rags are used which again pulls yet more from the surface, these are little cloths with a tacky surface (surprisingly!) so all the fine bits left over plus the marks left by the panel wipe get lifted off.
It's VITAL on these stages that gloves are worn for these processes, latex or vinyl not cotton, as the oils and dirt from your hands will contaminate the piece to be painted and possibly cause some reaction when the primer goes on.


All takes time but saves having to do it again!

[Rob]

Fairplay Kev it's really coming together now  . You must be putting some serious hours in to be moving it along this quickly & to such an excellent standard! 

[Kevinlincs]

Fairplay Kev it's really coming together now  . You must be putting some serious hours in to be moving it along this quickly & to such an excellent standard! 

You know how much effort it takes Rob, but equally it takes a huge amount of commitment if not stubbornness to see the project through. You've had just as much to do, in fact on looking back through your car it's amazing how similar the needed repairs look!


The car is a fair bit on from this though at the moment, at this point I'm hoping it'll be on the road around May this year...

[Kevinlincs]

When I got the car painted it was time to now fit the rear suspension that I was going to use, rather than the spare bits it was sat on whilst being painted.

Happily the rear jacking points are now strong enough to hold the car!

With it up on axle stands the old suspension got dropped off and the new, powder coated items await fitment.

[Kevinlincs]

The original rear subframe I'd had blasted with a view of repairing it a year or two ago but it was pretty badly holed, could have been repaired but would have been a lot of work. I'd since then found a much better one on eBay fairly local to me so I bought that and had it blasted and powder coated.
The rear diff was fitted to it and readied for fitting to the car.