AC Gone

Pics to come but decided to remove the air conditioning.  Took me a long time to come around but the weight savings and cost to make the a/c work properly are the biggest factors in the decision.  I’ll keep all the bits and the next owner (who might be my son) can decide what to do with them.  If it’s too hot then I’m not likely to drive the car anyway.

Pics to come soon plus I’ll also be working on routing fresh air to the centre vents.  I’ll document this process for anyone who might want to tackle it on their project.

Wheels Finished – Part II

Another step forward with the completion of the wheels – which includes tyres and balancing.  In the end I made this project much more complicated than it needed to be.  I started with factory finished 6’s and 7’s.  I bought replica 8’s so that I could run 7’s and 8’s.  I bought the replicas because they were cheaper and I was assured they were as good as genuine.  I was never really that comfortable with them but had them polished and centres painted in satin 2K.  They still didn’t look right and were HEAVY.  The 7’s were also refinished but I left the 6’s alone.

I then purchased a new set of genuine 7’s and 8’s from the US.  The cost plus shipping was much cheaper than sourcing locally.  The ones I purchased were fully polished by needed some TLC.  As I was over the polishing from my 1st set, I sent them away to be done.  There’s a bit of pitting but they still came out nicely and you have to get close up to see it – I can live with that.  With the painting, I reconsidered painting myself.  The issue I had with 2K was that it is not repairable, if there’s a scratch or chip the whole wheel needs to be prepped and painted again.  I didn’t have great experience with spray can paints but I had some VHT Engine Enamel that I wanted to try.  Like their wheel paint, I had found it marked easily but have never baked it.  I pulled out a test piece of metal and painted and baked.  The finish was very durable, in fact it appears as scratch resistant as the 2K.  It’s extremely easy to paint and I can spot repair it down the track.  I’ll be washing with warm water with only a sniff of detergent so hopefully they’ll stay nice for a long time.

So 2 can’s of VHT later plus 2 cans of black VHT primer the wheels are painted, baked and ready to fit on the car.  Phew!!