[Johnny 216GSi]

Does anyone have any tips on smartening up the A pillar finishers. I now have a new and old finisher so I need to spruce up the old finisher to finish off the job.

I'm pretty sure Johnny Sawn "went through the grades" on wet and dry to get good A-pillar trim. I expect he started high though - 1200 to 1500. If you went as low as say 800 you might scuff the surface to the point where you can't get it back to smooth again. I'd also suggest using it wet rather than dry and see what happens.

You could always PM him through the forum to ask him what grades he used to do it.

Whatever you do, you might have to do it to both the old one and to a lesser extend the new one, so they looked the same when finished.

Mildly abrasive substances could also be used to get the perfect surface finish - Autoglym super resin polish, toothpaste (believe it or not) or Brasso all have the right level of abrasive content to polish plastic such as this. I expect toothpaste will probably leave you with a dull satin finish and the likes of resin polish will start to give the plastic a shine. Same as using wet and dry I suppose - stop at the finest abrasive particle size where you get the look you want. They were never "shiny" when new - repeated washing over decades tends to make them very shiny. They were a satin ("eggshell") finish.

I expect if they're really bad you could remove them and spray them (rough the surfaces 800 grit, adhesion promoter, plastic primer, and a top-coat of satin black) but it would have to be a perfectly flat and smooth final spray so they looked original. Probably a job for a body shop or vehicle restoration company used to do this kind of thing - a spray gun will probably get you a super-smooth finish.

If your "old one" is badly pitted, this might be the way to go - you could fill the surface imperfections with plastic filler before prepping and then putting on each layer of paint to both trims, so they looked the same.

[Johnny 216GSi]

That mirrors my experience about 10 years ago. The (young) Autoglass guy who did my first windscreen replacement wrenched the side trims off,
and evidently damaged the clip apertures such that the next time my screen needed attention they had corroded around their edges, as well as in
the areas you show. He also bounced a dent into my bonnet!

I probably made a mistake in de-rusting and re-painted with Halfords rattle cans myself, as a couple of years after fitting the current screen, it
started letting water in to either footwell, depending which direction the first turn was after starting a journey. I suspect it's the paint that has
let go.

Having removed my own A-pillar trims for a re-spray, I found the clip apertures coated generously with windscreen bonding sealant in neat rectangles (taller than they were wide, so about 50% of the body colour on the A-pillar was obscured). I wonder if this is a trick to prevent such problems - in which case, which windscreen installer know about it and which ones don't? I obviously had a benevolent windscreen fitter at some point, and their "fix" lasted me all these years...

[Plodder]

So what are the next steps ?
Probably the following:

Rust proofing to protect all the work/money I’ve spent on it this year.

Replace bottom hose - currently has a temporary bandage fix.

Replace front /rear suspension rubbers and track rod ends - most are original and hopefully this will improve the ride.

Powder coat suspension parts.

Repair clock - fluctuating display brightness.

Repair rear o/s electric window - doesn’t work.

Repair worn edging on drivers seat - the seats have cloth centre panels with leather sides.

Repair offside electric wing mirror mechanism - damaged when I clipped the wing mirror of a car going in the opposite direction.

Repair wind deflector on electric sunroof - doesn’t fully engage in the up position when the sunroof is in the retracted position

Overhaul both drive shafts - the o/s wheel bearing got mega hot when I had problems with the sticking brake callipers so heaven knows what state the grease is in. Ive also read there are problems with the shafts breaking due to corrosion.

Complete respray.

Other nice to do but maybe not so important at this stage:

Replace head lining.

Repair cloth seat panels on rear seat as these have got a bit saggy.

Replace both black wing mirrors with colour co-ordinated wing mirrors - the only non original change I intend to make.

Work out a way of temporarily fixing the rear wheel spats so I can fit them when displaying the car and remove them easily so i can stop the rust from playing havoc under them.

I have acquired a rather large box of bits this year that should keep me going for a little while.

I would like to think that most of this work will be done in the next couple of years but I’m not going to beat myself up trying to achieve it .
But it would be great to have the car looking more like it did on the day I brought it all those years ago.

[Plodder]

No updates to the car of late as I am in the process of relocating to sunny or is it rainy Devon.
Brought the car down to Devon today having acquired a lock up garage to store it in.
220 miles in one go in damp/drizzly conditions without so much as a missed beat, more miles in one day than its done annually in recent years.
Still we’re back together again so work can reconvene

[Montegoman]

I am pleased to hear that the journey went well.

[GTiJohn]

That's a nice long list to keep you busy over the winter!

[Plodder]

Took the car out for a run last week and thought I had a ghost in the back when I looked in the rear view mirror
Realised the headliner has finally come away from the stiff backing material.
The job of the refurbishing the headliner has just moved up from the list of "nice things to do" to "get it fixed list".

[Topcat Tomcat]

An interesting read. I need to start cracking on with my 216 GSi.

[henryiett]

This is nice especially as it's a prefacelift r8 with I think looks nicer than the post facelift

[Plodder]

So rummaging through my box of parts I’ve managed to tick a few items of my "to do list"

First up was a new electric wing mirror.

Apart  from losing one of the screws inside the door the replacement fitted fine. Although  the mirror seems to give me more of the side of the car than the road than the previous mirror, despite being adjusted to the limit , so it might need to come off again to see if there is any other adjustments I can make

Next up was a new nearside indicator unit

This was to replace one that had a cracked lense and the bracket repaired during a recent visit to the body shop.
I found one on ebay and it should have been a quick changeover but after fitting I still had a big gap around the back and top of the indicator.



Close inspection looks like the bracket inside the wing has been deformed , probably as a result of a prang 23 years ago, this has lowered the position of the indicator securing hole.



At the risk of damaging the wing aesthetically trying a bend the bracket back into position Ive left the bracket as is and will elongated the hole.

A new wing maybe in order when I have the car resprayed in the future, maybe!

Next up was the badges on the rear door cheater finishers

I had acquired 2 Viking Rover badges to fit to the silver backing plates but after removing the cheater finishers from the door and seeing how permanently the badge backing appeared to be secured through the cheater moulding I decided to buy a couple of cheater finishers with the badges attached from an online breakers yard. These looked great until I came to fit them and then I realised that they had been removed roughly and the bosses into which securing screws were fitted were both broken off.
Back to plan A - I drilled out the plastic pins / glue on the existing badge backings to remove them from the cheater mouldings





The badges I had had no pins in only holes so I glued a couple of silver steel pins into the back of each badge and araldited the badge between the 2 holes on the cheater finisher and then filled the holes I'd drilled out with araldite.
A bit of a belt and braces approach but hopefully they are securely attached.



Refitting was easy as I realised the screw securing the cheater finisher fitted into a keyway not a hole in the door window frame.
This meant I could partially fit the screw to the cheater prior to fitting the cheater to the door and then just manipulate the screw into the keyway and push the cheater finisher into position before finally tightening the screw. Had I realised this when removing cheater I probably wouldn't have lost the screw in the door. Having said that it would be easy to break the cheater moulding as you release the cheater from the door frame if the securing screw is still in position.
Refitted after many years of absence




The flickering clock display turned out to be 2 broken solder joints where the spade connectors from the electrical socket join the printed circuit board in the clock .
Obviously broke when I removed the plug from the back of the clock

Finally after much polishing and picking with the finger nails I’ve managed to remove the tiny white marks that were left on the rear o/s door and roof following the work carried on the A pillar.
I'm sure the company would have sorted this out for me if I’d taken it back to them but as I’m relocating  this wasn't possible.
I now have a very shiny roof - although still with the markings left from the period under the car cover.



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