Ian's S4s refurb

[Chillidoggy]

Effing A-pillars. The worst job to get off, and the worst to get back on. The new clips and sockets from SJ simply didn't work, so I ended up reusing the original ones.

More tidying and trimming of the carpets, and then we started on the rear window surround. I'd taken them back to the trimmer when I realised that there should have been excess headlining material left loose on all the rails and surround, so they looked worse than they did before. However the headlining is glued to the rails and is then pulled up and glued onto the roof aperture lip, so there's a smooth trasnistion, and it's not like separate pieces. That's the theory, anyway. But it's a fiddly job to get it cut and looking right, so my multi-tasking in-house trimmer has been handed the job, while I pass her the tools. The car is starting to look a bit better inside, which is encouraging.

Beer time!

 

[Chillidoggy]

More of the same today, five minute job to put the door cards on I tell her, what could possibly go wrong?

First off, I had to fit the re-lacquered wood door trims. I paid a local bloke quite a lot of money to do the job, and replace three of the studs on one of them. Fine, except he'd replaced them with UNF instead of metric, which wasn't so much of a problem, but all three of them parted company with the wood as soon as they were tightened. I repaired them with superglue and chemical metal, and they're holding well. Once again, the new leather proved challenging when it came to fitting them on the doors, but we got there.

Started on the rear window surround and the cant rail headlining. Made reasonable progress and there's light at the end of the trim tunnel. I have to collect the remaining sun visor from the trimmer tomorrow, and I reckon we may finish the trim job this week, if nothing else bad  befalls us.

I should get the charge cooler back next week, then the the boot floor can go in. I still have to sand down the engine bay trim panels and get them sprayed, so that's another one on the list. Shame Slowly Cables (Wales) Ltd.  haven't done the gauges, but I remain optimistic, and am in no way blaming the Welsh, or I'd get a slap.

[rocket63]

Tasty 

[Sparky]

Shan won't let anyone in it.

[Barrykearley]

The carpets bleach cleanable - it'll be fine

[Sparky]

I literally shed oil and grease 24 hours a day. I'll be banished for life.

[swindon_alan]

Nice veneer door trims Ian. Are you certain that they are the right way round?

[Barrykearley]

Thank god you never put a screw through them @ian29gte 

[Giniw]

@ian29gte > I may be wrong, but I think your centre tunnel "cap" should be mounted the other way round — with the elevated side at the rear (Otherwise, it's mine which is backwards )

(impressive work by the way!)

 

Oh, and on a side note, what is that "bar" on the passenger side on the top of the fascia which his always (?) present on the cars which have no passenger SIR?

 

EDIT: on second thought and after looking for photos on the Internet, it may well be mine that is mounted backwards indeed. I would be curious to know the general consensus ... ^^

Edited May 31, 2017 by Giniw

[Barrykearley]

If only @ian29gtehad taken more pictures before he ripped it to bits - he would have been able to put it back together correctly ?

[Chillidoggy]

2 hours ago, Barrykearley said:

If only @ian29gtehad taken more pictures before he ripped it to bits - he would have been able to put it back together correctly ?

 

As if I'm not already being constantly reminded of the fact!

 

Giniw, the general consensus is that your tunnel top is on back-to-front.

 And the bar to which you refer to is the crash-pad, the purpose of which I have no idea, as it's so hard that it would never protect anyone in the event of a crash!

[swindon_alan]

Duh Ian, my interior is exactly the same as yours and untouched original. I can/could have taken reference pics for you...

[Giniw]

Well all right then, I wonder why mine is backwards. Probably the same guy who installed the front indicators too. Thanks a lot!
(By the way, I just noticed your steering wheel is the wrong side, too!! )

[swindon_alan]

11 hours ago, Giniw said:

Oh, and on a side note, what is that "bar" on the passenger side on the top of the fascia which his always (?) present on the cars which have no passenger SIR?

Giniw, please have patience, Ian hasn't finished his refurb yet, this is a mock up of the completed bar. The passenger will obviously be Sparky.

[Giniw]

LOL

[Escape]

Looks great Ian!

[Chillidoggy]

34 minutes ago, swindon_alan said:

Giniw, please have patience, Ian hasn't finished his refurb yet, this is a mock up of the completed bar. The passenger will obviously be Sparky.

 

Sod that, Sparky can drive!

[Chillidoggy]

5 hours ago, swindon_alan said:

Duh Ian, my interior is exactly the same as yours and untouched original. I can/could have taken reference pics for you...

 

Thing is, as I've discovered (and Sparky has too with the God-awful SE saga), unless you've owned the car from new, you just cannot be sure who's been in there and taken what off in the past. You only find out when you have a go yourself and you see the bits you've taken off don't match the parts manual. Or you find something upside down, or back to front. Or maybe you see a photo of another car that has something fitted differently to yours. It may, for example, have the number plate screw holes slightly pissed, or a pair of front wishbones arse about face. You just never know.

[swindon_alan]

Or the door trims...but I see that you didn't stick to the photos with that one

[Chillidoggy]

I bought new window seal for the driver's door from Bibs a couple of years ago, but never got around to replacing it. The window has always been quick to raise, but painfully slow to lower, to the point that sometimes it would jam. I picked up a couple of brand new right and left hand window motor assemblies at some point, intending to change the offending one.

So, before I put the driver's door card on permanently, I thought it best to change the complete assembly, however on removing the inspection hatch, found the rear lower window channel seal had split, and been transformed into a series of shark's fins.

Removing the old seal took about 10 seconds. Replacing it with a new one took a good bit longer, and involved some head scratching. It's arguably a two-person job, and would be tricky to achieve on your own without removing the door frame, but we got there. It now seems the glass is not quite entering the channel at the top perfectly, so it looks like I need to realign either the frame, or the glass, but I haven't figured out how to do that just yet, preferring to retire for drinkies.

In other news, I connected the battery, and nothing went up in smoke. This is a personal victory, as 'er indoors suggested that after all my handiwork, I may want to have a fire extinguisher to hand. As any bloke would do, I brushed off this sleight with a snort of derision, and two fingers.

 

[TAR]

Fire extinguishers are best kept in the kitchen.  

[Chillidoggy]

7 hours ago, TAR said:

Fire extinguishers are best kept in the kitchen.  

Unlike the wife.

I do all the cooking. It's safer.

[mdw]

Before  you fit the trim rails above the door apertures make sure any wires and the plastic  vacuum tube for the heater controls are well clipped together and have maybe some foam around them to top them rattling about.   Annoying when you  have to take 2-3 other bits apart to rectify. 

[Chillidoggy]

20 minutes ago, mdw said:

Before  you fit the trim rails above the door apertures make sure any wires and the plastic  vacuum tube for the heater controls are well clipped together and have maybe some foam around them to top them rattling about.   Annoying when you  have to take 2-3 other bits apart to rectify. 

Thanks Malcolm.

[Chillidoggy]

Small update -

I collected the repaired charge cooler from the precision engineers, and fitted it back on the engine. Filled up the coolant as best I could, and connected the battery. Turned the key, and it lives! This is more of an encouragement than a milestone, but it does at least mean I'd reconnected everything successfully. More fannying around with coolant followed, with the usual swimming pool on the garage floor. Whoops!

After the initial engine start, during which I ran it for about 10 seconds, I stopped it to check the oil level, which had dropped off the dipstick. Bearing in mind the car has brand new oil cooler pipes, a new oil filter, and the oil coolers were totally drained of oil, I put more oil in which made a total of 8.5 litres. I ran the engine for a minute this time, and rechecked the level. This then brought it to the full mark of the dipstick, but was more than I expected. Once satisfied it had enough oil, I restarted it, and ran it up to thermostat opening. It sounded as smooth as a Kashmir codpiece (as smooth as can be expected for a 910, anyway), and shut it down to go for a few beers.

The process continues tomorrow, we may be able to finish the headlining job, and hopefully knock a few more jobs off the list.