If only I could have driven the car over the new exhausts and had them magically ascend into place ...
Saturday, December 30, 2006
It was a dirty job but someone had to do it
By the time I'd finished installing the exhausts I looked like a coal miner! Amazingly enough, I was allowed back indoors and after a very long and thorough scrubbing I returned to a near-clean condition. A few days on, and some of the scratches and grazes are healing up nicely, my fingernails are *almost* presentable, and many of the strange aches are passing.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Exhaust-ed!
The next time I get the bright idea to do a big job underneath the car - on my own, in the garage, with one jack and two axle stands - please all advise me to pay someone else to do it!
After three afternoons of work (it's not really the time of year to be bounding out of bed at early o'clock), I have finally finished fitting the 'new/old' stainless steel exhaust system I bought just before Christmas. The exhausts came from a sad, sickly yellow V8 that was being wrecked by local parts gurus Jag Prestige Spares .
As you can see from this picture, the old - I think, except for the mufflers, original - mild steel exhuasts had just about had it.
Getting the old system off was a messy enough task, but then I decided to be a bit more thorough than just bolting the replacements straight on:
- first, I took off the exhaust shields - three per side, and not all exactly the same - and was surprised to find once I'd given them a quick once-over with the wire brush that they were actually silver. It just so happened I had a spay-can of high-temperature silver paint handy, so they got a re-spray.
- then, looking at the underside of the car, I decided that some of the underseal needed attention. The centre of the car beside the driveshaft and the back under the rear seat pan were surprisingly good, but I ended up repainting much of the main beam that runs the length of the car (lots of underseal chipped off at various points where the car had been jacked up), one rear wheel arch and the underside of the floor on the left-hand side (the right side and the other three wheel arches can wait for another day!)
The end result was pretty decent, if I do say so myself:
After three afternoons of work (it's not really the time of year to be bounding out of bed at early o'clock), I have finally finished fitting the 'new/old' stainless steel exhaust system I bought just before Christmas. The exhausts came from a sad, sickly yellow V8 that was being wrecked by local parts gurus Jag Prestige Spares .
As you can see from this picture, the old - I think, except for the mufflers, original - mild steel exhuasts had just about had it.
Getting the old system off was a messy enough task, but then I decided to be a bit more thorough than just bolting the replacements straight on:
- first, I took off the exhaust shields - three per side, and not all exactly the same - and was surprised to find once I'd given them a quick once-over with the wire brush that they were actually silver. It just so happened I had a spay-can of high-temperature silver paint handy, so they got a re-spray.
- then, looking at the underside of the car, I decided that some of the underseal needed attention. The centre of the car beside the driveshaft and the back under the rear seat pan were surprisingly good, but I ended up repainting much of the main beam that runs the length of the car (lots of underseal chipped off at various points where the car had been jacked up), one rear wheel arch and the underside of the floor on the left-hand side (the right side and the other three wheel arches can wait for another day!)
The end result was pretty decent, if I do say so myself:
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