With all the preparation done. Finally it’s time to actually get some paint on these parts. Obviously the wishbones are a bit of an awkward thing to paint so I attached a bit of fishing line to each of them so I could hang them while painting and to dry. This was a great idea […]
home mechanic
S1 Elise – Suspension Refresh – Wishbones etc POR15 Metal Prep
As I’ve shown in previous posts I’d removed any loose rust with various wire wheels and brushes and used the POR15 Cleaner Degreaser to thoroughly clean any grease and dirt off all surfaces. So the second stage of the process was to apply POR15 Metal Prep. This is what they say about their Metal Prep: […]
S1 Elise – Suspension Refresh – Wishbones etc POR15 Cleaner Degreaser
As I said in my previous post I decided on using POR15 on the wishbones and other steel parts. The main reason I chose it was that I could do it all myself. I am also not a fan of powder coating which is one of the other common options. In my experience with powder […]
S1 Elise – Suspension Refresh – Wishbones Surface Rust Removal
With the wishbones now bare I could get on to examining them and preparing them for the full POR15 treatment (why I chose this coating over other options I will explain later). I was pretty confident the wishbones were not suffering from any serious corrosion as my Elise is at fairly low mileage of 53k […]
S1 Elise – Suspension Refresh – Pressing out Drive Flanges and Wheel Bearings.
Having removed all suspension components from the chassis, the next thing to do was start breaking down what was left into single components for cleaning and refurbishment or replacement. The first thing I needed to do was come back to the ball joint that had refused to split and broken my trusty old ball joint […]
S1 Elise – Suspension Refresh – Strip Down
As soon as I got the Elise I got it up on the lift for a good look over and found a few little jobs that needed doing including replacing some suspension parts like a ball joint and track rod ends at the front and a couple of toe link rod ends at the rear, […]
Forester STI – Whiteline Rear Anti Roll / Sway Bar
If you’re not already aware, A Subaru Forester is basically a jacked up Impreza with a slightly larger, boxy body. Those are the things that attracted me to one, the performance and tuning potential of an Impreza but with more space in the back for stuff. Being ‘jacked up’ and the ‘larger, boxy body’ both […]
Forester STI – New Fog Light Cover STI Decals
The left fog light cover could do with a new decal and a little freshen up with a layer of lacquer so I carefully measured the dimensions of the original STI decals and had an eBay seller make me some exact copies of them for me. I wanted to make sure I placed the new […]
S1 Elise – Quick Wheel Alignment Check
Having replaced the rods and rod ends of the rear toe links and the track rod ends on the steering it was certainly worth a quick check of the wheel alignment. Plus I don’t know exactly when it was last done or how it was set so I wanted to find out how things were […]
How To Guide – Underbody Protection, Rust Prevention, Stonechip, Underseal, Cavity Wax
Having found myself a fairly recent Japanese import Forester STI. I wanted to give the underside the best chance of surviving UK winter roads as I could. Leaving it with no protection as it came from Japan was not an option. Too many newly imported cars are given a quick and cheap spray over the […]