My baby turned 300 at last (pic heavy)

[Ralph Wiggum]

Best wedding i've been to (and I've been to a lot) was my own.

[Rab]

Best one of mine was the one with the jumping castle, karaoke machine and arcade alley in my backyard

Even me and the ex reminess about it

Cost less than any of my others as well

Edited 27/01/15 05:00 PM by Rab

[discostig]

That sounds awesome. I love bouncy castles.

Ralph what was so good about your own? Or is it better told in person lest you be arrested?

[task82]

Literally joined the forum last night and have read through this thread front to back. Chock-a-block of awesome write ups and love what you've done with ya xr6t, simple yet very effective

[k31th]

this is certainly not the worst thread to start your reading welcome!

[discostig]

Wow thanks heaps Task82. Glad you enjoyed my many hours spent typing this up and editing pics etc

[discostig]

Missus came up for the weekend but as soon as she left I felt bored so had a crack at the dent. Not the best idea being I'm no panel beater but I did manage to improve it a little...

First I busted out my tailpipe polish and used it on the scratch, did a nice job! You can still see a bit below the panel gap, as well as the touch up painting I had to do on the plastic upper surface.

Got inside the boot and located the inside of the panel. Grabbed my hard rubber mallet. Dug through the tools and decided on a ring spanner at first which was a BIG mistake, far too tiny a contact patch. I also forgot to warm it up in the sun before starting like I've read you do with rolling guards, to reduce the brittleness of the paint. No heatguns here (or even a hairdryer). So two hits and I put a small dent/crack in the paint...*beep*. That'll learn me for not googling it first at least.

A socket extension was better and I went more carefully. It's a bitch of a spot down there on the edge, much harder to accurately "adjust" on a corner bend.

Managed to reduce it but it's still there a bit. Might leave the rest for a pro I think! Not showing pics of the shameful crack, can't see it in person anyway unless you look close.

The initial dicsovery

Post Steve's dodgy repairs

6/10, might bang.

The polish also worked well on a rub mark on the tail light which has been there for a couple of years. Should probably get myself a real polish/cutting compound designed for paint. And a clay bar, and random orbital etc etc....but silver is a lazy colour. Not as much return for hard work like that.

Moral of the story, an ounce of prevention is better than a ton of cure! Still, it's in pretty good nick.

Next plan is some minor bits and pieces for the upcoming Racewars event, to allow safer flogging.

Edited 08/02/15 07:22 AM by -Stever-

[k31th]

A reasonable attempt was made... a reasonable result was obtained not bad considering the tools and expertise, realistically

no more theories on what might have caused the initial damage?

[discostig]

Nah, moved on. I'm happy to assume it was a stick as I'm sure we didn't bash anything into the car while moving gear around.

Also there are a few hard to notice dings on the car, some on doors, one on the roof (as well as the big roof dent that's been there since a month after I owned the car). I plan to get a PDR bloke to come sort me out one day once I've had enough of them. I almost want to try pulling the dents out with some sort of suction device or something but I've got visions of a circle of paint lifting off...lol

Edited 08/02/15 07:44 AM by -Stever-

[k31th]

I can understand your reluctance with regard to paintwork I just stick to touch up paint for stone chips and that's as far as I'll probably ever go... not brave enough to wreck that thin ford factory (albeit shiny) paint