The cold weather has set in. I've removed my fancy shmancy summer tires and stored them inside.
Three items addressed today.
-Steering wheel
-Wheel well liner
-Clear coat runs
Steering Wheel!
During one of my autocross sessions it rained. The steering wheel, which is definitely showing its age and wear, began to disintegrate in my hands. I decided to try out something new...
I decided to try a stitch on steering wheel cover from a company called Stitching Cover. I was able to pick a material, style and colors. Naturally I chose a green stitch and top center marker to match the car. I'm very happy with the results. We'll see how it holds up!
A fun mini-project I'm working on is a cover for the BMW logo. More on that later.
Wheel Well Liner!
This picture was taken during Halloween. I really need to work on a hood stay. Anyway back to the wheel well liner.
You can see in the picture that I have used the OEM wheel well liners but had to cut them back significantly. There is a gap between the liner and body. The tires throw rocks up towards the back of the headlights and I'm finding rocks in the headlight buckets!
I ordered some door brushes to bridge the gap. This was a suggestion given by Pingu I believe. Thank you. This is a great way to bridge the gap and avoid squeeks.
The brushes came with this bracket. I think what I'll do is take a hack saw to it and make a few pieces like what I have in my hand there. I'll bond those to the inside of the wheel well and mount the brushes to that. This will make the brushes replaceable as well as ensure they stay mounted in the direction I want them.
Clear Coat Runs!
There are quite a few runs in the clear coat. I decided to try and mix a few techniques I've seen on (of course) YouTube.
I taped off the area just to define a working area. The risk here is sanding through the clear coat where I don't want it to. What I did next was apply glazing putty over the run:
I then started wet sanding with 400 grit. The idea here is that the body filler gives me something to work against and help prevent me from sanding through areas where I don't want to sand.
Knocking down the run and watching the filler start to feather out. I then switched to 1500 wet sanding. This was a big jump. Why did I do this? It was all the sandpaper I had
I did notice that the tape began to shred as I continued to work down the filler/run. I decided at 1500 it was safe enough to remove the tape and continue.
There we have it! Run almost completely gone. I will do this for all of the runs I have, then I'll have to go over the entire car to take care of the orange peel. One step at a time!
Thanks!
