Keep it under wraps

[stumog]

your right my wife like to have a nice car to drive around in so i need to keep te 80 half descent. I have a LR90 with alot of toys but has no carpets and glass missing which seemed fine a few years ago but now she is older would like something good. I turned up at a really nice castle one day for lunch and the car park was full of rolls and bentleys and my ex mod 90 with no roof and full of mud looked the best one there in my eyes.
stu

 

[clivehorridge]

Ha ha! I know the feeling!

I'm at the spray shop now and the wrap is 200 microns, brand name "oracle".

There's a couple of tiny bubbles but I'm not going to fret over them.

The car's not ready yet. Still fitting trim but all of the glass is in. Plenty of sealant used and a new rubber surround for the windscreen. He's waxed all the cavities, door interiors and body boxes.

I'll post some interim pictures later, they'll take ages to upload on 3G so I'll wait till I'm home on Wi-fFi.

 

[stumog]

if your are concerned with the bubbles you can prick with a sharpe knife or pin then heat up the film with a heat gun, not too hot though then smooth with a credit card type plastic thing.
stu

 

[clivehorridge]

OK, photo time for anyone interested. They're not good pics I'm afraid, it was very sunny and I was in a dark and dusty workshop...

Before the wrap:












After the wrap:























The rear quadrants behind the back wheels had both rotted, this was the only rust on the car. The guy cut out the offending bodywork and welded outer skin, inner skin and repaired the inside curve of the wheel arch closure panel. He did a good job.

The car is still covered with finger marks and sealant smudges and a good deal of anti-rust wax, dust and generally work-in-progress. But he assures me that it will all be back in one piece and clean when he finishes with it tomorrow!

Apparently, the 200 micron film is a bugger to lay especially on reverse (concave) curves in the bodywork. There are some small areas where I can tell he struggled, there's a few tell-tale finger marks on the sticky side of the wrap. But never mind, it's such a difference from before that I'll let them off.

I'll enjoy driving it up to the house at the weekend, it's been 2 weeks off the road and I have withdrawal symptoms

 

[clivehorridge]

if your are concerned with the bubbles you can prick with a sharpe knife or pin then heat up the film with a heat gun, not too hot though then smooth with a credit card type plastic thing.
stu

Cheers Stu, but I don't think they're bad enough to need to do anything with. Well see in time and after a wash what they look like. If I find any bigger bubbles, I'll have a go as you've suggested.

The wrapper said that usually he's using the low grade film which goes on like clingfilm sandwich wrap and he never has a problem. He'd never used the 200 micron film before!

 

[stumog]

looks good nice finish on the paint and you would never know it had been wraped. I am not sure to do mine myself or get somebody else to do it. I have done lots of vinyls on buses but i had ago at my windows the other day and got hacked off although it was windy.
stu
.

 

[clivehorridge]

looks good nice finish on the paint and you would never know it had been wraped. I am not sure to do mine myself or get somebody else to do it. I have done lots of vinyls on buses but i had ago at my windows the other day and got hacked off although it was windy.
stu
.

I don't know how much the 200 micron film is, but I wouldn't recommend anything less. The thinnest one I saw was no better than clingfilm! It wouldn't have offered any protection at all.

See how you go, I wouldn't have tackled this myself.

 

[Gary820]

That looks great

 

[clivehorridge]

That looks great

Cheers Gary!

Im pleased with it so far, time will tell.

 

[Shayne]

Looks real good i bet the clear wrap adds a real shine because of its thickness . I hope you've marked this date on next years calendar as the day you have to give your truck a good clean and polish before posting pics to show us how the wraps holding up ?

I sincerely hope it still looks as good as it does today because if so i would be very tempted to give it a go !

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

Looks great Clive and an interesting thread, one for a few of us to consider.

Andy

 

[Ben]

Something had to be done because we use it as our DD and it was becoming embarrassing, especially when you go to a wedding all dressed up or something similar.

"Here's the hill-billies again" I could imagine them to say!

Looking forward to the pics Clive.

 

[clivehorridge]

Looks great Clive and an interesting thread, one for a few of us to consider.

Andy

Thanks Andy,

It's not a RR job, but I just wanted some protection. We'll see how it holds up...

Looks real good i bet the clear wrap adds a real shine because of its thickness . I hope you've marked this date on next years calendar as the day you have to give your truck a good clean and polish before posting pics to show us how the wraps holding up ?

I sincerely hope it still looks as good as it does today because if so i would be very tempted to give it a go !

Actually Shayne, if there's any noticeable difference, the wrap actually dulled it a little, but only because I was looking closely part way through the job. Now it's all the same, you wouldn't know. 1 August 2013 is in the diary, if any one of you remember, you can catch me out on 1 August 2014 for some photos!

Looking forward to the pics Clive.

Thanks Ben,

The one's above are still work in progress but I'll try to get some more at the w/e. I managed to get a few other jobs sorted while it was in dock, they had an electrician that re-wired my burned out loom in the left rear door. Now I have synchronized wipers, rear washers, and my central locking on the rear doors work, it's like a new bloody car!

He also found that the rear RHS sunroof drain tube was broken about 1" from the frame I can't imagine how that happened or where the water has been going all this time

He also filled in all the roof drillings (for the standard 80 chrome roof bars that are so good for nothing) and the side trim location holes. Friends are telling me that I should have replaced them and the grey decals, but I decided to leave it plain utility blue.

Cheers!

 

[Ben]

Sorry Clive didn't see the pics when I posted that.

Page must not have loaded properly.

Looks good.

 

[clivehorridge]

Sorry Clive didn't see the pics when I posted that.

Page must not have loaded properly.

Looks good.

No probs Ben, at the w/e I'll try to take a set of pics to make a before/after sequence from the earlier pics I took a few weeks ago.

The guy did a great job on the body repairs. The rear O/S (sorry left side it's a LHD) pillar had filler in I know, but he fetched it all out, all inch and a half of it! He cut the inner pillar panel out to get at the back of it and brought the dent right out to profile. Then he repaired the inner skin again so you couldn't even tell he'd cut it out. If he hadn't shown me I would never have known.

He also stripped and re-loaded the wheel arches with black rubberized protection and then over-sprayed it in blue!

I'm really pleased with it, like a kid with a new toy

 

[clivehorridge]

For those who aren't totally bored with this, some before's & afters:

NS view:

Before



After



Rear OS pillar:

Before



After



Rear OS Pillar close-up:

Before



After



Rear NS passenger door

Before



After

 

[Chas]

Looks like a new car Clive, how much did the respray and wrap set you back, would it be worth a trip to your man to have mine done.

 

[stumog]

Looks very nice. i bet your very happy with the results.
Stu

 

[clivehorridge]

Looks like a new car Clive, how much did the respray and wrap set you back, would it be worth a trip to your man to have mine done.

Thanks Chas!

TBO, it's too "new" for my liking, but in time I'll become less afraid of it!

There's almost always a + and - about living here.

I have no idea of UK prices anymore, 12 years is too long ago to even estimate rises since I left. But FYI the total cost of the re-spray, which included a lot of odds and sods, was €2,500.

The odds and sods were actually rather significant, and they included:

(i) Replacement front wiper arms (the old ones were corroded onto the splines ant they had to cut them off including the retaining nuts). They left them for a week with plus-gas, but still wouldn't shift. They were Mr T replacements cos of the lack of 80s in scrappiest here. Approx price £220 equivalent.

(ii) Rear barn door hinges. These were so worn that the doors dropped 2 cm when you opened them! They wouldn't buy new ones, something like £500 from Mr T, so they drilled them and inserted phosphor bronze bushes and new steel pins. They're just great now!

(iii) There was also the re-wiring of the back doors, where the "hinged" cables between the door pillar and the door had broken, shorted and done no end of meltdown damage in the past. 2 years ago it caused a fire in the rear quarter panel area which frightened the life out of me!

So my figure of €2,500 is not very representative of the re-spray perhaps, maybe more like €1,500 but of course, generally labour is cheap here with materials being expensive.

The wrap? Well maybe I was ripped off, I don't know. It cost me €1,500. No idea of the cost of labour or materials, and I'm sure they could have done a better job. It's a new thing here (especially in that 200 micron gauge) so who knows?

I paid £5,000 for the car in 2006, and of course I've spent money on accessories, ARB front and rear bumpers, roof rack, spots, side steps and a host of others. If I added it all up, I'd want to shoot myself.

I see beautiful 80s on e-blag for 5k but now mine's tidy I don't feel so bad about that.

I love the car, it will outlive me no doubt and I have no intention of changing it by choice, ever!

So there we are! megabucks, megasmiles, and a car that takes me anywhere I want to go in one of the most offroad friendly countries of Europe.

I don't suggest for one minute that it would be worth you coming here for a re-spray, financially that is, but you're more than welcome anytime Chas, to come here to stay/play for as long as you wish!

If you do, please bring me a spare front axle to build up...

Cheers!

 

[Chas]

I'm pretty sure that what you have had done would cost considerably more here in the UK, I'm assuming the £2500 doesn't include the wrap?

Like yours getting mine resprayed would involve a lot more than just paint, dents, scrapes and a little bit of restorative work on the tin worm problem on the bottom of my front wings would all need looking at.