Another de-tango thread ;)
 

After trying to be as lazy as possible over the Easter break and only spending an hour to change a dodgy ball-joint on the Pug I thought I was getting away with a long weekend of slacking but The Handbrake had other idea's. No not cleaning the house, fixing shelves, or any of the normal wifey type stuff!.. "Dave we should de-tango!!.." At first I thought she was referring to some deranged dance class, but thankfully she was talking about the Car!!:five:

The lady had spoken, so a quick trip to Halfrawds and I set to work.

Headlights out screws removed and in the oven to separate!.. Bake at 100 oC for 10mins and serve with Gravy?
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...ps904013aa.jpg

Gently prise the two halves apart with the aid of a small flat blade screwdriver..
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...ps21afab06.jpg

Obviously after much debate and Wanda spending several hours looking at many different pictures of Subaru's on the interwebs she agreed to let me blacken the chrome finish light surround so a quick sand with some 2500grit wet and dry and on with a couple of coats of primer, rubbing down between each coat, I baked the first coat for 30mins at around 85/100 degrees C. The second for about 1 hour also at 80 odd.
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7f7bda6a.jpg

Next a couple of coats of satin black to finish., first baked for 30mins then rubbed down again and final coat baked for 1 hour at 85 again.
the finished articles look like this.
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...ps22b1474c.jpg

After this I fixed both of the finished surrounds back into the lens covers and stuck the halves back in the oven to warm the silicon sealant up again.. I also applied a fresh bead of sealant though I know this is probably not needed. bulbs and bits back together!
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...ps16573911.jpg

To cheap skate out of expensive indicator bulbs (and because Halfrawds didn't stock any!) I applied a quick dusting of metallic silver paint to some cheap orange bulbs (seems to work fine!)

The finished result....
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...psc11dba56.jpg




So the question is...

Should I now get some black zunsport grills? :) (Excuse the quick and dirty photoshop)
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...ps06b24a5c.jpg

about bloody time...and yes to black grills:doubleup:. and lose the pink sti bits:???:

Looking good.
How about getting the grills powder coated. I know a man that can as he is doing springs at the moment.

Go one Dave you know you want to full black front and I recon a black carbon effect grill emblem just to get rid of the pink bits .

never:doubledown:

Now to clean my oven :yeah:. Good job it needs doing anyway

Lights look good :five:

Keep the grills as they are,

otherwise they will look crap after a short time,

the stone chips will look worse than ever...:five:

Looks great, such a cheap/easy mod makes a big difference :ok:

Headlamps look great mate, top job :10:

Great job with the headlights, look lovely. Go black with the grills but don't lose the pink ;-)

Cheers guys,

Yea I'm leaning towards black, but as Ian says I really can't be dealing with stone chips everywhere!
Is powder coating strong enough? or would getting them anodized stop the chipping problem..
It would be easier to get the existing ones changed as the bottom one has all its clips trimmed short and drilled/screwed to fit (for FMIC. Fitting either a new one or having these changed means bumper removal again but it feels wrong to hack up a new one with an angle grinder! :)

I used Hammerite smoothite on my grilles, it does clip slightly but nowhere near as badly as normal car paints.

I never had any problems with the black grilles on my blob :)

But maybe I just didn't drive fast enough

That's the logic i'll use then, as mine chip quite easily! :( ;)

:) Did you have zunsport black ones Greg?


Are yours painted Steve?

Power coated when new, but seem to have started chipping more lately. Don't know if the powder coat has got brittle over the years? I'm now just touching them up with Hammerite every now and then.

looks amazing !!!! And def go black, but keep the pink STi :-)

Yes mate mine were the black zunsport. For some reason mine never chipped

looking good Dave:five:

great job done there:five:

looks much better dave and grilles deffo look better in black

gotta get a lower one for mine do they normally fix straight on the front or does the bumper have to come off to attach it.
cheers
Dave

If you don't have an FMIC then they clip straight in yes, no screws or anything, (mask round the area with masking tape first to protect the paint as it is a tight fit)

They have a nylon polymer coating on them from zunsport, I cant seem to find anywhere to "buy" it though. I might drop them a line and see if they would "re-finish" mine in black rather than paint them after watching a how they are made video I feel even more guilty for lopping the clips short and drilling them ;)

Although it would be easy to spray them or get them powder coated, I will just get annoyed with myself when it chips.

Nice one thanks

Hi sorry for the stupid question and the lights look great, I want to do the same with my bug but I'm thinking that I'm going to need special bulbs as if I'm going to be spraying the orange black then the indicators are going to be clear and if I buy orange bulbs then that's sort of defeating the object, am I wrong?? Sorry again if that's a stupid question lol.

Ideally you need a chrome reflector behind the indicator and then use silvertech bulbs like I have in the crystal indicators on my classic. Never seen it done on a Bug before so don't know if it's possible, I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along in a minute.

Shane

I didn't spray any orange black, there is a proper chromed reflector behind the orange overlay on a blob. With the bulbs its very easy to give orange ones a quick over mist of silver spray, they are still very bright and orange afterwards when they are used. I would not spray a reflector black at all. have a look on the net for a guide to doing it to a bug.. I'm sure one or two others have done this on this forum ;)

The Silvertech bulbs are expensive though! ;)

The powder coater I'm using has just been in touch to say my springs are ready to be shipped. He only got them yesterday !!!!!
So I have asked him to give me a price for your grill's.

Hi Scott
Nice Scooby ...... It will be £22.50 to do that £20 for the job and the £2.50 to cover paypal fees .
Just mail me on here if he's ok with that

Oo that is tempting, I take it I would need to post too and arrange collection as well?

Can I let you know in the moaning Scott? I am genuinely interested, I just have 1 other base to cover.

Yep. I use parcels2go ups access point service (you drop your item at a local allocated corner shop/off-licence) to get them there and parcels2go yodel collection to get back.
It cost me about £15 to get 12kg of springs there and back.

Yours will be less.

No rush making your decision I can pm you his contact email.

I personally much prefer those grills in black. :nod: Nice job on the lights as well!

I had a quote today from Zunsport to nylon coat the existing "trimmed" grills £35+vat and while not as cheap as the powder coat option I think it will last longer and I'll most likely go for it, depending on what Wanda decides! ;)

Probably worth the extra - their kryptanite covering is bound to last better than a standard powder coat