Reubans blue blue blue

[Reuban]

As some of you might have seen i put up in some thread or other that i was keeping an eye out for a stock-ish gen3 turbo, Got a reply from Chris (phothog) that he was thinking of selling this:

Previous to me owning it

blue gen3 front.jpg (125.26 KiB) Viewed 4727 times

blue gen3 rear.jpg (151.1 KiB) Viewed 4727 times

Pretty much love at first site, my favorite color, favorite gen and in pretty good condition with a stock motor. Can ya blame me?
After a drive and a wee bit of haggling i decided to buy her, pending a fresh warrant (and some begging for money ). Thanks to Chris's upkeep since buying her fresh from japan the wof was no real problem.
Both of these pics are filched from Chris's facebook page, hopefully he doesn't mind
Now i know what all the fuss is about Gen3's, so many little things that are better than my old 2's. even the seats are more comfy, and this goes much harder than my gen1/2's when they where stock.
Mods on it now ( as far as i know):
toms sway bars
apexi (i think) air filter/inlet pipe
3" exhaust from the bottom of the cat back (brand unknown)
Blitz oil pressure and boost guages, pillar mounted
Trd soft lowering springs
Trd engine mounts
Kyb shocks
Toms carbon(?) dash face/panel
(edit) just remembered the oil cooler and air scoop
I think that's about it as i got it, Though it does have the factory looking cup holder .

She has a couple of little dings and scratches and an oil leak i saw tonight, but what 17yr old car doesn't?
I'll try and get some more recent (non-filched) pics up this weekend, probably as a before and after bit as "mrshiny" is helping me give her a full detail on saturday.

Things i might do when i get aroundtoit,
Fit my Greddy intercooler kit
Wack either my 3" or 2.5" down pipe on it to ditch the cat

Things i Will do when i can,
Fix said oil leak, probably pull the motor and do a bit of maintenance while I'm at it
Change the cracked door cups for my good ones,
Fit my leather gear boot gaitor until i can afford a genuine one
Fit/get fitted a new alarm as this won't unlock the doors on disarming.

More soon

[Grrrrrrr!]

So does that mean old red is going to be converted to a track car? hehehe

[Reuban]

I wish, old red will have to go up for sale, probly in bits. there is a lot on her i'm not keen to let go of.

[born disturbed]

Good score Reuban it's a very nice car which I have spent lots of time admiring in the car park at work when Chris couldn't park it at his work. Take good care of her

[Benckj]

Congrats on the purchase. Better post up more pics once you get. Always liked that colour.

[Reuban]

Good score Reuban it's a very nice car which I have spent lots of time admiring in the car park at work when Chris couldn't park it at his work. Take good care of her

I will most definitely look after her, i get a rush just looking at her, let alone driving her.
Thanks Jim, has been my favorite colour ever since i first saw it, will get lots of pics this saturday.

[Malcolm]

Good move, that car is beautiful and so well looked after!

[mickeyduck]

Good move indeed. I'm really looking forward to seeing it after Mr Shiny has a crack at it.

Reub brought it around last weekend and yep he's scored a pearler for sure.

[Mr Shiny]

Good move indeed. I'm really looking forward to seeing it after Mr Shiny has a crack at it.

Well Charie if you remember what I did to that scratch in your bonnet, think of that, but EVERYWHERE! Haha!

[Reuban]

[Reuban]

Right at the outset I'd like to thank Brae for an epic effort on this, a full day of work (99% his) and a whole lot of skill and experience (100% his ) went into this.
Secondly, forgive my horrid photography haha

Today Brae aka Mrshiny showed me just what polishing a car actually means, it is fekkin amazing!

I washed her last night at around 7pm in preperation for today, we started at about 9.30 this morning coffee in hand with this:

first thing

which i didn't think was too shabby really.

Then Brae busted out his bar of clay......

the clay job

This amazed me, these things make a huge huge difference. the amount of crap they take off before even starting to polish is phenomenal. that pic was probably not even two square feet of use! here's another one

clay the second

once the claying was finished the difference was easily seen, and mr shiny is just starting out!

after clay

after clay left

It's like magic! .............

[Reuban]

Now out comes the heavy(ish) machinery.....

bringing the friction

ooooh more friction

Brae spent hours doing this part, i cant say enough how much skill is involved in using this machine well (as he definitly does), i wouldn't even attempt it on this car. Old red on the other hand....... hmmmm.
Anywho, all that effort definitely paid off, i couldn't believe the difference as Brae was doing this.

after hard polish

mirror before hard polish

mirror after hard polish

check out those reflections! I was absolutely stoked at this point, i thought surely the job was done as it is way better here than anything I've ever done. How little i knew, only just over half way there!
Next came a softer polish using a foam pad rather than a sheepskin-ish looking one........

[Reuban]

I was feeling pretty useless by this point as Brae's experience really shows when he is doing his thing.
Heres a couple of the soft polish...

softly now

yeah, im not a photographer

Just to give an example of how much effort and skill went into this (again none of it mine), at points he was having to polish so hard you couldn't comfortably keep your hand on the part he had polished, it was so hot!

Check the reflections after the soft polish

a crateful shot

bonnet pattern

after this it was on to the seal coat for protection, longevity and that extra shine and detailing, groomers silicone = awweshome Never using that aerosol bollox again.
Ending up with this:

hmmmmm check out that ass

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both those bins are full of grooming gear!!

Now, lets take this outside

out side in the fading light

can you tell Brae took this? check out the building in the bumper

Again, i can't thank you enough for this Brae. Your effort today was unbelievable.

[Reuban]

Now for my input into today, I polished the lights using Braes Meguires scratch-x and drill with a stylie little buffer attachment

tail lights before #1

tail lights before #2

tail light half and half

oops, i seem to have forgotten to get a shot of the tail lights once finished. hopefully i'll remember to get some tomorrow and i'll edit them in.

I also pulled apart the automatic ariel as it had broken the mast cable (plastic feed thingy). Griffiths apparently don't even list the MR2 so i'll have to figure something else out. have pic's will probably start another post to see what everybody else has done.

[Benckj]

Polishing my car like that would be a total waste as I would get dirty on first run into town. How out some pics of engine bay and interior?