MDMetal

So paint wise I used the satin black hamerite, its not an exact match but its close, I sprayed the whole arm a few times to help blend in the finishes so they look identical. Obviously mask off the washer jets! Paint in those would not be good. I didnt prime it purely as it was hamerite but bare in mind it'll take a good 5 coats to full cover the metal solidly, then I gave it an additional 10 or so on top to really beef it up, remember lots of small quick coats will give you a superiour finish to a few heavy coats that are prone to running.

Sanding wise I used some very very heavy paper to get the initial corrosion off, if yours are anything like mine youll need to remove 3-4 times the amount of paint compared to whats already come off. You can see in one of my images just how bad the bubbling under the paint work was, once the worst is off switch to a medium grade paper to tidy up the area, level out the metal and paint so it all sits flush, then get out your fine grade to really smooth off the area so its perfect. After that I washed each arm using washingup liquid to remove any hint of oil, gave that a good rinse and dry then time to spray!

I spent pretty much the whole weekend on this, you could narrow it down to a day but its worth putting the time in, if you can put 10+ coats of paint on 15-20 min apart for each coat youll get a really hi quality finish.

This is just my personal experience im sure others have their own methods Its a really nice thing to do to get your 350 looking tip top with mininal outlay (think i spent £9 on paint and paper tops) The wipers are one of those areas that point to the cars age get rid of those and nobody believes you when you say its 7 years old (in my case)

whatever it is its getting worse quickly, squeaked all the way to work sounded like front and rear :/

All done and re attached took some piccies, you can see in the pre pic theres a few deep scratches theres some severe bubbling near one of the elbows and in the bottom left how much I had to sand off to remove the paint flakes/corrosions. That said the post pic shows now nicely theyve come up, I spent the whole weekend on it so I was able to build up thin coats, sand down a few spots I hadnt got smooth on the first pass then build up more coats and leave to dry. Theyve come up a treat and Id recomend anyone thinking about it to just go for it, once they were off had zero issues!

Ok so Ive had a look now and have a few questions and piccies..

Firstly is this a leaky shock? the wet area is definetly oily (ran my finger over it) The other rear appears similar, the fronts are assembled in such a way its hard to tell but they look ok.

Secondly the rear ARB, if you imagine reaching into the image and gripping the roll bar just beside the link and pulling the bar towards and pushing away from you, should there be any play? I can get it to move a couple of mm towards/away and can see the rubber around the arb bush move very slightly, up down wise the whole thing is completly rigid only movement towards away from the cameras view point

Cheers for any help!

Ok theyre finally off, the trick btw seems to be not just to pull them back (away from the screen) but to wiggle them to a middle position between theyre normal position (on the screen) and the back position (away from the screen) then they slide off nice and easily!

 

Now they're off how do I break down the wiper arms to their components so I can sand and spray individually? the upper and lower arm are joined by a pin and spring, the pin doesnt look very removable!

 

Cheers

 

 

As I said.

hehe indeed however pulling them back and pulling does nothing its the wiggling back and forth that works, small omitted detail hehe nevermind theyre off now, how did you split the upper and lower arms apart? I can see its easy enough to pull the spring back and off but how do i remove the centre pin?

Ok theyre finally off, the trick btw seems to be not just to pull them back (away from the screen) but to wiggle them to a middle position between theyre normal position (on the screen) and the back position (away from the screen) then they slide off nice and easily!

Now they're off how do I break down the wiper arms to their components so I can sand and spray individually? the upper and lower arm are joined by a pin and spring, the pin doesnt look very removable!

Cheers

Id say if your car has done around 50k,then this is a good replacement,and alot cheaper than getting the banana arm bushed replaced,as that involves 4 wheel alignment etc after.

Sorry what's a good replacement? The cars done 41k but getting the previous owner hasn't done anything apart from the bare minimum maintainance wise!

Thanks for the tips out of interest does the old pushing down on a corner and seeing how the car moves trick work on the 350? its obviously got very stiff suspension to start with!

Sounds sensible! Beyond a good visual inspection is there anything worth checking/doing? I guess il know more once Ive got it up for a look!

I had pondered the sway bars so maybe. In terms if the handling im struggling to see why the tyres would be at fault they're brand new falkens, troubles started before they were changed, basicaly if I ride over a bump the right way the steering goes very light for a few moments, doesn't have to be a big bump just an undullation. Could be I need a few extra psi and an alignment, was just wondering if I had the car up to swap the links if there was anything else worth doing

Already do plenty! Im sure he's a busy guy but il no doubt be ordering the parts with him, question is tho apart from drop links what else is it worth doing in one shot?

Hi guys, Ive a feeling my front and rear driver side ARB drop links have suddenly gone (over a week) Im gonna jack it up at the weekend and take a peek. Initially I thought it was just the rears clunking as I went over speed bumps but the front clanked a few times on the way home from work today. So Il probably end up swapping front and rears for uprated ones.

I usually park on the street so maintiance is a nightmare however will be visiting people at easter and planning to get the car up so I can plan some longer fixes. Given I feel my handling has turned mushy over the past few months (even on a straight line at 30) what else is it worth me swapping/fixing while Ive got the time? Im guessing its worth checking the front banana arms? Am I right in thinking the arms themselves are fine the issue is the bushes on them needing swapping?

Do ARB drop links have much effect on low speed straights? Obviously they help cornering but im guessing by themselves low speed straights dont do anything?!

As always cheers for any help guys!

still getting problems with this, soaked it in wd40 got it to the point where the arm could rotate left and right around its pin but i couldnt for the life of me pull it off :/ am i doing something wrong? the manual refers to an 'auto stop position' is it basically just saying do this when the wiper is in the normal off position?

Its also worth pondering who you buy from, Ive been willing to pay more for a car when Ive felt the guy selling it and the company/buisness seems to care about me beyond my wallet and seem like decent people who if there was a problem wouldnt attempt to deny all knowledge. That in itself I find worth paying for (within reason). The first car I ever bought was bought from a mechanic in a small village in the middle of nowhere who was polite freindly, had sold lots of new drivers their first cars, listed every little blemish talked me though exactly what he was going to do to the car, gave it a full service (new spark plugs, fan belt, brake pads etc) all within the price and was a real standup guy. I had the car 2 years all it ever needed was a new oil bung. By far and away the most reliable car Ive ever owned, happened the car was being sold well below what the dealers were asking (was about 2k cheaper than id found elsewhere) but the main point being that the man taking my money didnt have the attitude of your sterotypical salesman.

Rambling short.. pay a reasonable amount to buy from someone reputable who gives a damn

Colour does effect it the gingers are less popular, each to their own I guess, whites seem to be the priciest, for comparision I got a 04 red GT with 38K on the clock for 8k in novemeber that was about average for what id looked into (it had below average miles obviously)

Yup just picked one up myself this feels like one of those must have accesories, is there an accesories sticky somewhere?

I had a random stubby when I bought my Z reception was just horrid about 1 station on each band, bought the honda studdy (was £22 quid If I recall) perfect reception got more stations than I had on my previous car with a more conventional aeral so the honda is highly recomended and fits near perfectly too!

when you say perfectly what sort of hills are we talking about? Mine holds on a gentle gradiant but if its multistorey carpark I just roll back to the bottom of the ramp fairly quickly!

 

When I say perfectly I mean that I can and have parked on the steepest possible hills using handbrake alone and the car is absolutely secure.

cool now that sounds pretty good gives me hope It can be cleaned up and got working correctly, Im asusming they took the discs off and cleaned up the brake shoes etc nicely to get that level of performance?

hm leaving it in gear makes next to no difference for me, should it actually stop the car? I find it maybe slows it down a little bit but thats it.

when you say perfectly what sort of hills are we talking about? Mine holds on a gentle gradiant but if its multistorey carpark I just roll back to the bottom of the ramp fairly quickly!

funky, cheers for that im def tempted to take the discs off and see how the drum/pads/springs look I cant believe that its this bad new something must have worn/relaxed whatever in 7 years

I decided to have a play with this at the weekend did my best to adjust each drum, drivers side i got tight, passenger side didnt seem to want to get any tighter, slackened them off tightened up the handbrake, it feels better when parked (pulling away with the handbrake on seems harder, very scientific) tried it in a multistory carpark ramp and zero grip just rolled right back, popping it in the opposite gear did nothing either (im assuming all your doing is adding the engines weight to the wheels anyways)

So whats the next step? I cant believe I cant park on a hill or stop in traffic on a hill, Is it time to take the discs off and have a look in the drum? Any decent guides? as always the manual is vague in a detailed way

.. silly question but, Ive got the cap off and undone the nut on the wiper arm, the manual says "Remove washer tube from washer tube joint" Im asusming thats just pulling the tube off its plastic connector down into the engine bay? next step "Remove front wiper arm mounting nuts and front wiper arm from vehicle" well i pulled and its not coming away! is some force required? Im hesitant just to yank as hard as I can for fear of damaging what its connect to! Is the wiper arm meant to lift off pretty freely?

Hope you don't mind, I can't resist playing with photos!

 

Damn it now im gonna have to go edit my hi res ones to make them nicer I do need a new desktop image..... hehe

I took these awhile back (over xmas) actually but finally decided to upload them......