VIN 4748 home at last!

[Guinney1971]

Thats a good price James, our local Romac (aka Robin B*****d) Motor Factors wanted
£6.99 a bottle the other week (for a small bottle). Saw it at a car show for £10 for a
litre bottle, but was out of cash by then.

I think we're down to our last snotty dregs of the bottle we have got, so looks like its
Ebay here we come! lol

Cheers for the heads up on that

[phil349]

Thanks for that! just bought a bottle off ebay, very good price.

[frostrobo]

I think I may have to try some "green snot", although I think I'll try asking for it by is proper name first!

Took the car into work last week, attracted quite a bit of positive attention parked outside Frontier ... got cameraphone-filmed by someone in a SUV while queuing on the A10 milton roundabout in the morning... Also discovered that the horn worked very nicely when some tw@t in a bmw tried to cut me up on the roundabout :roll:

Went out for a 10-mile drive today just for fun

[Rissy]

frostrobo Wrote:Nice new number plates and the rear numberplate fascia back on..

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Spent a little while this afternoon applying some "Back to black" on the louvers and back bumper. Needs another pass, but at least they are now black rather than a faded grey. Cleaned the top of the engine cover and underbody too!

Just realised that I went out on my first 'solo' drive in the De today too

I've used Back to Black (Simoniz) on previous cars of mine, and found that over time it would actually bleach the bumper it was being used on, meaning you had to apply more and more of the product to get it back to being black (like getting a person addicted to a drug for profit, it means you're then bound to buy more and more of the product instead of originally just leaving things as they were and looking better for nothing too!)
As a result, i then vowed to NEVER use back to black on any other of my cars present or future, and i never have. Now this Autoglym stuff sounds like a try, but has anyone ever found what i have found with back to black in the past?

[Guinney1971]

Rissy Wrote:but has anyone ever found what i have found with back to black in the past?

yep, especially on the bumper of my '89 Cavalier (before I gave up and colour coded it).

And its a bugger to wash off too, so I just replaced my bumpers with painted ones.

[frostrobo]

What a 18"x 8" piece of steel does to the front of a De

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Went out for the weekly drive today, bit windy but otherwise lovely. Had a great run up to Chatteris, turned around and was one mile from home (on the long gault bridge) when a truck kicks up this piece of metal and slams it into the front of my car. Huge thump and crash as the metal hits the front bumper, bounces over the bonnet and just misses hitting the windscreen at my eye level.

Pulled over in a farm entrance just down the road and saw that the front grill had been ripped off and have a gouge in the bumper.

Ran back up the road and managed to find the DMC logo in the gutter and the offending piece of metal, but no grill. As I was retracing my steps along the bridge an elderly gentleman out walking his dog passes up the front grill to me which had fallen down to the riverside below...! So all bits found thankfully.

Back at home, damage is gouge on front bumper, left front indicator not working, a couple of scratches on bonnet. No dents as far as I can tell, and it looks like the slipstream caught the metal and flew it over the roof without damaging anything there.

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The :evil: offending piece of metal. :evil: Weighs a good couple of kilos.
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Got off lightly I guess, could have been a lot worse.

[Stuart Rees]

Simon, You were VERY lucky there was no stainless or glass damage. Must have been a good whack to knock the grill off too...
A bodywork guy can fix that easily, I've just had 2 bumpers done buy a paint sprayer friend and he's made them look like new again. If you want to do it yourself, a bit of filler and sanding will do the trick on the scratch. Matt black paint gives a good finish for the black parts. Just watch the masking tape doesn't take off the silver.
Let us know how you get on.

[Chris Williams]

Blimey!, Sorry to hear that mate. Looking at the lump of metal it could have been a great deal worse, not just for the car but for you. Fortunately you have all the bits, perhaps you should look at your insurance for this repair? not normally a no-claim discount on classic anyway (if on this)

Chris

[frostrobo]

Thanks.. Yes it was lucky. I am going to have another good look at the stainless bodywork tomorrow morning if the wind and rain lets off, but from what I could see, the two scratches are minor. I will check my insurance details, but I think I could sort out the bumper myself. Its annoying, but at least no serious damage done as far as I can tell.

[dmcscott2002]

That was a close call, your lucky it was only the bumper! Good luck getting it sorted!

[frostrobo]

Well, had a fresh look this morning and its really not too bad. The scratches on the bonnet are minimal thankfully, and I can't see any evidence of denting. In fact, I'm coming to the conclusion that the metal panel didn't hit the bonnet with any real force, just skimmed over it . I had time today to get a new bulb for the indicator and also gave the front grill a thorough wash in the sink and a wax so its looking pretty nice at the moment. Will see what I can do about the bumper next weekend!

On a side note, while removing the front indicator, I heard a lot of snuffling and grunting coming from the bush in front of my car. Turns out a hedgehog has decided to hibernate in front of the De! He has good taste