Robokill's Panda Levin Coupe!

[Mux213]

Looked really cool when you came round the other day

You'll get used to the stiffness, dont worry Just keep an extra set of springs and shocks for when you need to go to MOT

Btw, your valve covers are ready. They look really sweet now! Not perfect though, my shed is to dusty to do proper spraypaint work I really need to create a small spray booth for these sorts of things.

I'll post some pictures tonight when I am home.

[banpei]

Your car looks like a go-kart when taking small-bumps!

But I expected you to make a small drift around atleast one of the many roundabouts last friday.

[Ivan141]

I was stopping him from doing that..I'm not as brave a passenger as I am a driver I'm afraid

[Mux213]

Okay, here we go. As I already mentioned, the end result isn't completely great cause I made some mistakes along the way, one of them being doing this in a stuffy shed. I really need to make some sortof paint booth where I can have things dry safely..

So I got these red painted valve covers from Robokill. Now this paint that was on there was made to last!! Sandblasting with my little DIY sandblasting equipment was tidious to say the least. Eventually I did resort to messy tools and first got most of the paint of with a wirewheel and then sandblasted it.

The nice thing about sandblasting is that it gives you a nice finish that is a little rough, perfect for spraying, but also perfect preparation to just polish it after you sandblast. It doesn't scare the surface like a heavy duty wirewheel does. This is also the reason I used a more gently wirewheel on a drill that doesn't scratch the metal as much.

[Mux213]

Robokill wanted his valve covers black with white letters to match his white and black panda paintjob he's been planning for awhile.

So I started with painting the covers white....

[Mux213]

Okay, next step is to do the black. What I did is to brush some greasy stuff on the letters so that the paint would not adhere to the letters and I would be able to wipe it off cleanly. That worked pretty well.

What didn't work all to well is that I was doing this when it was getting dark outside and I never noticed I didn't paint the sides to well I had to redo the sides later on...

The other thing that didn't went to well is that at this point dust was settling on the paint as it dried. That is also something you don't see to well in the dark with dark paint, but once the gloss went on.....

[Mux213]

Lennert already saw them in this state and also at night but they did look nice. Yesterday I finished them off, taped off the letters this time as it was already black around them and just repainted the sides.

The trouble was though that the difference between the two blacks did show because one was already glossed and the new paint wasn't. It took me alot of glossy coats to get them to match up and now you really need to held the cams under a bright lite to notice where the masking was....

Anyways, I think the end result does look stunning eventhough it has some beginners faults in them.

I'm planning to do my own soon but then I will only paint the letters, the rest of the covers are going to be polished really shiny I just need to get em off the car or get a second set to prepare first

[robokill]

Looks nice.

banpei about sliding i am far from used to this suspension and today my car thought me again to be carefull as I went sideways while going on a roundabout. And later on when making up way to the highway. I miss the feeling i had when the car began to slide so i am trying to get the feeling back. The car scares me now its so direct.

[banpei]

Very nice camcovers!

Robokill: I can understand why, I still have to get used to my car.

It scared me when I tried to let the car slide last saturday, like one moment you have complete control over the car and the next moment all hell broke loose. I'd guess I better try and practise on a parkinglot instead and not in a very wide corner next to Ikea on a saturday afternoon, just after Ikea closed... Stupid!

[robokill]

ikea corners are great fun i have slide this morning over 4 times i begin to understand the cars new suspension and response. Its complete difrent as the counter steer is as well