2 June 2007, 11:29 pm

Advanced car maintenance

Over the last few months there has been a growing band of people suggesting I should consider getting a new car. I keep telling people just because the Nissan has now reached 126,000 miles and is developing rust / holes in places, all it needs is a little TLC to keep it going.

So here we go, a practical demonstration of what i’ve been up to over the last few days.


One of the defective areas (actually the smaller of the two). Chop out all the rusted metal from the outer skin, back to a regular shape such as a rectangle and give what is left a good coat of paint inside and out. Treat the strengthening struts inside with a rust remover and paint.


Fabricate a metal plate; drill fixing holes and rivet in place. Weld around the plate if required.


ADD FILLER!!


Smooth filler…


Paint – I didn’t have any spare green paint so as I had the choice of signal red or black, I used black.

There we have it, it has probably cost in the region of £5 to do. By tackling little jobs as they come along, I can see it happily plodding along to the 250,000 miles target I set a few years ago. Just got to deal with some minor rust behind the front bumper and the whole car should be ready for a complete respray in the summer just in time for its 10th birthday.

With the car near enough sorted, next week I can be a little more sociable.

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