HarryB's Strato blue NB2

[HarryB]

KFJ just saw your latest comment, really no space to zoom out as things are tight back there. Managed to get this lucky shot with my phone, without really being able to see what I was shooting!

Managed to find some time today to "work" on the car. Wanted to do the frame rails like crazy, but I would like to tackle these on a weekend to do it properly, so I refinished some minor items. First off, my wooden Nardi gearknob, which was a mess. The clear coat had started getting yellow and chipping away, which might give out a bad attempt to repair it sometime at the past. Inspired by Adams' post on refinishing his wooden MOMO wheel (http://revlimiter.net/blog/2015/10/m...l-restoration/), I decided to give it a go. Managed to get the clear coat on the top of the knob away in big chunks using an x-acto knife and patience, so to keep the lettering as intact as possible. The rest was (rather aggressively) sanded back to wood. I was lucky enough to find the Epifanes varnish suggested by Adam at a small marine store on the next corner, so I gave it a lick of varnish.

Sanded back:



At this stage the wood felt so nice and smooth in my hand that I was thinking of just going over it with teak oil and leave it alone. And already looked a million times better than before!

1st coat of Epifanes, diluted by 25%



Already looks good, need to repeat that 6-7 more times though!

I also find locally an RS Stage lip copy for relatively cheap, as it has been used for only 4 months and the owner decided to sell the car, so I bought it. It was quite scuffed when I got it...



I had already decided that I did not like the glossy PU finish on that, so I carefully sanded the whole thing, filled all deep scratches and painted it with bumper spray.





Not 100% sure on the finish, might prefer it in satin black, but will do for now.

Car is booked for a front/rear bumper respray next week, as well as polishing the headlights and protecting them with a UV film, so I will add the lip then. I also decided that I will go with painting the Watanabes instead of powdercoating, mainly because I have a really hard time getting a shade of powder reasonably close to the colour I decided without paying a fortune here, so I might drop the centers off to the painters' as well