Paul Nolan - quality work and service

[soc]

Had the timing belt, front arb bushes and front lower arm bushes changed by Paul yesterday - and all done by 4:30pm. Superb!

Car is handling very sweetly now with the postive camber bushes fitted. Feels much more solid and direct on the road and quite a few annoying noises are now gone. I dunno if there is much difference over a car without the positive castor bushes cause I suspect mine were well worn (although Paul did say they weren't that bad). Either way the car is handling sweet and I'm loving every single corner

I was gonna get the camber bolts and an alignment done this saturday but Paul reckoned he might need to play with the settings on the track rod arm when fitting the new steering rack gaiters as there is a very slight pull to the left - so he suggested getting this done first and then getting the camber bolts and alignment done.

On the timing belt front - it sounds like I was a lucky, luck boy...... Paul said the one he took off was in ribbons and had a crack down the centre line. Phew...... glad I got it changed.

So to celebrate I just ordered 2 front and rear strut braces from Camskill - £139 all in..... happy days! At the risk of getting a slagging/bo****ing from CJ I'm starting to think about holding onto this bloody car for a while longer

[CJ]

At the risk of getting a slagging/bo****ing from CJ I'm starting to think about holding onto this bloody car for a while longer

OK Shane, you asked for it:

/begin rant

Stop going on about all these cars you're gonna buy and then not buy them ffs, I'm fed up listening to you going on about that fact that you're gonna buy this and you're gonna buy that and you never end up buying anything and end up keeping your FTO until something else takes you're fancy and you're off on a tangent again when you won't accept the fact that you'll be driving an FTO when you're 80!

/end rant



CJ

[soc]

At the risk of getting a slagging/bo****ing from CJ I'm starting to think about holding onto this bloody car for a while longer

OK Shane, you asked for it:

/begin rant

Stop going on about all these cars you're gonna buy and then not buy them ffs, I'm fed up listening to you going on about that fact that you're gonna buy this and you're gonna buy that and you never end up buying anything and end up keeping your FTO until something else takes you're fancy and you're off on a tangent again when you won't accept the fact that you'll be driving an FTO when you're 80!

/end rant



CJ

hehe, yea ok - but I just can't help it - I'm am impetueous person when it comes to cars - from now on I'll try hard to resist.................. and maybe even stop looking at the damn cbg! Maybe I need to seek out medical help

[soc]

At the risk of getting a slagging/bo****ing from CJ I'm starting to think about holding onto this bloody car for a while longer

OK Shane, you asked for it:

But Paul still does quality work and I feel very lucky I had the timing belt done......

[CJ]

But Paul still does quality work and I feel very lucky I had the timing belt done......

Yeah, you were indeed very lucky, the result doesn't bear thinking about...

By the way, I'm not too different from yourself when it comes to thinking about getting this and that car, in saying that, if its not gonna be an FTO, is deffo gonna be either a Skyline GTS Turbo or a Supra TT, I find that you're better off having no more than a list of 2 cars that you can potentaily seeing yourself driving in the next 6 moths...

CJ

[soc]

But Paul still does quality work and I feel very lucky I had the timing belt done......

Yeah, you were indeed very lucky, the result doesn't bear thinking about...

By the way, I'm not too different from yourself when it comes to thinking about getting this and that car, in saying that, if its not gonna be an FTO, is deffo gonna be either a Skyline GTS Turbo or a Supra TT, I find that you're better off having no more than a list of 2 cars that you can potentaily seeing yourself driving in the next 6 moths...

CJ

Agreed - Supra TT sounds great but wouldn't tax and insurance (not to mention petrol) be a nightmare?

[Ivan E]

if you were to settle on a car that easy then you'd be driving a Micra and be quite happy at that!

Just get your missus to change hers to something you like and problem sorted.

[mark]

Well i've developed an obsessive mental dissorder since buying my FTO. I just love it, it's changed my life. What's really sad is that I polished it 3 times last week! Sick I know-help.

[CJ]

Well i've developed an obsessive mental dissorder since buying my FTO. I just love it, it's changed my life. What's really sad is that I polished it 3 times last week! Sick I know-help.

Trust me Mark, you're not alone

CJ

[ronbyrne]

i polished mine twice this week and actualy sat with a smile on my face looking at the water beading on it as the rain pissed down on all my hard work and im going to do it again tonight or tomorow, hehe, it brings a tear to my eye when i read on the polish can " one application may last up to 12 months" and it will if you live in california or florida! 2 to 3 days max here lol

[adrian]

is waxing a car too often bad for the paint??

[ronbyrne]

no, wax and polish are two different things, a polish will take some of the surface of your paint and bring it back to new but it will not protect it, so unless you wax it will fade again and you will get your polish out and do the same again. That will ruin your paint. But if you polish and then protect it with wax as often as you can you will never have to polish the paint again ! i learnt that from a professional detailer in the usa

[adrian]

So, things like MER and TurtleWax 2 minute shine are NOT wax....they're polish right?? So, where can I get me some wax??

A

[ronbyrne]

it's hard to tell because the manufacturers us the words loosly which is why we are confused, if your car is a single coat paint so there is no "clear coat" on top, then you can tell because a polish will make your cloth show some of the car colour on it ! where a wax will not, you should nerver use a polish on a clearcoat paint job because eventualy it will wear it away and reveal the paint,, most metalic paint jobs are finished with a clearcoat (lacquer) my fto is pasion red so no clearcoat, i used auto glym colour restorer once and then good old fashioned simoniz pure carnauba wax (you can use it on wood furniture aswell! hows that for natural) lol.

[soc]

it's hard to tell because the manufacturers us the words loosly which is why we are confused, if your car is a single coat paint so there is no "clear coat" on top, then you can tell because a polish will make your cloth show some of the car colour on it ! where a wax will not, you should nerver use a polish on a clearcoat paint job because eventualy it will wear it away and reveal the paint,, most metalic paint jobs are finished with a clearcoat (lacquer) my fto is pasion red so no clearcoat, i used auto glym colour restorer once and then good old fashioned simoniz pure carnauba wax (you can use it on wood furniture aswell! hows that for natural) lol.

I've been using Formula 1 Carnuba Wax lately and it is pretty impressive - the shine is amazing.

[adrian]

So, it's something then like MER, or that turtlewax stuff that hazes and then buffs off...finished with carnuba Wax??

[CJ]

you should nerver use a polish on a clearcoat paint job because eventualy it will wear it away and reveal the paint,, most metalic paint jobs are finished with a clearcoat (lacquer)

So what you're saying Ron is that all the polishing I've been doing with Autoglym over the past year or two has been doing damage to the paint work an my steel silver GPX?! I'm not ruling out ignorance, but I've never come across not using polish on metallic finishes for fear of damage, I would have thought it would have done more damage on non metallic finishes?

CJ

[ronbyrne]

the autoglym i use is autoglym colour restorer, it is a polish like t-cut is a polish, if you use autoglym super resin polish or such, although they use the term polish it is not abrasive and will not polish your paint , the shine you see is from the aplication not your paint whereas if you first polish your paint so IT shines and then protect it from acid rain and tree sap etc. that is a better job, if you have a clearcoat on top of your paint your paint is always shiny! also if you look at all the bottles af polish/wax on a shelf (i know theres a lot available) but you will see that some clearly say "safe for metalic" the others don't say that theres will damage the clearcoat but why would they? i had a 520i metalic blue before i got the fto and polished it every week , eventually i noticed some dull patches appearing on the bonnet, (it was the clearcoat wearing off, but i didn't know about paint at that time) that plus using a power washer got under the clearcoat and lifted a sheet of clearcoat off about the size of an a4 page.

[CJ]

Nice one Ron, I've learned something new today

CJ

[soc]

Nice one Ron, I've learned something new today

CJ

yea me too - reckon I'll try to pick up some polish and give this a lash with the carnuba wax this weekend......