MadaboutKitcars

Hi Barber, yup you have a slightly light rated battery, but that wouldn’t immediately give you major issues unless under high load/drain scenarios and frequently. Key will be how many of the 650cca’s are available. My battery as I mentioned previously was shot and could only push out around between 140 to 240cca under a load test. If you haven’t yet I suggest you get the battery load checked to find out what it is trying to do under load. Hope this helps. Cheers.

Can't see that being the cause of your problem unless the engine is cranking over very slowly.

+1 from me. A lot of comments on BMW forums point to kn@ckered batteries after they've gone flat a few times due to high parasitic drain. Seems they won't hold a decent charge after that.

I've bought batteries from Halfords (twice) and upon insisting that they load check them before I took them away- found that they were duff.

Even on my regularly used car, I keep a solar charger on the dashtop. It slows the sulphation/sedimentation which shorts out the plates eventually and kills the cells.

Crikey, will be sure to get the new one checked. It is clear that the old (new) one is kaput.

Colorbond LVP interior trim paint

Has anyone tried this? Has anyone figured how to get it in the UK? The reviews are very good. I could do with some for door panel refresh and also the new dashboard.

Ebay.com have some listed with international shipping option.

Family visits and dog sitting have held up my tinkering for 3-4 weeks. Back on track at the end of the month. Jagtvr, empty you pm box, it is full.

Wing Mirrors

Earlier in the thread I showed the white M3 wing mirrors I got off ebay. In quiet moments I have rubbed them back with 1200 wet and dry. Not really worth a photo as they just looked matt white instead of gloss white.

Using my trusty corrugated cardboard spray booth, I gave them a couple of coats of high build primer. It said grey on the tin, but it turns out to be not much different from the matt white smoothed back look. So I didn't bother with photos.

After a couple of days, I smoothed them back and gave a couple of coats of cellulose gloss RAL 6021 Light Green. This is the nearest bog standard colour to AM California Sage, which is where I intend to go with this eventually. However, in the short term, I didn't not fancy RAL 6021 light green gelcoat body panels, black doors and white wing mirrors. So this is the learning part of spray painting for me. Last time was in 1968 when I painted my scooter panels and helmet.

That time, they had a fetching eggshell finish which I rather liked as it was unique at the time. In the intervening years, my painting skills have not been refined, and the wing mirrors are half ok and half not. I got too close in the confined spray booth. (I wasn't actually IN the box, just may arm and hand, but it is a bit tight) Sadly, it is 50/50 on each of them. I am going to rub them back and give them a polish. They will eventually be painted the sage gloss, so they don't have to be perfect now.

I will post pictures of the before and after smoothing tomorrow. I may get some lacquer and see how that goes before going trying the polishing. After that, it is having a bash at the doors

I have got a sample of beige vinyl from the company that do the best value MGB seat covers. The beige is more brown than pink (no Steve Davies jokes please) and I may order a length and see how it looks on the dashboard. This will save me making everything black. I think I mentioned before that I am probably lazier than Jaguartvr (sorry matey). I can then do the MGB seats later, if I don't get round to it before Chris gets the car in for the panelling work.

In the meantime, I am dog sitting at my son's house, commuting back to the house to strip the walls back in the dining room then getting back in time for his next wee break. Thinking about it, my wife is off babysitting for our daughter tomorrow. I wonder if the dining room would be a better spray booth? If i can get 2 coats on the walls after the mirror test, she might never know. Something would be sure to go wrong though......

Good call on the dining room/spray booth, just air it well, slap some Magnolia on the walls and tell her that modern emulsion just doesn't smell like it used to.

Green Eggs

Here are how it turned out after trial spraying. SWMBO reckons it is too "peppermint" and I should go for a darker colour.

I made the obvious error, of assuming that as every colour swatch i had seen on my computer looked the same, then that must be the colour. Yes, I know, I know .... now. I have sent off for a RAL colour fan. I think I need RAL 6011 and not RAL 6021. We shall see. Anyhow, no harm done.

But I will have to let Chris know if I change my mind on the colour as he is going to use the same colour in the gelcoat, when we get that far.

That is a truly hideous colour.

Hey Barber, here are some helpful info for the correct color.

ALMOND GREEN PPG# 400525 (RKB-85A)

CALIFORNIA SAGE ??

ASTON RACING GREEN
PPG# AST 1140

DBR1 PAINT CODE R-M PAINT CODE R-3213

2000 Lexus dark green mica PPG 48460

No, no, stay with puke green!

Darker colours are much easier to work with. They show the imperfections and ripples much better and make the finishing easier.
Stay away from white at all costs.

Molleur, thanks for the codes, I have been casting around without much success for the AM California Sage one. I saw a nice MGB done in the Sage, but no-one ever publishes the code.

For this stage I am sticking with RAL colours, as Chris can do those in the gelcoat. That way, I can be driving around in something approximating what I want whilst I continue to prevaricate about what to do next. It least the gelcoat will not be eggshell finish.

I am being pressured to get the dining room painting finished, so smoothing back the green eggs may have to be next week. Some scheduling conflicts there though as 2 days are blocked out for a walk in the Surrey hills with a schoolfriend. We usually set off mid morning and make it to a pub for lunch. Surrey has a village every 3-4 miles, most of which have a pub.

After 5 miles up hill and down dale, we make it to another village where we stop off for a refresher. And afterwards, returning to the start point (another pub would you believe) where we dine, meet up with another school friend who still lives locally and basically, get hammered and stop over.

We stick to the range of villages we could reach and return home in a day of mischief on bicycles (before we were able to ride Lambrettas it used to be 16 years old in those days).

Next day, after a late and full breakfast, time for a leisurely stroll along the river, then home and try to convince out wives how far and hard we have walked.

I will try flatting these back and see how it goes before trying a darker colour.

The PPG color code might be cross-referenced to RAL.
ALMOND GREEN PPG# 400525 (RKB-85A) Identical to California Sage.

Great, thanks

RAl code

There is a Colour conversion program I fed it the pic of a DB2 in sage and it chose Ral 7034

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=1FKKp1Cj&id=E11FC6DBAF7372148AF1342711A57826062A3AFC&thid=OIP.1FKKp1CjdsH8uVHQC7inOQHaGJ&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.vespafarben.de%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2fvespa_farben_RAL_7034_gelbgrau.png&exph=379&expw=456&q=ral7034+car&simid=608005038861910570&selectedIndex=19&qpvt=ral7034+car&ajaxhist=0

I found a scooter painted that colour

https://www.vespafarben.de/fotos/vespa-v50-ral-7034-gelbgrau/

Interesting, on my screen, that comes out a germanic beige, like one of those Mercedes monster 4x4 thingies.

I have to confess, it is hard to disagree with that succinct evaluation.

Break it to him gently there... :-)

I did!

Harsh.......but fair

Message

Smash could you check your inbox , thanks Geoff .

Colour Matching

So I did a quick bit of flatting back, and here are the comparisons to the RAL colour swatches.

On the left is the colour I thought I was getting. In the middle is a bit of flatted spray paint delivered. On the right is the 6011 that I will probably go for. The delivered paint in the middle is slightly more blue than the RAL swatch.

I could send back the two tins I still have (I need to do the doors as well), but not sure I can be @rsed for £22. I could order the 6021 from somewhere else, but that may be no closer. I will probably go for the 6011, and get one can to try it out first, which would have been the wise move first time around.



Maybe I should go for that Scottish flag blue?