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So, the car Gods smiled at me. Took the long way home last night after work and the CEL turned itself off. Decided to try emissions and see if it would pass. Car needed fuel so got that, then gave it a $3 wash at the car wash down the road a bit. Then some spirited driving along some back roads to get there and damn it if didn't pass with flying colors. Guy at the station had never seen one before and thought it was a pretty cool car.
So, the car Gods smiled at me. Took the long way home last night after work and the CEL turned itself off. Decided to try emissions and see if it would pass. Car needed fuel so got that, then gave it a $3 wash at the car wash down the road a bit. Then some spirited driving along some back roads to get there and damn it if didn't pass with flying colors. Guy at the station had never seen one before and thought it was a pretty cool car.
Very nice. Glad to see some of that hard work pay off! Drive on.
Well, not really. In the past week the car has been doing exactly what I want, hauling me around with a smile on my face. It's been a really enjoyable time and something I look forward to on work days since management decided that 82.5`f is the most economical temperature to **** off the work force and the 75% humidity (for VOC vapor suppression to prevent fires) just sucks all tolerance out of the picture.
Anyway, being somewhat late for work this past Sunday and a clear three lane interstate (with the exception of some wobbling overloaded holiday going SUV's) I learned that at 150 mph the tach is sitting at 4500 rpm and the car is only a couple decibels louder than 80. In fact once I dialed it back to only 110 thinking we were down to 90. Car just purrs along keeping me entertained with random CEL, TPMS and air bag faults. Downstream o2's are unhappy, TPMS is never happy and I expect the air bags will blow at any moment. Good times.
Also found that I can wash the car by hand in three minutes or three dollars at the car wash which is so much simpler vs. dragging the hose out and scrubbing it by hand. Car is managing 18.5 mpg in spite of my spirited driving and hasn't used a drop of oil.
So, the to-do list in no particular order than which I think of them:
1. Sort out the rear end. Sounds like a wheel bearing and the damned car absolutely needs an LSD. I almost think they went without to save the little 8" ring and pinion.
2. TPMS, kill it with fire or sort it out. I despise the fault constantly screaming 'WOLF'
3. Downstream o2's. Rear a post from Brutal about plugging the pipes and leaving the o2's dangle in fresh air. That should help determine if it's cats or o2's. I'm leaning o2's.
4. More POWER. Going to try and get rid of the long straw effect that the current air inlet has on the engine by increasing the volume in the pipes and making the transitions more efficient. Somewhere in there the air filters are getting opened up to the R specific inlets.
5. Body... Long term even though the aero package doesn't 'need' it, I want it to look racier. XKRS-GT based add on's fabbed in aluminum. My only trepidation is drilling the hatch. Baby canards / wing-lets. Splitter up front and diffuser out back. Wonky fender vents that look like E type hood buckles are getting replaced with the real thing similar to the ACR car. I'll fabricate all this stuff by hand here in the shop. Good project fodder.
6. Interior. Used console and maybe seats redone. Console it beat, same as the door panels from what looks like the seat belt latch. At least that's what matches the divots and scratches in the leather. Drivers seat bolster is looking the worse for wear so again, used or recover.
7. Instrumentation. Not sure whether a tablet based torque display or one of the Chinese modules. Not knowing the coolant temp is ridiculous.
8. Calipers and Jupiter's. Never moved forward on painting the calipers or getting the Jupiter wheels refinished. Neither effect how it drives so they are winter projects at the least.
9. Paint and bodywork. It's last because I don't have a garage to keep the car in all the time so the clear will go to **** in a couple years similar to what's happening to it now.
Been enjoying some typical British wash the bugs off weather this week. Came out after work and saw the power of water hydraulicing it's way under the clear.
At this rate it'll be ready for paint sooner than later. These both started as stone chips from the PO.
Interesting as I've never seen this type of wrinkle. My concern would be corrosion under the paint where it is attacking the aluminum . Usually clear coat will peel and flake off if cause by a problem during the paint stage. I have also not seen this happen with paint chips . I would sand it down and make sure the alloy is not being affected.
Nah, it's just the clear let loose from the paint. I assume it was helped along by the rain and 90 mph winds. It looks funny in the pics because it's full of water. I have some other spots around the bumpers that need love. I think I'm going to feather the edges and just hit the base with a cheap clear until the peeling hits the point of no return.
So, the saga continues. Got an ELM327 OBDii module and downloaded the free version of torque to tinker with. Car has been behaving amazingly well but this evening on the way home from work the passenger side of the headliner broke free. Went from nothing to a 10 x 20" patch of flaccid fabric. Kind of an 'Oh ****' moment because it means the whole damn thing needs to come out to get it fixed with some 3m #27 spray adhesive. Hopefully the pillar panels will release without too much grief.
Ranch my bet is the foam backer on the headliner has/is dried out so 3m won't do the job as the rest is ready to fall. I had to get my XJS done years ago as the same thing happened. They pull the old liner and scraped the roof and glued in new material. Good luck
Gracias. I'm sure you're right. I've had good luck brushing the old foam off the fabric on other cars over the years. Just usually you get a little notice when they let go. This thing just flopped. I should be able to keep the original fabric if I get it down soon enough. if it stretches too much it doesn't turn out nice.
Sadly, due to unfortunate circumstances with my son's Lincoln LS's battery dying I needed to run the XKR to work today. The headliner fabric had been delaminating from the foam board little by little but when we came out this evening the big shed had begun...
So, after perusing the X150 service manual the past couple days I decided to tackle it tonight. Took about an hour to drop the liner out which included a couple fearful moment where I wasn't sure if the clips would release before the plastic broke, or not. Found that the front and rear pillars didn't need to come completely out and that it was much simpler to pull a 1/4 window than fight with the door openings. The hardest part was popping the retaining clips loose.
One thing I noticed once the light housing was dropped was the extra ports for what I assume is mood lighting. Hmm...
A little exploratory fabric removal showed the foam is in really good shape so I intend to just pull the fabric completely loose and 3m spray adhesive it back in place. If it doesn't work at least I'm only out an hours time to get the liner back out.
Yep looked the same as when my XJS liner started to come down. When I looked under the liner part of the foam was on the board and part was on the fabric. Touching it turned it to powder. Hope you get better results but at least you know how the liner comes out and all you need to do is get it stripped and relined.
One thing I noticed once the light housing was dropped was the extra ports for what I assume is mood lighting. Hmm...
Until I found out that the telephone mic was inside the A-pillar of my '07, I thought those were microphones up there. Later read about an ultrasonic alarm option (may not have been available in the US), which is what I think those ports are for.
Decided to try emissions and see if it would pass. Car needed fuel so got that, then gave it a $3 wash at the car wash down the road a bit. Then some spirited driving along some back roads to get there and damn it if didn't pass with flying colors. Guy at the station had never seen one before and thought it was a pretty cool car.
So, big update time.
Heady-liner...
