long over due update and a large one at that. i've been hella busy these past few months with holidays, Christmas, new years etc. also went to japan for 4 weeks which was really awesome! got to check out Tokyo auto salon which was only by sheer luck that it was on at the time I was in Tokyo. bought a whole heap of stuff inc. 2 1:24 scale s12's
so since i've been back i really wanted to get stuck into the s12 to get it finished so i can at least drive it.

so what am I up to?

i've reconditioned the door trims, these were rooted. so many cracks missing bits and creaks etc. so i've spent many hours on the hot gluing and screwing them back together. the've turned out perfect i just need to colour match some vinyl for the tops and im done.










rebuilt the window switches








next was the radio facia. it had been completely fu**ed by none other than gary's car audio. i wouldn't have paid $5 for this job



this was his quality cd player install. hot glue, universal metal strips peices off a ford and black felt to fix his fu** ups. i wasn't even going to attempt to bring this back to life because i had a spare but it was way off in colour and just looked out of place and i really want the original look.





so i spent ages picking away at the mounds and mounds of hot glue. i managed to pick every last bit out of the inside.

next was the felt on top. this was put here to cover the wood screws he'd used to secure the steel. and not just one hole bu 2 because he'd first screwed into the metal clip behind then screw another hole next to it. so the felt was stuck down with what? yeap u guessed it hot glue. dont get me wrong its great suff but like everything theres a time and a place haha. so i gently heated and picked away at it and managed to get it all off with out damaging the facia. i looked brand new once i'd finished, bar the 2 holes in the top. the holes i'll cover with an old pioneer badge off some old retro speakers.







next was sanding back and repairing the front and rear bumpers.

the front was easy just sanded it back with my orbital sander and prepped it for paint.







the rear on the other hand i knew was going to be trouble. i could tell from the out side that there was a previous repair. so i began to hack away at the filler to reveil a decent scar. it even looks like a scar because it was repaired with stapels then bogged over. but the stapels had rusted, split the bog and the paint. there was also another tear through the bottom of the bumper.

i did a lot of research in order to repair this gash. i looked into getting a platic welder i looked into weird and expensive adheasives but none could definately assure me a perfect repair. so i though i'd have a go and repairing it with a method that just came to me. the repair needed to be strong and very flexable being a soft polyurethene bumper.so instead of using fibre glass or something similar i deceided to go buy some polyurethane sealant/adheasive similar to silicone in a cauking tube. now on its own this stuff is fairly strong once cured but it would still tear open so i added some fibre tape to the mix. I cleaned and prepped the area and held the crack together with HD stappels on the put side. then i layed down a thin layer of the poly on then added a layer of the tape smothering and pressing it into the the poly like u would with fibreglass. i covered the patch completely with 3 layers of both the tape and the poly. same method used on the lower crack except i drilled a hole and the end of the crack to stop it going any further!

so this was all just a gamble really and it paid off big time! so after it had cured for 2 days i removed the stappels (because they would eventually rust ) and its strong as! i even tried to tear it and it held so im wrapped with the result. the poly was only $10 for the tube and the fibre tape it really old plasters tape i had lying around.

















now all that left is to fill the outside and prep for paint.

the next on the list was the exhaust. i've been meaning to do this for ages! but i left me argon gas on a few months ago and it all ran out so i haven't been able to weld for quite a while. i went and got another bottle the other day (fu** you boc and you registration and over priced fees and refills :thumbsdown_anim so this was only going to be a temp exhaust, nice an quite for RWC so it didn't need to be special. i made the whole thing from scraps of old exhaust pipe that i had either lying around or i grabbed out of the scrap bin at the local exhaust shop took me about 3 days on and off to complete but it turned out awesome and sounds really good. the muffler is an old ford one that was brand new but has been sitting around for about 5 years or so. glad i kept it.



started from the cat




as u can see it really is scrap haha




all painted and finished. i only painted it because the multicoloured rust and sh** looked terrible and this bad boy is supposed to pass a rwc :whistle: