Whilst I was waiting for my new angle grinder-mounted wire brush to arrive (having killed the last one), I took the disgusting rear light lenses and the front sidelights/indicators and decided to give them a really good clean. Normally in this situation I would bung them in a dishwasher, but a) we don't have one and b) I am not 100% sure my colleagues at work would be happy with me if they found car parts in with their much-used coffee mugs. So I made myself very popular with Mrs Bounce and did the washing-up. With added bits. They have come up beautifully. Fairy Liquid: cleans your light clusters wonderfully and gives you baby soft hands...
I then turned my attention to the sunroof frame. This was covered in horrible mastic-type stuff and also the remains of whatever rubber-based seal & glue was used. Having scraped the mastic off, not much was shifting the sealant & rubber so I had to try many evil concoctions that I had in stock, eventually settling on a good soaking in WD40! It's now clear of all the gunk. I have given the lip underneath a good clean up using my old mate the Dremel with a sanding attachment. It can now wait until eveything gets refitted before I do anything else to it.
The wire brush arrived so I quickly gave the brake backplates a clean-up and also stripped the bad paint from the beam (I really wasn't happy with how I had painted it before). I then gave these a good wipe down with white spirit and sprayed them with Hammerite.
It was time for that final seatbelt stalk to come out. It was clear that no amount of trying to use spanners or sockets was going to work, so I reached into the Dremel toolbox and pulled out the "reinforced" cutting disc. I am going to have to get some more of these! They're amazing! Considering that the bolts used for seatbelts are generally high tensile, it went through without too much effort (although it still took me 5 minutes to grind the bolt head off!). With the stub of the bolt in the vice and a pair of Molegrips on the captive nut on the plate I was able to remove it. I gave both plates a good clean with the wire brush attachment and have hammerited them. They'll get a second coat soon, then I will give the threads a tap to make sure they're clean and paint-free.
I also did the same with the plates where the seatbelts themselves attached to. They were disgustingly filthy with a good deal of surface rust underneath. They are now black, courtesy of the spray can!
I also cleaned up the new suspension parts I have; a nice chap on the Mini Forum was giving away loads of stuff so I managed to blag a pair of 1.5 degree negative camber bottom arms, some adjustable tie-bars and lower arm pins. Cheers Kieran!
Dead wire brush attachment
"Just doing the washing-up sweetie!"
My kind of draining board
Clean again!
Removing sunroof gunk (see middle of workbench)
Now much better on the bottom...
...and on the top
Backplates cleaned up prior to paint
And now sprayed along with the beam
Dremel brutally cuts!
Seatbelt stalk spreader plates looking much healthier
Seatbelt spreader mounts. One before, one after. Amazing what a bit of elbow grease can do (especially with power tools!)
New suspension bits - free!
