AE101 GT Apex - Polish 'er up!

So as stated in my welcome thread this is only the second ever AE101 I've ever seen in the flesh and I got it for a brilliant price...

This is the car when I got it home, I had to get a loan of a friends truck as it wasn't road worthy due to having no tax or MOT, as it was sitting so low we managed to part the exhaust a little at the flexi when taking it off, it now sounds like a tank and I'll need to get it repaired before sending it for MOT



I know absolutely nothing about these wee cars so I'm going on what the previous owner told me. It has a Toms front bumper which I believe is no longer in production, it requires a repair, it has a few toms goodies under the bonnet such as carbon plug and chain cover, it has a strut brace which I believe maybe by Exedy, it has a Jasma 4 branch manifold, it apparently has Gaz coilovers (yet to be confirmed) and a stainless steel exhaust, not sure how far back it goes .

Once I've MOT'd it (which I think it should pass, its been off the road since last April) theres a few repairs to the exterior I need to sort. The bonnet and wing needs painted and as said before the bumper requires a repair and then repainted. The paintwork is really letting it down, however being a detailer this is where I excel



This was a quick patch test ...

So the plan is to give it a full paintwork correction detail and it'll be finished with the ceramic coating of my choice to toughen up the soft japanese paint.

The roof is in a terrible state....

Before


After


3 hours worth of work and it's still not perfect! I'll get there in the end

Once it's been corrected I'll send it over to the bodyshop to have the front end redone, once its back the paintwork will be refined and it should (hopefully) be looking as good as new. The ceramic coating will keep it protected for the next 12-18 months or so

I don't have many plans for it as I think it will look great once the exterior is sorted.

I will be putting some nice wheels on it (yet to be decided, opinions welcome ) a set of DC2/EK9 Recaros, and the windows re-tinted... On that note I need a rear passenger window as someone smashed it before I bought it... any idea where I might find one?

Once thats all sorted I'll give it some time on the rollers to make sure it putting out maximum power and performing at its very best

Next update - Once I've polished the fecker!

Thanks for reading

Craig

I love it so much when people restore black paint, it's so rewarding!

Lovely car, nice work on the paint! As for wheels maybe the following, low offset, meaty tyres...