The heaviness and thud of the doors now feel like a German car and sound stage has reached to a next level for me.
BHPian Blow Horn Ok recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Meanwhile, my car touched 90000 kms few days ago. It was lying idle since six months in my own garage/body shop. It met with an accident and required extensive amount of body work and painting.
Also, I decided to address the mechanical bits first and got the following things changed:
1. Clutch, Release bearing
2. Gear box oil
3. Rear brake shoes
4. Left and right arm assemblies
5. Sway bar rubber bushes
6. General service
Cleaning of EGR and intercooler were also done. Also there was noise from the steering rack over bad roads and the service centre folks had advised to change the rack. My mechanic said, since the it’s a motor driven rack, it can be tightened to reduce the noise and this would lend around 20k kms of life. This was done and the noise went completely. All parts were ordered from boodmo. The clutch and release bearing were of LUK and came as combo.
After all this work, the car rode as if it had got into boost mode. All things were smooth except the alignment which went horribly wrong. I tried several shops but never got it in place. Some said it would require steering calibration. Also got it done manually using a line string but when the alignment goes right, the steering goes off center. Need to figure out this issue soon.
Bodywork update:
After this, denting of panels were done. Then we hit a roadblock. The ruby red colour of the aspire uses a special concentrate/tinter for the clear coat and it was not available in the market. All the service centres and dealerships were out of stock for the concentrate. After few months got hold of one but had to let it go for cost factors. 333 gms of tinter would cost me 6k ₹ and out of that only 50-60 gms would have been used. Colours with tinted clear are real pain to match, as the colour and pearl tends to differ on the ratio of the tinter which goes into the clear, the thinning done and the number of coats that are applied.
After much deliberation and several failed attempts the paint was made using locally available tinters. The finish is somewhat different from original but I had enough of it and wanted the car back on the road.
I made a promise to myself never ever I would go or suggest someone a complicated colour like this. The polishing of the painted panels is due and would be done in few days.
Audio Upgrade:
This idle time was also used to do sound damping on the doors and upgrading the speakers to basic morel components at front and coaxials at the rear. One thing I noticed is that the support beams inside the doors are very jagged and sharp and I had several cuts and bruises on my hands during the damping exercise.
The heaviness and thud of the doors now feel like a German car and sound stage has reached to a next level for me.
Plan to change the diesel filter and timing belt soon.
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