Pretty Much Done..

Today felt like finishing the job so here's some progress. Seriously without mood, I cannot do it. That's why it is pretty slow progress. Plus I am a busy person (Ahaks!).

Paint stripping. Safety first! Glove only. Should wear long sleeve, long pants and something to cover up my face.

Old silicone that I used years ago had harden. So bought a new silicone sealant.

The RX3 grill had been resprayed to black color.

Here's the almost finish parts of RX3. Quite happy when it shine.

Fitting back the lense with new sealant.

Should be water-tight now.

Now only left the fitting of the cover and walla, it's new!

Some AutoSol will bring the shine back. Hopefully.

DIY : Tail Lamp Restoration.

*I actually had done this DIY process few years ago. You guys can check it out here for more further step explanation:

Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.

Stuffs for this DIY process are:

*Spray can. Bought two silver and one black color.
*Autosol.
*Sand paper (400 and 1000)
*Paint stripper and brush.

Carefully remove the lenses as it will crack if you push it. Don't try your luck especially if its a pretty rare stuffs.

Clean all the stuffs and let it dry. Only after that you can judge if its restore able or not worth trying. In this case, everything are in good shape and I am pretty confident and with my previous experience, I can refurbish all of these hopefully. What make this project special is that the car sport a facelift of RX3, and to be exact the 10A facelift. Take note that the facelift itself cost thousands of Ringgit if you wanna buy it.

We manage to score a new set of front bumper signal. Thanks to the Ipoh trip and Wan DV for helping us sourcing stuffs.

Autosol is a great stuff. It can shine almost everything. This is due to its abrasive feature. What I don't like about it is that this thing eventually will 'polisht' up your skin too during the polishing process. Now I am in pain.

The cleaned lamp cover was sprayed to silver color to reflect the light bulb better.

And one of the worst thing I had experience was the paint removal of the bumper. Its my first time working with the paint removal and only after it touch my skin I know how corrosive this thing is! God I hate this thing. Time consuming and I only manage to do 1/3 of the bumper.

For the lenses restoration, what I did first was using the Autosol to rub off the top layer. I did my best for like two or three times before polishing it with Headlamp Polish. What differ these two polishing liquid are its abrasive grade. Autosol is pretty much coarse while the headlamp polish is fine. Shine effect can only be achieved after the fine grade of polish process.

Emblem done. For the second time, I manage to restore it again. Pretty happy with it.

My first attempt was two years ago. Heck, it was coincidence that both photo look similar!

The tail lamp cover. The right one had been restored to its glorious state while the left one havent. Cant do it today coz my hand hurt from too much exposure from Autosol.

One side done! :)

Two years ago, I restored these:

While it was on my Bee. I love this square tail lamp. Really muscular looking for Mazda 808.

DIY : Tail Lamp Restoration Project. Done!

Yep, the last part of the project. It is time consuming, but you can see the results now. And coincidentally, there are a few friends came to my house today for a visit. We'll go through later. And here is the tail lamp that I'd restored with so much love and care. LOL~


And who else to rely if not on Mr Jaguh, the big boss. Gosh, I wish everyone I knew is like him. Dash fitting process. Also time consuming coz troubleshooting the board circuit.

And the special guests of the day were, Asuramaru from Kelantan! He called me whether Im free or not, so I said we were fitting the tail lamp, so he said he'll come, and I pick him up at the nearby train station. He's the photographer of the day today.

And the other one is Afiq. One of my blog reader. Kelantanese also. Everyone came to see Jaguh in action. Kekekeke.

While Jaguh was fitting the meters, we were assembling back the tailies. Here's Asu in action. He's friendly and easy to get along with.

Then, Jaguh the expert was doing the wiring.

Done! Here's the new Bee. Oh, the emblem is too bulky so we decided not to fit it in.

And the new tailies. I guess I made a right desicion buyin it. Looks more 'muscle' now. Time to focus on a good wheels! Next! =P

Check out the next thread!

DIY : Tail Lamp Restoration Project. Part 2.

Yep, second day of the DIY project. Woke up late at 1pm and while taking bath, I took the oppurtunity to sand the surface so that old paint, dirt and all kind of other shit will be washed away. Dried it up and it is ready to be painted.

Thank God today's weather is sunny. Im using a flat black can spray and for a gloss finish I used the clear coat so that it will be scratch resistant.

While waiting for it to dried up, I went to have my lunch and polishing the lens, and also AutoSol-ing the emblem one more time.

Taraa. Bee's has a black eye now. Dunno who had punched her in the eye. LOL.

Since everything had dried up, I went back to my room and its fitting time. Put the lens all back to the cover.

To seal the lens from outside moist, I used the silicone. Its kinda hard to make it perfect but dont worry if you had screwed it up. Once the silicone had dried, it becomes a rubber seal. You can just simply pull it.

Some final touch up. Paint marker to do a 'fake' chrome lining as most of the chrome lining had already fade and no hope to be restored. This is the hardest part. It is time consuming.

After three hours, this is the results. Of course I do made some mistakes, but its normal for a human to do it. For a safety measure, spray a few clear coat layer so that the fake chrome will not fade.

Assembled everything back together and it is now ready to be fitted onto Bee! Anyway, which one should I use? Hmmm.

Have fun trying!

DIY : Tail Lamp Restoration Project. Part 1.

Okay, to be honest, Im really excited with the new stuffs that I had bought. So, Im not gonna waste my night time. First lets see the new tail lamp. Covered in dust and only one single crack. Im satisfied with the purchase. And it is sold quite cheap in my opinion.


My next step was to remove the cover from the lens. It was really hard as some of the screw had already in super rusty condition and some of em had no Philips head anymore. What I did was cursed it, then try unscrew it. Failed, I cursed it again and pull it as strong as I can BUT be careful with the old plastic cover so that it didnt break. Some of em just broke into pieces some of em still attached to the cover.

Now, remove the lens. BUT please be extra careful especially if the lens is crack like this one. I had broke it anyway. Now it is in 2 pieces. Hehehe. I'll super glue it tomorrow. =P

Clean it up with a strong current of water and some soap.

Then, dried it up and it is now ready to be sprayed with a flat black tomorrow.


Next! My current tail lamp. What I really like about this tail lamp is the hexagon reflection in the lens. It really does fit my car theme anyway. But, it is too common nowadays. XD

And this one was easy to be removed. Most of the screw had been replaced anyway.

Clean it up with the same method shown above and dried it up. And it is ready to be spray tomorrow too!

Meanwhile, this is the badge that I had bought. Covered in dust, and no hope to be restored anyway. BUT...

With the help from AutoSol, it is shining now! Wow, never knew that AutoSol can be use on a plastic chrome surface. This is the hardest job today. I was polishing it six times I guess. Tomorrow I'll AutoSol it a few more times.

And finally, the meters. The measurement is in Miles though. I need to check my Math book first to convert it to Km/H. LOL~

Same steps and method too. Except I didnt wash the meters as it will damage it. Clean it up and dried it. And now it is ready to be assemble in Bee!

That's all folks! Happy trying and its time for me to go to bed. Really tired now.