White Knight: DIY Changing the wheel lugs.

This is one of my DIY adventures with the White Knight.

So my fingers and wallet were itchy and was tempted to try those space saver tyres (AKA Sotong Tyres). Purchase a pretty good one as per advice by the chop shop fella and man was I in for a surprised on the work needed.

I took the space saver home and started to test if it fits (chop shop fella assured me that it will fit) so off I went taking out all 5 lugs from my wheel.

Manage to open 4 lugs when the 5th was stuck. Kasi power sikit and..... disaster happened, the stud snapped and i was left with 4 lugs......
 Ah well, wheel was off so I might as well test if the space saver works..... to another shocking surprised..... IT DOES NOT. Did a bit more researched and found that the space saver I bought belongs to BMW E46 which is 5 lugs PCD 120 whereas Inspira is 5 lugs PCD 114.3. (It is for sale now, http://www.zerotohundred.com/newforums/chassis-and-wheels/410396-e46-space-saver-tyre-for-sale.html)
Damn was I pissed.

So next day I bawa the Inspira to proton and was quoted between RM 50 to RM100 to have the lug replaced. Sad but not happy with the price, I went and research more on wheel lug replacement.

Tada, found the workshop manual for Lancer Evo X. Seems fairly simple and went to spare part shop to get the wheel lug. TADA, 1 lug = RM 2.50. So I bought 5 lugs. HOHOHO, take that Proton.

Got home and got to work on it and below is what you get.

Something odd bout this picture.... why TWO wheel lug patah wan.... well, another one broke when I was opening the wheel again.


Snapped clean.....


BOTH OF IT, lesson learned..... going to gym too much causes disaster to your beloved car.


That is the brake caliper bracket that took a while to get it out. Had to use a mallet.


These are the new lugs.... shiny leh


Inspira brake pads after 1 year 4 months use.... still got plenty of pad left.


After taking out the lugs and compare it with the new one.... you can see how much have snapped off.


Replaced one of the lugs already, another one waiting to be replaced.


This is how I initially tighten it cause I do not have proper thick washers to do the job.... lesson learned, this destroy spanners too.... I really need to de-buff my muscles.


Then I figured out.... why not just use the brake disk and rims as washers..... (forget red calipers, no calipers is the way to go now)


Can see that the new lugs have been tighten nicely into the groove.


Did not replace all 5 lugs, just the two broken ones, so I got spare lugs in case I need it again.


Caliper installed back and...... too tired to actually clean anything.


How messy my workspace was.


Last pic of the day, see how much corrosion on the old lugs...


Lesson learned:
- too much gym (to be honest, I never go gym) will break your car.

Steps/ guidance:
- Ensure you loosen the wheel nuts before jacking the car up.
- Once you have jacked the car up, make sure to secure it with A-Stands (can be bought at hardware shops for like RM 29.90 each)
- the nut to release the caliper is size 14 and is easy to take out.
- the nut to release the caliper bracket is size 17 and is a pain in the ass to take out (i resorted to mallet and brute force.)

Thank you for reading thru all my rambling and if any feedback (good or back), it is much appreciated.

Persona: a tale of road rage and dumb manufacturer.

Hi All,

I was given an almost impossible task to remove severe road rage aftermath and correct a mistake by a particular manufacturer with limited brain power.

Road Rage
An act of violence resulted from a dispute or dissatisfaction or two or more party. In this case, the owner of the car was a victim of an ignorant road rager whom stepped/kicked his car causing deep scratches.

Without further delay, lets move on to the condition of the car at arrival:

not much scratch wert? (front left fender)


Rear left fender


After a quick ONR/ANR bath, all is revealed


After a quick bath at the rear too....


After correction.... shock boh


Actually some of the scratches were too deep and too risky to remove, there are leftovers but would say that it reduced by probably 80%


After 1X compound and few times polish


Decided to do wet sanding and was greeted with much better result, however, I decide to stop wet sanding on this panel due to following reasons:
- Have already sanded down a lot
- Risking overly thin clearcoat which in time may occur flaking from clearcoat


From another view and at a glance, the scratches are not that visible


Some foreign transfer on the side mirror


Easily removed with Optimum Power Clean aka Alien Clean  + toothbrush combo


Da Engine Chapter

Now we move on to the Engine Compartment which is...... i will let the picture speak for itself

Horrendous


Hmmm......


aiyo......


and an Angel came down and gave it a little magic.


Just check this out.... filthy and an eyesore


Swing the magic wand a bit and WAH LAH


Note, this is not dirt or dust


This was cleaned with thinner and not the OPC or Alien Clean we normally use.... why you ask? To be explained further down


After fully cleaned. These are actually overspray from a layer of coat to make the plastic look black that was done at the factory...... kinda dumb of the manufacturer to spray these kinda crap when the parts are in the engine bay. To be explained further down


From an eyesore


To a view to be awe


This is the plastic component that was sprayed with the black coat to make it glossy and all but was actually a real pain in da ass.... as it is sticky and thick, sand and dust got stuck to it and is super hard to remove (at first I thought it was rough black surface similar to Honda), until I OPC half half


From the other side


Owner decided to do secret project so we stopped cleaning and went to SANDING with 150 grid sandpaper. My sandpaper kinda hancur......that is how rough the surface was


My brush is disappearing into this container.... something worth noting..... this is ONLY from the engine cover.... NOTHING ELSE


End result after sanding. We will pick it up again later


Aircond pipe... always wet and condense + dust and dirt = a good candidate for a 50/50 shot


Hehe


More of the earlier mentioned overspray (apparently only certain Persona has this problem)


And now it reads... "NEVER OPEN"


Message properly convey after cleaning with thinner


More of that crappy overspray


Which can be transformed to this


By using thinner and lots of elbow grease


This is how it should be..... not with some crappy overspray + dirt + sand


Cleaned the radiator pipe next to it and you get....slurp


Hmm..... how often do you see the positive terminal cover this red and nice


And the alarm.... clean too


And did you know, your pipes are this color? well most of it actually and not all


From this picture, you can clearly see that the overspray has even reached lower and beyond, too difficult to clean and I would not advice using thinner on car paint/rubber parts/plastic parts


Overview of this section


Dun forget the radiator fans as well


Look in detail. How come engine cover change color wan? and what is that carbon fiber filter box?
Well, because of the crappy stuff that was sprayed over it, owner decides to change the color of the engine cover after sanding and carbon fiber the filter box. Makes it look pretty pleasant and different. SWEET BOH? *owner's friend ask him to find gold color paint and make it look like IronMan*


Remember this container, remember that this is only the engine cover ALONE


After i cincai cincai drain, this is what is left over, some shiny dust, some sand..... ok, not "some" but was LOTS


And this is the result of a wipe down of the engine bay
Two buckets of water...... 1 brush is visible (on da left bucket) and 1 brush is actually in the right bucket which is not visible.....


Those with sharp eyes would notice the engine cover spray is kinda bad.... well.... i blame it on the spray can that was dripping and leaking instead of just spraying
You can see the drips clearly and my hands actually looks as if I killed someone (not photographed as I wun wanna touch my DSLR with those hands)


And I thought this brand was good..... avoid it ya



Time spend: 8 hours (inclusive of washing the car)
Satisfaction level: Partly High and partly disappointed
Products used today: Thinner, OPC 1:3, 1:5 1:0, ONR, Osren B&W, OHP, OHC, Makita 9227C and Osren Ultramate (me new toy, hehe)

Some personal comments:
- The overspray is a real PAIN in da lower hind region
- DPI brand of paint is crap (not all, just this particular can that really really made me mad)
- The cloth that was used for the thinner, was sacrificed and now sits neatly in the rubbish bin.
- The cloth that was used for the engine bay wipe down is also in the rubbish bin (yes, that is how dirty this engine bay was)
- road ragers are bastards (sorry for the language)
- When using thinner, wear proper protective gloves, my fingers are numb d... and probably will be for another day or two.

Do leave your comments (good or bad) as it is much appreciated.