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Last time I wrote up a Sunday fun entry, I had just painted the plenum on my Alfa. Today’s is a combined Sunday fun entry that updates both my Alfa and recent goings on at Drew B’s place.

After I painted the plenum, I put it back on the engine and was kind of disappointed. Not only was orange-looking instead of the red shown on the paint can, it also looked out of place because the engine was so grubby. A couple of plastic bags, a can of degreaser and a light pressure wash later, the whole thing looks 200% better.

Here’s the before shot. Click to enlarge.

And here’s the after, which isn’t gleaming but is much cleaner, and much more satisfying to look at:

It’s a simple thing and not really blogworthy on its own, but there’s stuff-all else going on at the moment and this was a very satisfying little job.

I also de-squeaked my steering column, which sounded like a 1st grade tone deaf violinist at even the slightest turn of the wheel. Again, a simple little thing that I’d let go for ages, just putting up with the noise.

The point: It’s amazing how doing the simple little things can make a car much more pleasurable to drive and look at.

UPDATE: I just sanded the raised lettering on the plenum. Looks heaps better now!

The next job is to head over to Drew B’s place tomorrow and have him paint the black section of my front bumper. It’s been repaired some time in the past and the old paint has cracked. I smoothed it over today and it should take next to no time to paint tomorrow afternoon.

Some time this week my new polisher will arrive and I’ll see once and for all how many different shades of red this car really has. I think it’s going to look brilliant!

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Speaking of Drew B, I covered his radiator panel repair job on a Saab NG900 just over a week ago. That job’s progressed quite a bit and I’ll get some more photos when I head over to his place tomorrow.

Meanwhile, he’s taken on another job, having purchased this BMW 316i coupe at auction. Can you believe this was classified as a repairable write-off with just this little dent??

Did you say “What dent?”

There is one there, just below the rear view mirror, but it hardly looks like one that warrants a writeoff. Drew’s going to get the dent repaired and then he’ll prep and paint it and most likely double his money when it sells to some yuppie wannabe who’s mesmerised by the badge and overlooks the fact that it’s about as gutless as a third world dictator.

Nice work if you can get it.

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