Polishing the exhaust

[Bill]

In addition to the Atom I have a collection of Bikes. I find the best way is to polish the part to 95% on the buffing wheel using progressively finer grades of polish To finish use metal polish I like to use the American Lucas Metal Polish as it’s none abrasive If you use this polish don’t be put off by its appearance its looks like water with a bit of milk mixed in. Final point don’t let it go off before buffing. I was once polishing a solid aluminium billet motor and was interrupted by a caller Let the polish go hard and it’s a time consuming removal ! Bill

[Anon]

Simon following on from earlier message i got a half decent quote for electric garage door which saves me putting tracker on car plus cheaper insurance with a plan
I note the length of the 4 is given as 11 ft 2 inches is that the absolute length i don't want to put a door on and find too tight
Cheers

[mention]Caterham+7[/mention] I just measured my car in the garage and it measures 3.6m without the rear wing. The rear wing will add an approx 400mm or so I would guess. I get them in a few weeks so can report back on that if you plan to get the wings as well.

When I was getting quotes the tracker made no difference to the insurance premiums. That said I will likely get one of these at some point: https://www.trackersecurity.co.uk/index.html they use GPS, GSM and long range RF.

[Anon]

In addition to the Atom I have a collection of Bikes. I find the best way is to polish the part to 95% on the buffing wheel using progressively finer grades of polish To finish use metal polish I like to use the American Lucas Metal Polish as it’s none abrasive If you use this polish don’t be put off by its appearance its looks like water with a bit of milk mixed in. Final point don’t let it go off before buffing. I was once polishing a solid aluminium billet motor and was interrupted by a caller Let the polish go hard and it’s a time consuming removal ! Bill

Thanks for the tip Bill! how do you apply that, by hand I presume?

I went over the exhaust again to get more of a shine, the welds were also still a little black and I wasn't 100% happy with it. It's only 3 bolts to take it off.

The result - I just took this picture and the car has been driven since polishing it. It is a vast improvement over the non-polished exhaust.

20200606_171448.jpg (3.7 MiB) Viewed 598 times

[autobackup]

In reply to the question about the costs of fitting a tracker.
I use the Global Telemetrics (Smartrack) system which, from memory, was ( I think?) free to initially install but then costs £12.49pcm but saves over £380pa on insurance so,on balance, it's been a money saver for me.

[Caterham+7]

Thanks Simon

Appreciated,it is going to be tight fit for length i was going on basis 11 feet two as opposed to 11feet 9 .
I presume that is absolute length allowing for lights etc .
I shall probably have to have garage folk round to see if they can work some magic
Thanks again
All the best

[Anon]

Yes this is the absolute length from the very tip of the bonnet to the back of the exhaust. Ariels website says 3520mm long which the exact length. So I would go with this number because I just used a trusty tape measure and it was about the same actually just shorter than 3.6m.

https://www.arielmotor.co.uk/atom/specification/

[curvedvision]

In reply to the question about the costs of fitting a tracker.
I use the Global Telemetrics (Smartrack) system which, from memory, was ( I think?) free to initially install but then costs £12.49pcm but saves over £380pa on insurance so,on balance, it's been a money saver for me.

OK great. Thanks for the details.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Caterham+7]

Thanks Simon
Appreciate your help with this.
All the best

[BOOM]

I have the standard tail tidy, I did forget to spec the carbon version. You can see the carbon version looks better:

Carbon:
Carbon Tail tidy.JPG

Standard:
Standard tail .JPG

Just to check (as I am speccing mine) - do you mean you have the standard numberplate/fog light as opposed to the "tail tidy" version?

There is 1) standard 2) plastic tail tidy 3) carbon fibre tail tidy

I am assuming you have 1 and not 2 - and that the plastic tail tidy looks the same as the carbon one - just made of plastic?

[Anon]

I have the standard tail tidy, I did forget to spec the carbon version. You can see the carbon version looks better:

Carbon:
Carbon Tail tidy.JPG

Standard:
Standard tail .JPG

Just to check (as I am speccing mine) - do you mean you have the standard numberplate/fog light as opposed to the "tail tidy" version?

There is 1) standard 2) plastic tail tidy 3) carbon fibre tail tidy

I am assuming you have 1 and not 2 - and that the plastic tail tidy looks the same as the carbon one - just made of plastic?

Yes to confirm, I have the standard "free or no cost option" numberplate/fog light holder and neither of the tail gate tidy options. You are correct there are 2 additional paid for options. 1, a composite version of the tail gate tidy which looks just like the carbon fibre version (without a border and a cleaner reversing light), then the carbon fibre version which I posted.

I think the carbon version is worth the money, and I just simply forgot to spec it. That said of course priorities need to take precedence, as an example if it were a choice of a lap counting GPS08 module over this then I'd take the GPS module.

I will soon being doing a video walking around the car, talking about all the options on the sheet and explaining what they all are, this will hopefully be helpful to others spec'ing their 4's. I wish I had something like this when I was specing mine. i.e. what does a road tow hook look like instead of a race version, what does 3" belts give you over the stock 2" ones, where does the USB mount sit in stock option form, where does the remote brake bias controller sit, what do the wings look like up close and can the exhaust be removed with them on etc etc.

[BOOM]

Thought so - thanks for confirming.

That would be awesome to have the video - it's always nice to see an owner go over the options they have in detail.

[Anon]

In addition to the Atom I have a collection of Bikes. I find the best way is to polish the part to 95% on the buffing wheel using progressively finer grades of polish To finish use metal polish I like to use the American Lucas Metal Polish as it’s none abrasive If you use this polish don’t be put off by its appearance its looks like water with a bit of milk mixed in. Final point don’t let it go off before buffing. I was once polishing a solid aluminium billet motor and was interrupted by a caller Let the polish go hard and it’s a time consuming removal ! Bill

At the risk of boring people about my exhaust...lol last post. But my ocd kicked off with this.

Thanks [mention]Bill[/mention] I ordered a similar product called White Diamond - also an american product and the results are amazing.

71bT7EYDaTL._AC_SL1500_.jpg (79.53 KiB) Viewed 485 times

WhatsApp Image 2020-06-10 at 21.27.51.jpeg (148.39 KiB) Viewed 485 times

[Karl V]

Lol! I have a stash of wet wipes in the garage to give my tips a polish after every run

Looking bling Simon...

[Anon]

Lol! I have a stash of wet wipes in the garage to give my tips a polish after every run

Looking bling Simon...

haha, whatever works is good with me.

Thanks.