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Painting was a most challenging field for me. Because never attempt to do a vehicle paint job earlier other than painting walls in the house . But I have watched (not seen) many times how a painter working from applying filler to last coat. There is a neighbor who do paint jobs and that was a big strength for me as it is possible to clarify somethings from him. So finally decided to learn the art of painting by Moggie. Gathered the basic knowledge from reading some articles and found following video very informative. Also these two technical books. How To Paint A Car At Home In 4 Easy Steps (video)  Causeway Automotive Paints (pdf) Debeer Paints (pdf) Next challenge was a paint gun and a air compressor. Bought a F75 paint spray gun and some flexible hose after expending around Rs 2500. But a air compressor is bit expensive. So again started to find alternatives. Firstly bough a 'paint zoom paint sprayer'. Though it could use with my spray gun with modified hose, the air pressure was not enough to spray well. So found an old deep freezer compressor and a empty AC gas tank. Used them with a foot air pump pressure gauge and some clips to make my air compressor. What could not find was a safety pressure release valve. So had to keep eye on the gauge frequently. When I get familiar with spray gun, watching pressure gauge was not essential as it can feel pressure via spray flame. Tried to remove existing paint in most body panels as the first job. Because the floorboard was completely new it made my task easy.

The Amrok is quite popular in South Africa and a few are around in Malawi. The thing looks as stylish as a shoebox with a newspaper strip as a ribbon but it feels like a solid brick and moves like a rhino on steroids.... EDIT NOTE : FYI....Rhinos are fast ! When they want to move and decide to do so...it just moves and flattens anything that is in its way....Rhinos in heat are even more faster and more violent....

They weld sockets. But won't be seen afterwards. I was there at the time of fixing, but can't remember the exact procedure.

Interesting

Impressive work there @kusumsiri!

You can get 2 head rests fixed to the existing seat. Cost 2000/- each. Got it done from a place in Delkanda

The Minister of Finance is Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa. Why don't you give him a call?

Oh..I said get new carpets because 1. The brown carpet on the drivers side looked dirty (darker brown) around the heel pad 2. Brown seems a bit out of place with a full black/grey interior

http://s.aliexpress.com/VbEneaAN

Congratulations, very rarely you come across such a beautifully maintained car. I think it is a FD1 (1.8L) going by the sun roof and the paddle shifts.

Simply wow... i'm sure moggie will look better than a CBG- number Axio or something

After sanding the primer, applied the filler coat. Gray color filler applied on the body shell. Later thought to use white color filler as the top coat will be white.

This is probably OT but I actually blame the system. Any monkey can get a licence in Sri Lanka. The exam is useless and the trial doesn't give a good picture of how good you are as a driver. In other countries, the trial takes about one hour and the examiner takes the applicant through a series of various road conditions and traffic situations. Unless you are an attentive and disciplined driver, you won't pass the trial. My wife failed twice before she got her licence in Australia. And this is someone who has a full manual driver's licence in Sri Lanka. I have so many friends who failed because they were driving 5km/h over the speed limit got more than 10 seconds or because they didn't fully stop the car at a "stop" sign. My wife failed because she didn't "maintain a safe distance with the vehicle in front". So yeah, it has to start at the source and I think our roads will improve a lot if the bad drivers are eliminated at the source. 75% of the three wheeler drivers and the scooty akkas won't make it through the test if it's done properly. Just my two cents.

She is still a rookie driver. She lacks space time awareness which is common for most of the womenfolk. Anyhow, I also have the same question in my head, which will never get a proper answer. I have a dash-camera installed in the car, unfortunately, I disconnected it the day before when cleaning the car and forgot to plug it back, or could have checked it to understand what actually happened. P.S Women does not understand how much men treasure their metallic pets. To date, Im still saddened about what happened but I dont see it in her.

Body filling was the next step. Unfortunately I have only few pictures of this step. Anyhow followed the above video instructions throughout the filling process. Additionally applied putty on top of filled areas and small scratches. After all preparation applied the primer coat. Below images are after sanding the primer coat.

Update : Repairing the gearbox The second gear popped out several times while carrying the car to home. Also 1st gear had a bad noise. So decided to open the box and check. This is my first experience of repairing a gearbox. So went through the workshop manual few times before try it. But it was not that much complex as I thought . Above images are the initial status of gearbox. Firstly noticed that there was very low oil amount inside it while manual says its 1.3 liters. The speedometer cable & drive pinion was missing and that could be the reason to fill oil partially. These pictures shows casing, rare cover, second motion shaft, three shifter shafts & gear selectors. Replaced the first motion shaft razor RLS 8. All other parts was in good shape. But there was enough dirt inside the box. So cleaned everything and washed with kerosene oil. Finally could not find packing set even from S**ana motors, Panchikawatta. So had to prepare all packing myself.