englishmoon

Yukari's (the wife's) old Subaru needs to get a new road test for the sha-ken. I expect it will pass, but I have to do some work on it. I always try to do the sha-ken tests myself because it saves a lot of money. I put my mini-truck through the sha-ken test a few months ago and the total cost was under 30,000 yen - and 10,000 yen of that was for parts!

My truck needed new windscreen wipers, a number-plate lamp and a 'boot' on the front-left drive-shaft. Not too difficult, but I don't like doing the boots.

Yukari's car needs a boot replaced on the left-rear drive-shaft. I've checked the rest of her car and apart from new wiper blades, the only thing remaining to check is the headlight alignment. I'll do the headlight alignment checks at night against a wall somewhere.

Yukari's car is getting old, and it's starting to rust. The floor in the front of the car always gets wet, and I discovered the floor is rusting away, and there are a few holes. So I got busy... .

I'm not an expert with FRP (fibreglass and resin), but I'm getting better and I try. I used a wire brush and cleaned the rusty floor so that it was clean enough to put fibreglass on. Then I swept the debris off. The floor only has a few holes in it, and it's still strong enough so I don't have to replace all the floor. Here's what the floor on the driver's side looked like:-

I always make a mess whenever I use resin, but I'm used to it now, and I am making less mess each time I have a go at it. At least I clean it all up and leave little evidence of my struggles with the stuff. This is what the floor on the driver's side looked like after I'd put two layers of fibreglass mat over the worst bits:-

It wasn't really necessary to paint anti-corrosion paint on the fibreglass, but I thought it looked better than the raw matting. It also looks like I've actually done some work! Here is the finished floor:-

Tomorrow I'll put the carpet and rubber mats back in the front.

Yukari had to drive the car home without touching the floor because the paint wasn't dry when she had to leave. I expect her legs got tired so she put her feet on the floor and convinced herself it was OK. I'll check tomorrow.

Also tomorrow, I'll have to (try to) replace that rear boot on the drive shaft. I'm not looking forward to that at all. The last time I tried to get the wheel nuts off that car I gave up. Ah well! I expect I'll manage it if I use enough force.