In anticipation of 5,000 miles in the next 2 months and the forthcoming respray and general tidy up of my car, I've decided to do the odd little niggly job that I've thought about for a long time. Things that work but had an outside chance of needing attention at the side of the road if I was unlucky. One of these was the hoses to and from the throttle body heater. On the GEMS, and I suspect the Thor is much the same, there's a short pipe that runs from the inlet manifold to the heater and another long one that goes from the heater back to the coolant reservoir. When I had it all in bits rebuilding the engine, these needed a bit of attention. The short pipe had split and been shortened at some point and was only just long enough and the long one is a hard plastic pipe with hose on each end so it could fit onto the heater and reservoir. The hard plastic had gone brittle so cracked when I moved it and the hoses on the ends were looking a bit dodgy too. Unable to find any 8mm inside diameter coolant hose, I'd used fuel hose and had a couple of joins in the hard plastic bit too. It worked but I recently found that fuel hose isn't ideal. From previous experience I knew that you can't put fuel through coolant hose as it dissolves it but figured the other way round would be OK. It isn't. It isn't intended for the sort of temperatures so goes very hard and inflexible. Originally I thought about replacing the hard plastic with 8mm copper microbore pipe but would still need some 8mm inside diameter coolant hose for the ends. So why not replace the lot with one run of hose and avoid any joins? Finding something suitable wasn't easy but I ended up buying a length of this stuff http://www.autosiliconehoses.com/silicone-hose-shop/performance-silicone-hoses/silicone-1-ply-radiator-heater-hose-up-to-30-metres.html. 8mm inside diameter silicon coolant hose.

The short run from the inlet manifold was no problem at all, it's nice and flexible and pushed over the flared ends of the metal stubs at both ends easily. Initially I ran the longer one by the same route as the hard plastic so it ran along the front of the engine under the big metal thing that holds the wiring loom away from the serpentine belt, but it is so flexible that there was a danger that it could move forward and touch the back of the belt. So I re-routed it to run under the back of the alternator. A nice straight run and not in danger of being caught in any moving parts. 10mm I/D hose could also be used to replace the breather pipe from the top of the radiator, the one that seemed to be different on every car we checked at the summer camp. It's not cheap but seems to be good stuff and was delivered next day.

Next job is the headlining followed by the respray.......

You could also have bypassed the throttle body heater completely! <br>
Less prospect of future leaks. Anecdotally it does nothing in southern UK climate where we don't get the extremes of humidity/ cold where throttle body icing could occur. <br>
I'm looking forward to the before/ after pics of the respray. You keeping it white? It's a very in vogue colour at the moment!

Not bothered about it being in vogue, just that if I keep it the original Chawton White there'll be no need to do the inner bits that always get missed on a colour change. I'm even going to refit the huge Spraybuster mudflaps. It's an ex-plod motor so I want to keep it as one, just make it look a bit more presentable. It's a shame one of the reflective strips down the A posts has started to come off as I'd have liked to have kept them too. I'll be taking the mudflaps, inner wheelarch liners and door rubbing strips off before it goes it to make life easier for them too. I'll probably attack the wheels with a wire brush too and see if they'll give them a squirt of silver paint while they are at it (although I could probably do that myself). All I need do now is find a dark grey satin finish paint suitable for plastic to make the grille and bumpers all the same colour. Satin black will be too dark but if I can find something that is the same colour as the bumpers, I'll only need to do the grille and the strips under the headlights that have faded with the UV in sunlight (presumably when I've been in France as there's not a lot of chance of that here.....).

Here you go....
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hycote-Bumper-Vinyl-Dark-Grey-Spray-Paint-150Ml-Aerosols-/151044661444?hash=item232af6a0c4:g:adoAAOSwaNBUclSO

Heh, funny you should mention that hose - I just bought some to replace the slightly dribbly one we spotted at Summer Camp. I don't know if it will cope with the bends without elbows, but I'm going to give it a try before ordering up extra bits.

And now I realise that it's 10mm for that pipe and not the 8mm I ordered! Bollox :)
Ah well, it's pretty cheap!

This is a satin black grille.

Zoom in and compare it to the headlamp wiper, it is in it's original colour.

https://i.imgsafe.org/64f5e7a001.jpg

Still cannot decide about the lower bumper where the fogs are.

Now you come to mention it, the originals look pretty close to black <br>
http://www.blvpg.co.uk/i/vehicles/vehicle_index/POLICE/P19A.jpg <br>
Unless you go for this one instead <br>
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2a_lg00yVBM/VakGukMxkwI/AAAAAAAAAK0/r46Ty8gWXog/s1600/572090415.jpg

In that first picture, even the tyres look black. Looks like someone went over it with boot polish before the picture was taken. The second one is closer to original, this is mine before it was retired to civvy street (but before it was treated to the reflective strips down the A posts).

I've a feeling you won't be painting the grille orange then...

If you're having a proper respray, then why not have the wheels shot and powder coated for a good final look?? It isn't that expensive ..... for my L322 it cost £280 and I had them done in black chrome which was dearer

Orangebean wrote:

I've a feeling you won't be painting the grille orange then...

I would consider it if I had the blue lights to fit in it but without them it might look a bit silly with two rectangular holes in them. Although a pair of flashing blues might help getting through traffic.....

I thought about going overboard with the wheels and then decided not to. The alloys on the Merc I bought for the other half were corroded to hell. I took them to two wheel refurbishing places who both said they were so bad they'd need to be shot blasted and then powder coated so I'd be looking at around £80-100 a wheel. Mine are as bad if not worse. As well as the wheels looking scabby on the Merc, it had a couple of small dents on the top of one front wing, the bonnet had been resprayed badly in the past and the front bumper and valance was covered in stonechips. The guy that does the paintwork on the imported Classics for me sprayed the wing, bonnet and bumper and sanded down (or got his apprentice to sand down) the wheels and sprayed them. He charged me £350 for the lot. Mates rates I know but I suspect if I do the stripping off of the trim bits on mine, I'll get a damn good paintjob for under a grand, including the wheels. I mean, it's cosmetic and by now most of you will have realised, I do mechanical and electrical, not cosmetic. It's only taken me 5 years to get around to cleaning the drivers seat!

Wheels that have been shot and coated do look the bollox though ............. here are the ones I had done in black chrome after being just normal silver ones.