New Owner - First Questions

[tmwsccsh]

Hi All,

Well, having picked up my Galant GLS Estate yesterday, here comes the first batch of questions. Hopefully nothing too major though!

There's 3 areas I need to get sorted on the car before I am fully happy:-

- Paintwork
- Aerial
- Centre Armrest

Firstly, the paintwork. The car is that Red that loves to fade over time. From the eBay pictures, it looked gleaming still, however upon collection I could tell that it was not quite the case, and there is some fading to that lovely shade of pink on some of the panels. So my first question is, can anyone recommend a polish or other such product that can be used to start to rejuvenate and bring it back to former glory? I have read about such products as Autoglym Restorer and T-Cut, but I am always hesitant of T-Cut. Any thoughts appreciated.

Next, the Aerial. Looks like it is on the roof and hangs out near the back, but mine has clearly been broken off at some point. This is a tad annoying as the car has a good stereo in it, and I don't own many CDs, preferring to listen to Radio whilst driving along. So, how do I get the stub that I have out (I assume it just untwists) and any suggestions of where to get a replacement from, apart from eBay?

Finally, the centre armrest with the storage sections. This is annoying to me - I am guessing that one of the previous owners has at some point damaged this and recovered it with an alternative leather. The fabric used is a different colour and type of leather, so it doesn't match and has not wore well at all. Is this an easy part to replace (just the lid, in effect), and again does anyone know of a good place to get one - I found one on eBay for a tenner, but it was the wrong colour - I have a sandy-beigey leather in the car.

Sorry - just made an Edit - forgot something else. The car only came to me with 1x key. No remote fob at all. Should there be a remote for this car to activate Central Locking or was it indeed just a key-based system?

Thanks in advance to all for any help.

Regards

TMW

[dannyh]

Welcome to the club, yes the aerial does just unscrew, and as I can recall it is a standard thread, so just about any bee sting will fit (but please check first)

[crazydriver81]

Hello and welcome to the club!

as for the paintwork, I recommend to talk to Don (Xanadu Detailing). He can do a lot of wonder to your cars paintwork. Just drop him PM.

Regarding the aerial, it is screwed. You have to lift the roof liner and can access the nut holding the aerial in place. There should be a lot of antennas that fit (you don't need a OEM part necessarily), so best is to unmount the old one and compare before you buy a new one.

As for the center armrest, it's also easy to change. Maybe you should post a WTB request in the for sale section for a beige leather armrest.

cheers and good luck

PS: regarding the remote contol, just PM m your chassis number and I can check. AFAIK the euopean spec cars had a separate remote control

[Nick VR4]

Hi and welcome pictures are a must asap

[The Vee]

Think most of it is covered. Sure Don will be along soon about the paintwork. My only fear is that it has a clearcoat lacquer so you may not be able to "cut" the base coat.

[elnevio]

Hope you're enjoying the car anyway while you sort out the niggles!

[tmwsccsh]

Think most of it is covered. Sure Don will be along soon about the paintwork. My only fear is that it has a clearcoat lacquer so you may not be able to "cut" the base coat.

Hey - you've got a Mustang on your Avatar. Is that your other drive? I have one too - 1994 model though, GT Convertible.

TMW

[tmwsccsh]

Hi and welcome pictures are a must asap

Pics below - here's hoping I figure out the attachments thing properly. They were taken off the original eBay listing I got it from - not sorted any of my own out yet.





Got to get that awful Nokia car-kit out as well, but that's another days job...

The image of the side doesn't show the faded paint at all - it's really noticeable when you are with the car though.

TMW

[tmwsccsh]

Hi All,

Just thought I would drop an update on progress.

Now done around 300 miles in the car and going well. Had a headlight bulb blow on me and run out of screenwash so far.

Annoyingly, the screenwash was a bit more complicated - the washer jet system was also clogged with dirt so had to clean out the joins in the pipework, but all going again now.

To the 3 niggles I mentioned originally, 2 are sorted - nearly.

I have changed the stereo in the car - it was a silver one that came with it and it just looked out of place - have changed that for a black one I had spare here and it looks much better. At the same time, I have reconnected the aerial cable which was not attached to the old one. Still no signal, but a new antenna has now been ordered from eBay.

Found an armrest on eBay as well. I should have got a beige one to match the leather, but saw a photo of an interior with a black one instead and it looked quite good, so have a black one coming.

Paint - worry about that another day - got to go and fix the door mechanism in the wifes rover 200 cabrio now - you can't open the passenger door from the outside!

TMW

[HPRULZ]

Hi and welcome,especially as you are in hertfordshire you definately need to talk to Don (xanadu detailing) as mentioned somewhere near the top of the thread if you search for pictures of Ron monkeys car you will see just how good that red can look.

Kev

[tmwsccsh]

Cheers for the offer - at the moment, I shall try and go it alone, make a hash of it then come crawling back...

Antenna arrived and radio now works again - yay, no more silence as I haven't put any CD's in the car yet.

Unfortunately, I was let down by the seller of the armrest from eBay - after being told he had sent it, I got an e-mail back advising that he couldn't find it and refunded me. So the hunt resumes for that...

TMW