We go back to October 2011, when Jamie took the Fiesta to get its rusty rear arches sorted.
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Last update, I told you that top of my list of things to sort on the little Fez were the rusty rear arches. They weren’t too bad (I have seen a lot worse) but you know what the dreaded tin-rot is like and once it starts to set in, it really takes hold and can ruin your ride in a matter of months. So I knew I needed to do something about it rather urgently while it was still a relatively straightforward repair.
After seeing the results of other project vehicles within the Future Publishing stable (including Neil‘s now rather tidy-looking RST) I knew the kind of finish I wanted, and I knew the paint I needed to use to achieve this: Lesonal. I spoke to the guys at Lesonal about what I’d need to complete the job, and as I’m no paint-man I had absolutely no idea of the kind of quantities or products I would need. All I knew was that I wanted the rusty bubbles on the rear arches to disappear and the car have straight, smooth lines on the bodywork again.
To help me out Lesonal sent out one of their specialists to assess the car and advise me on products and how much of them I would need. With that in hand it was soon time to find someone who could tackle the job. I asked around the office (as you do), and it just happened that the editor of one of our sister titles, Classics Monthly, had just had his rather rare Peerless GT Coupe sprayed by Jason at State of Art Refinishing. A quick snout around the car later and you could tell the job was done by a man who knows exactly what he is doing. A man capable of producing finishes like that on horrible composite bodywork might be a bit overkill for just doing a pair of rusty rear arches on a Fiesta, but I’d rather have an ‘overkill’ approach than be left with a finish I’m never going to be happy with.
After speaking with Jason on the phone he seemed keen to get involved with the project, so a date was set and the car was dropped off for him to work his magic. All throughout the respray process Jason was sending me pictures to tease me with the progress. All of which meant I couldn’t wait to see the finished result for myself.
When I went to pick the car up I’d noticed that Jason had not only sorted the rear arches (and done a bloody good job of it too!) but he’d also gone round the car and sorted out numerous other little dings, dents, and scratches that it had too. Top man! The bonnet, front grille, front wings (one of which had a Jamie-spec knee-shaped dent in it) and the rear roof spoiler have all been rubbed down, had any dents or scratches removed and then resprayed in the Lesonal Imperial Blue paint.
Basically everything bar the roof has been painted. And the car looks a million times better for it – it looks brand new. Jason even found time to give the plastic bumper inserts a coat of satin black, which means that I don’t have to worry about getting the Back to Black out every time I wash the car and I haven’t got any fears of the plastics fading to a horrible greyish white either.
Overall I am really impressed with results, and in particular with Jason’s work ethic of ‘if it ain’t right, fix it’. Now all I need to do is give the car a bloody good polish and keep it clean, but I’m glad I’ve a car that’s worth polishing now. On a slightly more downbeat note I’ve noticed that the rear beam bushes are shot to pieces and the rear of the car is making one hell of a crashing sound every time I go anywhere near a pot hole. So that’ll need a set of Powerflex polybushes then…
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