bought mirage owners manual

few minutes ago, i bought the owners manual for my colt mirage. in the u.s. it was sold as dodge colt and plymouth champ. it's interesting to know two car companies release the same car and just change its badge. try googling it for research. in japan it was released as mitsubishi colt mirage. here's the cover of the manual


Haynes Dodge Colt and Plymouth Champ Fwd Owners Workshop Manual, 1978-1987 Haynes Manuals

i bought it from alibris.com for $18.00 (shipping included). it will arrive on august 17. here's a copy of the confirmation.


this will definitely help a lot in this project.

cleaning the wheels

been stripping the steel rims to be powder coated. still contemplating if it's going to be white or gold/bronze.

removing bumper

so this is how it looks like without the rear bumper.

polishing metal and aluminum

i was browsing the restoration page of phil (dog283) - a friend of mine. it's housed in http://www.1stgenlancer.co.nr/ and let me tell you that they have a lot of info's there. after studying his restoration process i decided to browse other sections of the forum and came across this site - http://www.poleringsguide.se/english/. it's an english page of a swedish site about polishing. and if you see the picture above you will know that it works. it also has info about maintaining the shine. i haven't read the whole 3 pages due to lack of time. but, this sure will be very useful in the near future.

credits to http://www.poleringsguide.se/

tip#1: know what you remove

removing parts is easy. putting them back is the hard part. well, i haven't done this so i don't really know. but if you think about it, it will take more time to put things together when you don't have any clue at all. that's unless you have a hayne's manual of your car. then you don't have to worry and make a mental note of every screw, nuts and bolts location.

if you cant employ creating a mental picture of every parts, then another way is labeling. label every screw, parts, accessories, etc., insert them on a ziploc and vacuum it before sealing tight (that's to prevent the continues rusting of metal parts)

hood striping

you can see the "before and after" stripping of the bonnet. it has a small dent in the middle which was easily remedied by body filler. the last picture shows how fresh the hood is.

remove parts

i've been removing parts for some days. that includes the plastics from the trunk and some lights.

foreword

im beginning to restore my '81 mitsubishi colt mirage glx. im hoping to create a diary of sort for it- a daily updated blog while i restore it, from start to finish and beyond. pics and process will be included. if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to send me one.