Right, update time again. This weekend had that satisfying-yet-frustrating element of running out of things to do.
The first surprise for me was a Red Admiral butterfly that had got into the barn which I put outside, but not before getting some photographs first. It's the first time I've ever handled one of these, and I think only the second one I've seen outside of books and television. Usually, they're a rare sight but apparently they're pretty common on the farm.
Matches the car quite well I thought.
I spent Saturday morning fitting the covers to the the front seat and the back seat, but unfortunately couldn't fit the rear seat cover properly because I didn't have enough of these 'grippy clips'. I don't know what they're called so my searches are coming up fruitless so if anyone knows what they are called and where I might get some that would be handy. I need about a dozen.
So I bunged the back seat in the car anyway. Also dropped the parcel shelf in (it's from a Coupé so it doesn't fit properly, but it's near enough and it's black so it'll do for now). The front passenger seat got finished off too. Then Adam took the grinder to the back bumper as per my request and directly as a result of chompysnake's pototatoshop.
It took Adam a matter of minutes to fabricate the new brackets, drill the holes and trim the bumper but would easily have taken me most of the day to figure out, I think. Handy having friends who know what they're doing.
At first the plan was to move the overriders out to be under the lights, but this looked stupid. Instead, Adam put them back to where they were and using a seemingly casual glance worked out precisely where to cut the back of them off so that they clear the sweep of the tailgate. Again, this is a job that would've taken me bloody ages.
We also tackled the front end. I used tape to mock up where everything should go aesthetically.
But then Adam asked if I'd checked for clearance behind the panel, which I thought I had but I'd actually put the indicators so that they straddled the crossmember/chassis rail ends and would be impossible to fit so I had to move them. I did so, marked up with some masking tape and then tried my kidney choppers by pushing them roughly into place. I prefer the front with them, but I'm not sure on the legality even though they sit further back than the bumper.
I pulled them off again so we could do the indicators. Again Adam worked his magic and had them fitted (but not yet wired up since we needs some electrical gubbinz) in a fraction of the time it took me to decide where they should go. The number plate is screwed to the valance which looks tidy and saved us having to fabricate bumper brackets.
The interior is coming together nicely now. I'm planning to eventually fit a gold or black (or maybe gold and black) carpet to replace the faded red one. Seats are looking good, if I do say so myself, and the back seat will look better when the upright part is properly fitted.
It's pretty close now, happily, the rear quarter looking much better since it was sanded back and painted. I'll need to sand and paint it again to get it properly smooth, but the sandpaper I had wasn't coarse enough to get through what I needed to in the time we had.
Made a start on the spare wheel too. Definitely going with black centres and the gold rim will be red. Next visit I'm hoping to get the car up on axle stands so that I can paint all five wheel centres, fit them on the car and then do the red rims once the black is dry enough to mask off.
Stickers.
So, the checklist now looks like this, lots of fiddly little jobs:
-Finish fitting the rear seat cover and final handsewing to finish off trims.
-Fit the rear numberplate
-Wire up the front indicators
-Fit new number plate lights that are on order.
-Sand back and repaint the driver's side rear quarter.
-Wire up the driving lights and air horns.
-Obtain and fit new tyres (unfortunately, the ones offered by MikeD are too big
for my skinny-ass 13" 135 wheels)
-Refit horrible original mirrors for the MoT due to fabrication required to locate new chrome mirrors.
-Pre-MoT checks to make sure everything is as it should be.
-Obtain and fit tailgate badges (possibly from retrowagen, because he's some sort of Polo parts Don at the moment)
-plug various holes left by modifications with rubber grommets to prevent leaks
-Finish interior sun visors
Also to do, though these are less important jobs and will happen over the winter and/or next year:
-Repaint all five wheels
-Cut and polish paint so it's even more awesome looking.
-Lowering springs.
-Whitewall tyres (probably Mr Whitewalls)
-Band steels
-Make and fit new interior door and boot cards (probably wood and brass...)
-Obtain and fit new colour carpet to match the new interior
-Smooth out number plate recess in tailgate
Much later down the line, but still on the want list are:
-Decide upon and fabricate rear end design.
-Convert to rear wheel drive.
-Fit Derby or Coupé rear side windows with pop outs, modifying C pillar accordingly.
-Fabricate and/or fit side exit exhausts for extra lowness ability and noise.
