CHAPTER 1 | CHAPTER 2 | CHAPTER 3 | CHAPTER 4 | CHAPTER 5 | CHAPTER 6
:: Flairs, mirrors, weber ::
December ’04 Still waiting for an Auto Electrician to come and look at it. Might have to do it myself at this rate!
Im also waiting for Sam to come back and look at the selectors, but he’s away so I just have to wait…
Put the flairs on to see how they’ll look, and discovered that the side trim for the flat section between the two wheel arches is not long enough for the van. Its short by about 50mm, so I will be off to see what trim I can find that will do the job in its place.
I bought a battery for it this week. Connected it up in the hope that it might key start, but no such luck. After looking at the fuse box I realise that surface rust to the terminals makes a spark pretty much impossible, so I’ll have to pull the fuse box out and sand the terminals back to bare metal in the hope that I can get a key start. If that fails, I wait for the Auto sparky… I may even tow it down to their workshop, at least then he’ll be able to have a look at it.
I polished the bumpers this week, and straightened a bit of a kink in the front bumper. Its not perfect, but its not bad either. It will do for now, but I’ll be on the lookout for a perfectly straight front bumper. Ideally Id like to get all the bumpers rechromed. One day.
Mirrors – I also bought the mirrors (from Auto1, but they are also available from Supercheap – slightly dearer and they didnt have 2 in stock). They are Black plastic and match the flairs and Clubby shape perfectly. Mounting was a breeze, screw holes in the mirror mount match the existing holes perfectly (one is a slider, slides along the mount to where your other existing hole is) Fits snug, very happy with them.
The front end shows how much the wheels stick out past the flairs, damn I love that, just how I wanted! Licensing will be a problem, but I’ll be looking to borrow a set of plain 12″ rims off I don’t know what, to get me through licensing.
TOP
The weber, freshly reconditioned and replaced the 40mm venturi with 38mm to give me more low to medium range torque. It used to run a little rich on the 40mm, not that I ever minded that.. but this will give the better mid range performance, which will suit the hillclimbing better.
After the work and money already put into the project though, I am having second thoughts about racing it. This car has a huge sentimental value, so it will only be going racing if it feels as strong and reliable as it previously was.
But I will have to give it a go on the track.. sometime :) who am I trying to kid?
Sunday 19.12.04 – Decided to primer the front end. Pic 1, as it was in the morning, dirty, dusty, lights in tact. I sanded and recoated the front fenders also as they were covered in grease from the engine rebuild. I didnt redo the bonnet, it was fine, and it’ll get another hit of primer when I give the entire car a once over before paint. By about lunchtime (a couple of interuptions) I had the indicators off, headlights out, horn off and all sanded ready for primer. Mid afternoon and she was all grey in the front end, ready for paint.
Later that afternoon I sanded a couple of small dents that Id found (on other parts of the car) and applied the filler to those. Hopefully I’ll get to primer the rest of the car (both doors) and reprimer the repaired sections in the next few days (or next weekend, more than likely).
… and after another day of sanding, minor filling, more sanding and then more primer.. the body is looking good. There are still a couple more tiny little imperfections that Id like to remove before hitting it with oodles of red paint.. it won’t be long now :)
TOP
I really need to fit the flairs (with screws) before paint, as that will ensure a clean fit after paint. That means finding suitable trim to fit between the two wheel arches. Not a difficult task, but one I haven’t got around to yet…
The rear window fillins look great, very happy with how they’ve turned out. Still a couple of areas that need minor work, but almost there…..
I almost got to the point where I said oh f@ck it, thats good enough! But Im still at it.. I have to get there, eventually.. and soon :)