I have managed to squeeze a few hours work in, in between a guided tour of the Hadrians Wall and watching a bit of the Sunderland air show.
We live in what was once a Roman settlement which had a fort called Arbeia as a supply depot for the wall, but apart from visiting the fort we have never really thought much about the wall. Great day out and very informative, the walk is run by Wild Dog Outdoors and is led and narrated by a local archaeologist dressed up as a Roman centurion and he certainly knew his stuff.
Highly recommended if you are visiting the North East.
Sunderland airshow is the biggest air display in Europe, it is on for 2 days with plans to expand to a 4 day show, hundreds of thousands attend every year.
Touristy stuff over.
Before we went for the walk yesterday I rectified the problem with the rear bumper and valance, it wasn't until I saw the photograph that I realised it was too low. It only took a little work and it was raised to the correct position.
While working on it I realised that the back of the indicators were exposed, its not that any water would cause damage as the electronics are sealed but that it looks unsightly, I shall make a stainless plate to hide the brackets. I also got a couple of bits and bobs attached.
Another job I started was the headlights, I mentioned that the clips that prevents the bolts from turning had broken off with the rough treatment they had during removal.
I straightened them up and riveted them in position, unfortunately I now have two aluminium rivets sticking out the back, I forgot I had bought a stack of black rivets so these will be drilled out and replaced. I also had a go at the wiring, the lamps fitted are standard sealed beams and you can now buy halogen replacement units. They have side lights fitted to them but there is no wiring on the headlight loom to connect to, so I have stripped off the outer sheath of the existing wiring and modified. As well as running an extra wire for the sidelight I extended the earth wire as I have sealed all of the connection to run earth through the body and shall connect to a dedicated earth, I then shrink wrapped the wire sections. To wire up the sidelights I shall take a piggy back from the front indicator sidelight up to the wing sidelight (I have yet to fit them) then onto the headlight sidelight and then fingers crossed they might even work.
After shopping, visiting the parents and the air show I have managed to get some work done on the dash, all of the dash is to be veneered not just the existing veneered section on the passenger side of the dashboard. That side is easy as there is an existing template to make the new substrate from, I have rough cut the outline and shall clamp it on and fit a trimming bit to my router and just run it around to get a perfect copy. I don't want to use the original just incase I make a right pig of the job then I will still have the original to fall back on.
I also plan to do something with that side of the dash as it just sits there without any use but to look nice, I also needed somewhere to fit the clock as the oil pressure gauge I fitted takes up that place on the dash. I have just bought a matching VDO voltmeter on ebay with the plan of fitting a radio in the middle and the two gauges either side to balance it out, I have seen the radio in the dash on pics of other Kallista dashes and where it is originally situated is a pain to get in or out.
The drivers side is a different matter as there is no template to go by so I had to make my own, I started with a piece of brown paper and laid the dash on top but upside down to draw around it.
Once drawn around I used a vernier to measure the outside edges and transferred this distance to the template.
One edge could not be drawn around so when I had cut out the marked section I laid it on and scored around the edge and trimmed this off.
I then transferred the paper design onto a piece of vinyl and cut to suit, I test fit and trimmed where necessary.
I had bought a nice piece of 6mm plywood and stuck the vinyl to this, I also drew around the passenger side section and got to work cutting it out.
I used my dads scroll saw to do the cuts.
I have left a little large as I shall set up my sander tomorrow and try and get it perfect.
While I had access to the scroll saw I cut out the Panther inlays for the door caps, these are made from 5mm buffalo horn. This stuff is jet black and very tough unlike wood which no doubt I would break the tail section or legs and of course it very unusual.
I first cut templates on my plotter.
Unfortunately my dad had only the one blunt blade and this stuff is really tough, still with a little perseverance I managed to get through it.
I shall file all of the edges flat then try and carve them into a leaping Panther, should be a laugh, probably turn out as a tabby cat.
Hopefully a full day tomorrow.
see ya Paul
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