Windscreen start

Hi

Finished the 2 day course yesterday afternoon and it was quite interesting, nothing to do with what my job will be on the ship but you get a good insight into the wind generators that the ship will be erecting and the best bit was I got to jump out of a training tower to practise escaping.

Funs over, back to work.

I have done a little more on the dash and that is fitting the wiring loom, I unplugged it from the car a while ago and left it there out of the way, Terry suggested I fit it now which is a good idea as I have found a bit of a problem,

and that basically is my lack of car electrical knowledge. The problem is that I have fitted 2 indicator lamps were originally there was one and I'm not too sure about the wiring up of a second, I originally thought it would be easy but after a good look I thought no way so I ordered a single larger lamp from CBS that indicates as the original and have made a plate with a single larger hole for the new lamp which should arrive tomorrow.

Just have to be very careful removing the other plate.

I have had a couple of deliveries today the main one being the chrome demister escutcheons from SVC.

Very nice, the width of the holes are a little shorter so I shall have to carefully fill one of the holes on each side and try and paint them in, £26 inc postage and very well made.

I have been expecting the wheels to arrive sometime today so I started on the wheel nuts, these had not been polished in a number of years.

So I put them first on the wire wheel to remove all of the loose rust and then onto my polishing wheel.

A little pitted in places but will do for the time being.

The wheels arrived just as I was finishing for the day and they look great, I did not have them done in the pearlescent paint but a close match as this will be easier to touch up.

I shall get them fitted tomorrow and see what they look like.

The main job today and for the next couple will be the windscreen.

I have been in touch with Bruno and Terry B concerning the refurbishment of the windscreen and the general opinion is if it ain't broke don't touch it. I have bought a new seal from Bruno but he say's that I can return it if not used so I shall try my hardest not to damage the glass.

The reason for wanting to strip it and replace the inner seal was the damage to the bottom section.

It has two chips out of it, I don't know; but don't think that it leaks just by going from the lack of water damage to the inside of the dash where any water would have accumulated so fingers crossed.

The frame surround is, as I would image, is in the same condition as any other 26 year old frame that hasn't been particularly well looked after.

Not too bad but needs a good clean and polish, I started by stripping all of the riveted parts.

Then had a look at the worst parts which are the top corner sections.

These are showing signs of pitting in the aluminium, after giving it a good wash down I tried to polish out the pitting unfortunately the frame is painted silver and the paint rubbed off with the pitting so I put it on the polishing machine and up came the most lovely polished aluminium. So I just carried on with the polishing, unfortunately half the way through, my polishing machine decided to die and popped the RCD on the fuse box, I re-set and had another go but it looks like the motor has gone to earth. Bit of a problem half way through a job so I got stuck in the old fashioned way and had a go by hand.

While I was working on it Ant arrived with the wheels and he took it away for his electrician to look at, if I'm lucky he may be able to find the problem.

Anyway I started with 400 grit and worked my way up to 1500 wet then my 3" polisher and it has come up fantastic.

This is the painted finish.

This is the hand polished finish which I am no where near finished, once it is all polished then a couple of coats of wax should keep it nice and shiny.

So lots of elbow grease tomorrow.

see ya Paul