Geoff Butcher wrote:On the road this summer, Dave?
I'll never say never Geoff, but it all depends on my amazing friend with his huge knowledge of electrics. I don't understand anything electrical at all...
It's been a funny old month - the sort where everything suddenly comes together in one aspect but in others you totally forget things. The suddenly coming together relates to my daily wheels. I have driven a VW Bora TDi Highline for the past 9 1/2 years. Wilhelm has been a really dependable, reliable, comfortable, useful, economical and practical vehicle. Thing was, he'd now done 128k and never had a clutch. Last time I enquired it was £700-odd at the local VW specialists thanks to a Dual-Mass flywheel being needed. Although it's something I probably could do, from what I understand it's a butt of a job and specialist tools might be required. Someone else can foot that bill. Also, the lovely Mrs Bounce passed her driving test in 2017 and said that as she now had a "practical car", I didn't need to have one. I fancied something where the roof comes off, but also fancied an auto for cruising. E36, Z3s and R170 SLKs were in my price range, and as I don't particularly like BMWs it was the Merc I started looking for. One came up on the work noticeboard at a silly price (quick sale needed, too). It did have the obligatory rusty wings but it also had been owned by the same festidious owner for the past 7 years. It's mechanically sound, and has a LOT of service history. A deal was reached, and she came home with me. The Bora was sold within a day of being put on Faceache Marketplace. Wilhelm will now be doing commuting work for a vehicle technician so he's in good hands.
Of course, this meant no work had been done on Zippy. So into the garage I went today and started looking at the dashboard, having pulled it down from the loft. I mocked up where I wanted everything - rev counter, speedo and multi-gauge pod from an XJ6 that my friend has assured me he can wire in with no issues. The initial plan was to cover it with my mate Stuart's old leather coat, but it's not suitable for the dash as no panel on it is long enough or wide enough. I shall keep the coat and cut it up for other bits of trimming.
When I bought Zippy, the dashboard was a mess, and the thing I hated most was the ill-fitting dash top which was only "roughly" the right shape. It wasn't fixed to anything and was nowhere near good enough to use, even for a template. Therefore I making my own. I took a look at what I had kicking around in the garage and found an old sheet of hardboard. Having to make the dash top template in two sections due to the width, I cut both bits to size and then looked at the curvature required for the bottom of the windscreen. The easiest way to deal with this was to pop a block of wood on the dashboard to enable the hardboard to sit on top of that. My plan is to cover it with parcel tape and then cover it in fibreglass to make my own dashtop. This can then be fixed to the dashboard in due course. I can also look at the screen venting system. I have something in mind for that...
Farewell Wilhelm and thank you for your service. Lovely car with what seemed like the world's biggest boot.
Hello Katrina. I do rather like her when her top's off. And her whining (supercharger!).
Dahboard mock up.
Stuart's coat - no good for the dah but I can cannibalise it for other stuff.
Hardboard to start a template for the dash top.
And a little bit of wood helps with the curvature (some adjustment needed).