Jonathan Alder's Journal

God, It's Been Ages Since I Last Wrote Here!

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:03:10 -0500

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

Well quite a lot has happened since my last journal.

Some time ago I replaced the front wiring loom, no real issues, just some very tender finger tips! At the same time I fitted a smart screen intermittent wiper system. God it's good! One click or wiper switch, pause up to 2 mins, another click and it carries on wiping at that interval - just right for drizzle!

I thought I'd upgrade the suspension, after lots of umming and ahhing I decided to go for gas shocks all round. The rear were gas shocks but non-adjustable and the brackets were homemade and a bit of bodge. I now have adjustable front and rear. I may try firming them up a bit, shortly.

It had been using alot of oil. I know it was burning it but a lot was disappearing. Whilst replacing the head gasket (oil in the rad) my friend spotted oil dripping out from a split in the underside of one oil cooler pipes, I have now replaced them with braided ones. These look mighty fine!

There's been quite a bit of fumes in the cockpit so I decided to do something about it. I spoke to people on here and decided to fit new rings and at the same time replace the valve stem seals.

When I removed the pistons 3 out of 4 of the top rings were broken - one of which had smashed the piston and caused quite a bit of damage. Looking at the cylinder there was some damage but not too much. I made the executive decision to risk not having a rebore, since i'm not doing a full rebuild and I don't do that many miles if I get 2 years use I'll be happy. Anyway piston 2 was f**ked, and since they were standard pistons I decided to try and replace just one (since I'm trying to do this on a budget) this wasted about 4 days on wasted leads. Gave up on that and decided to go for a set. My local motor factor said they could get them next day, no worries, and said they'd balance them f.o.c. Fantastic. A week came and went with promises and being fobbed off. I threw my toys out the pram and threatened to go somewhere else and the next day they turn up and guess what? Inspite of giving him the piston as a template, inspite of telling him repeatedly that they were the circlip type he turns up with the wrong ones. So I had to source them elsewhere and put them in unbalanced (it had been dragging on long enough by this point). This I did and it all went together nicely. I noticed that the big end bearings were a bit worn too, so decided to replace those while I was at it. I did it all insitu and had been worried about getting the front sump bolts back in, but as it happened, some patience and jacking the engine up and i managed it.

Started it up and it runs fine. After reading lots of opinions on running in I opted for driving normally but not thrashing it for 500 miles, with a couple of oil changes on the way. Good news is exhaust is no longer smokey, although you can smell a little bit of fumes when you give it some. I think I may purchase an oil catch tank and route the crankcase breather (and make a rocker cover breather) to it.

Once the engine was done it was time for the MOT. It failed on a split steering gaiter, he also failed it on too much play between the kingpin and the bottom wishbone, but said it was borderline. I thought it best to sort it out so tried replacing trunion bolt and bush but as soon as the kingpin was off it was obvious that the wear was to the kingpins themselves. I replaced these and everything is hunkydory. Although I have a horrible feeling that on removing the trackrod ends I might have got the tracking wrong.

The MOT guy said that the front pads were getting a bit low and there was a bit of a burr on the off-side disc and also the bottom rad hose was perished.

Gave the braking some thought and have just purchased slotted discs and greenstuff pads which i will fit tomorrow (as well as the rad hose). Then I plan to get the tracking adjusted by the guy that MOT'd it. I may decide to go for a servo, i'm not sure at the moment.

Then this weekend the Memsab and I are going for a driving weekend, which should be great as we haven't done that in ages.

Vroom-ba!

Posted 2008-10-08 06:03:10 by Jonathan Alder

More Work Done!

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:44:34 -0500

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

Last weekend (or was it the one before?) I tackled the clutch master cylinder. What a hassle it was trying to remove the master cylinders cover. The screws were all rusted solid and getting it free took the best part of the day. Once that was done the rest was easy, the only slight complication was having to reroute the clutch hose as the original one routed to the from of the cylinder and the replacement to the rear.

Posted 2007-03-12 14:44:34 by Jonathan Alder

More Work To Do!

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:58:01 -0600

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

I've fitted a 2 speed wiper motor and smartscreen intermittent wiper and washer thingy. Although I haven't got the washer bit to work (need to look at that today). But whilst I was working on it I noticed there was liquid in the drivers footwell that wasn't there before. My first thought was "how did water get there when it's been in the garage the whole time?" but now I realise it's not water it's brake fluid, and by the looks of things it's the clutch master cylinder that's the problem. Oh joy!

I'm planning on taking it to France this weekend, so the timing is not particularly great. But I'm heading there now and I'm going to see how much of a job it will be to replace it.

Posted 2007-02-27 03:58:01 by Jonathan Alder

What An Idiot I've Been!

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 05:28:40 -0600

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

On 2 counts!

Firstly I bought the spinner conversion and started fitting it (a couple of weeks ago now) and it was still proving to be a mare - mainly the access and getting the o-rings to stay put. So I got underneath with my leadlamp and had a really good look up inside where it bolts together and where I thought there was no o-ring low-and-behold there it was. Then I looked at the oil cooler connector piece and, surprise surprise, there was one there too. How could I have been so stupid?! In my defence it was an oily mess and i'm sure they've just fallen out in the past.

So I thought since I've gone to all the trouble of getting the spin-on convertor I might as well fit it and it went in as easy as pie. What a surprise, aye? The good thing about it is it with be easy to convert back. As an aside I bought a filter and the necessary o-rings from brown and gammons when i was going to fit the original one and the filter comes with them all - nice if they'd have know that! Still I know for next time.

So that was mistake 1, mistake 2 was I put a spanner on the roof onto of a cloth, when I finished as was clearing up I pulled the cloth, forgetting about the spanner, and yep I've got a nice big chip in the paintwork to sort out now, right down to the primer. Oh joy!

Still we've got oil in the car again!

Next job, sort out wipers! watch this space!

Posted 2007-02-19 05:28:40 by Jonathan Alder

Speedo And Oil Change

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 04:56:59 -0600

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

I've got the speedo back and it seems to be accurate. I haven't driven it too much since fitting it. I'm planning to drive it behind someone as a pacemaker. I might photograph it when I get a minute. It would be interesting to rolling road it and see how accurate it is.

I'd tried to calculate the TPM myself for comparison and made it 1217, I must've got that seriously wrong as they made it 1050 (IIRC)!

The refurbished speedo looks really good. They've done an excellent job.

At the same time I thought I'd treat it to an oil change - what a nightmare it turned out to be! When I removed the canister there was no seals - no wonder I had an oil leak! Trying to put it back together is impossible. I had to give up and walk away. I like to try and keep the car original-ish, I'm trying to add period replacements, or ones that aren't too obtrusive, but I think I'm going to have to fit a spin-on filter.

Posted 2007-02-08 04:56:59 by Jonathan Alder

Another Couple Of Weeks, Another Couple Of Changes. Pt 2

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:54:48 -0600

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

I think [touch wood], no I pray, I have cured the problem of the bonnet popping open. I fitted some rubber blocks that should've been on there but that didn't work. However whilst scratching my head and working out how to get round it I noticed the securing pin was ever so slightly at a slight angle to perpendicular to the bonnet and since it was a new pin I think the where it screws into the bonnet had somehow got twisted so a bit of graunching and I hope it's ok. Did about 75-80mph down the A1M and about 60ish down some twisty-turnies and it stayed shut [crossing those fingers firmly).

The other day I bought a pair of Lucas WLR576s and a WFT576 (for the reversing light)

I fitted the WLR576s, they're so sweet! I'd picked up some "WLR576"s off ebay a while back but they'd had the LR bit removed and put some sealed beams in, so I'm going to stick them back on ebay. I fitted the WFT576 with the rear-demist switch to operate it.

Still waiting for the speedo to come back from Brown and Gammons. Looks like it's going to be 2 weeks overdue. Grrr, I want to know how fast I'm going!

Posted 2007-01-31 13:54:48 by Jonathan Alder

Another Couple Of Weeks, Another Couple Of Changes. Pt 1

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:09:26 -0600

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

I've been deciding what to do about the seats I bought - they're seriously uncomfortable and the runners were falling apart. I was deliberating over getting rid and buying some new more comfortable ones. But in order not too make the same mistake twice I would want to try before I buy and that's not possible on the internet. The other possibility is making my existing ones more comfortable and doing away with the runners. This is by far the cheapest option, and have decided to do this in the first instance. If it doesn't work I'll have to resort to plan A.

The problem with the seats is there is no lower back support and too much upper back support (feeling like it was pitching you forward) so I had the idea of tilting the seats back to overcome this. trying it out I realised that I was going to need to increase the height at the front by about 4 inches - and just hope I could get my knees under the steering wheel!

Got some inch flat and a bit of inch box section and made some subframes to bolt straight to the floor, as can be seen from the picture (excuse the dirty floor and lack of carpet, I'm trying to locate a leak I've got!)

This is much more comfortable, but they do look very low slung now, and thankfully I can get my legs under too!

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Posted 2007-01-31 13:09:26 by Jonathan Alder

Some More Work Done...

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 14:37:46 -0600

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

Yesterday I did the work for the recalibration on the speedo and today took it to Brown and Gammons to be reconditioned, so should be back in a week or so.

Fitted the mk 1 quarterlight latches today, so the doors are all finished now, yay.

Also found out there isn't a reversing light switch so I'm going to have to go for a manual switch.

Had a large amount of oil splashed in the engine bay, found out the cork gasket had shrunk and hence was no longer oil tight, and the bolts loose. Tightened them so hopefully that's cured now.

A stone fell off a bridge last week and cracked the windscreen so she's booked in to Autoglass in Letchworth to have a new screen in 2 days. I bought a new chrome surround which they will fit at the same time.

That's it for now I think.

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Posted 2007-01-15 14:37:46 by Jonathan Alder

It's Update Time Again

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:13:41 -0600

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

Been spending a bit of time and cash on the car over the last month.

Firstly I've been looking at replacing the mark 2 door and window mechanisms with the correct (and NLA) ones. Managed to track down some second hand mark 1 bits from Watford Classic Cars, I managed to get the complete passenger side (window regulator, door mechanism, strikers, winders, openers, pulls etc) and all but the window regulator for the drivers side (all for 50 quid!) and the guy also created me a template for cutting mark 2 doors to fit mark 1 regulators. Went back a couple of weeks later and managed to get the remaining regulator. Picked up, from Brown and Gammons, the correct year interior trim to match the exterior (black with red piping) as opposed to the black and light blue to match the original mineral blue. When I got to fit them the doors were the original mark 1 ones so didn't need to modify them, which was nice. The windows open and close beautifully now, and the doors look fantastic.

I've bought new quarterlight locks (curved not the non-original straight ones that were fitted) which I'll fit soon.

I decided to replace the early Motolita steering wheel with a new one that can accomodate a modified push horn (from MGOC) as the homemade horn-push I made wasn't quite suitable.

So with that lot done I've got lots to stick on ebay!

Also fitted an Eyots style quick-release fuel cap, which looks great.

Had a bit of a nightmare the a while back. The clutch felt like it wasn't disengaging properly - I had to knock it out of gear before it stalled when I stopped. Suspected the slave cylinder and lifted up the rubber boot on it and a load of fluid ran out. Ah ha. Started replacing it outside and the heavens opened, it got worse and worse, but I thought "I'm half way through, I might as well crack on" but it started hailing and then disaster struck. The bonnet stay bracket snapped, the bonnet came crashing down and the stay gouged the scuttle panel. Oh joy! Thankfully the bonnet was undamaged. Cured the clutch problem though.

Posted 2006-12-27 07:13:41 by Jonathan Alder

My To-do List

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 11:14:49 -0600

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

I intend to keep this page as my live "what I need to do to make it how I want it" in no particular order. So here goes...

Fit new speedo cable. Work out recalibration for speedo and take to B&G - DONE

* Drill sill tops to waxoil sills, castle rails and doors - DONE - and everywhere else

Get S/S threshold plates - DONE

* Get nearside splash plate - UPDATE - Need to fashion my own as OE ones are too narrow for Sebring arches

Get mark 1 door mechanisms, window winders, door cards etc to replace my existing mark 2 ones - DONE

Get rear mount spot for reversing light - DONE

Get oil breather catch tank - UPDATE - Replaced rocker cover with new one with smaller vent on cap. Oil smell in cockpit gone.

Get water heater valve and cable - DONE

Fit hazard warning lights - DONE

Replace indicator switch and rework horn - UPDATE - Replaced steering wheel with new motorlita wheel with larger centre boss to accomodate modified OE horn - SO, DONE.

* Pipe air ducts in front valance onto brake discs

* Replace grill with mesh one

* Upgrade windscreen washers. Fit dual bottles, electric motors - DONE - and additional jets.

* Fit 2 speed wiper motor and smartscreen intermittent wiper unit.

* Repair bonnet stay bracket (find aluminium welder)

* Restore dash

Posted 2006-11-20 11:14:49 by Jonathan Alder

Last Update For Today

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 04:57:22 -0600

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

The replacement of blibs and blobs is still going on.

I replaced the oil only gauge with the correct dual oil/water one - it's the centrigrade one, not the normal c-n-h, and it took some finding! Big shout out to Sussex Classic Car Parts, Horsham!

I also replaced the horrible wooden gear knob with the correct teardrop one (simple things, aye?)

To save the carpets I also got some mats too.

Not much to go now til it's perfect! And the continent beckons for some Safety Fast!!

Posted 2006-11-10 04:57:22 by Jonathan Alder

And Another. A Happy Ending!

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 04:48:58 -0600

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

The git at Jack's Hill motors had told me it was running lean on tick-over but done nothing to it. So armed with some reading the night before I attempt to richen the tick-over slightly. I do this, and it seems to be running sweetly.

A few dats later I notice it's belching smoke out the back. It was night and I could see it in the headlights of the cars behind me. Arse! The engine is wear is worse than I thought. So the next day I take to an MG garage nearby that I trust and that had replaced an engine for me a while back (Brian Brown Classics at Hitchin, Herts - big thumbs up to him!) I ask him to have a quick look and let me know what I can do. He does and says it's not oil, it's fuel. I've gone and over-riched the Weber. Ooops, but phew! He knows nothing about Webers but gives me the details of another guy. OK. Lets give him a go.

I turn up and explain the problem (couldn't get him on the phone) and he says he can fit me in now and starts work on it there and then. What a star!! He gets me to drive onto the rolling road and has me do the driving while he tweaks - yeah, this is more like it!

He was so knowledgeable and explained each bit as he did it and what all the emissions outputs mean. He methodically tests everything to do with the carb (fuel pump pressure, etc, etc) I go in there with an emissions count of 3000-odd (for a post '76 car the allowed emissions for an MOT is 1200 - oops! He works his magic, replaces the idle jets with some smaller ones, and we're down to 300! Wow, what a star, again! Then he tackles the timing and the advance. He says that the reason it's blowing from the breather is because the timing is far too advanced. It sounds nice at low revs, but has little power at high. So he retards it for where it should be and wow! we're producing 115bhp at 5000rpm - that's a bit better than 75! However the timing is wrong at low revs and it lacks power until about 3000rpm. So he recommends either a buying a race dizzy or modifying mine for Â£75 - I go for the latter and arrange to come back the next day.

With the cam the engine wants to be fully advanced to 25 degrees and the dizzy advances to 30, so I'm firing 5 degrees to soon on low revs. He gets a guy to blob a bit of weld as a limiter on the advance stop. And times it again and now it's spot on. Woohoo! I take it for a spin and it's a thing of beauty and very fast!:) It's no longer breathing through the rocker cover either. Yippee.

He recommends routing both the crankcase and rocker cover breathers into a bottle (to catch the oil) and then a pipe to vent it under the car which I will be doing shortly - no more smells in the cockpit for me!!)

So to cut a very long story short. The engine is sweet an is properly set up now. Producing 115bph @ 5000 rpm at the wheels and running a lot more economically, with oodles more power.

One advisory was one of the engine blanking plates for the cooling system has started to leak slightly and that will need keeping an eye on.

Oooh I almost forgot. The hero of this story is Peter Baldwin and the garage is Wilsher Garages, Wimpole, Cambs

Posted 2006-11-10 04:48:58 by Jonathan Alder

Another Update. A Rant!

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 04:22:43 -0600

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

I was outside the other day giving the car some loving (well cleaning it) and a guy starts chatting to me about it (he's got a modified Beetle) and he recommended a garage nearby wuth a rolling road that had sorted out his Weber.

So I booked it in with them them for the following Monday, first thing. They'd said 2 hours to do the work and I could wait if I wanted. Bingo! So I arrived and was told that the guy doing the work wasn't about and it would be done in the afternoon and they'd ring me. No phone call. So the next day I rang and was told it still wasn't ready. Then Wednesday I rang again and was told "we were about to ring you" yeah right! "come down now and you can see it on the rolling road" Cool!

Turned up and they weren't ready to go, and they hadn't actually done anything, no tuning nothing! But rolling road it they did as was to see what was what - it's quite frightening to see your car doing 120mph whilst stationary! I was advised that the o-rings between the manifold and Weber were over-tightened and needed replacing. They didn't have any but would order them and do the work the next day. Hmmm.

I waited and waited all thursday. No call. Friday. No call, ring late afternoon. The part hasn't arrived! Monday am told the guy is off. By now I'm getting pissed off but I'm told it will definitely be ready tomorrow. They've had it over a week by now to do a 2 hour job!

Tuesday cometh. I wait til late afternoon, still no call. I decide that since it's still running I'm going to go and collect it regardless. I arrive unannouced and some apprentice is bolting the carb back on having fitted the o-ring. He was doing this 2 minute job for about 20 mins while I'm standing there. I speak to their "Weber expert" and tell him I'm taking the car as is. He says he'd like to run it up on the rolling road. OK fair enough.

He does this and tells me it's running weak on tick-over, producing 75bhp and that the engine is worn (it was blowing from the rocker cover breather and will need attention soon. Oh bum! They charge me for timing, tappets, new plugs (I told them I'd replaced them the week previous and they said "oh we saw they were new and thought we'd replaced them" nice huh?), compression test and rolling road. That came to Â£85 but with no sign of the print out for the rolling road, timing details or compression stats. You're getting an impression of how this company does business, right?! Still at least I've got my car back.

This Garage's name is Jack's Hill Motors in Graveley, Herts if you want to avoid them.

Posted 2006-11-10 04:22:43 by Jonathan Alder

Quick Update

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:24:37 -0500

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

I picked up a pair of rear-mount lucas spots of ebay and fitted them at the weekend. They were a bit of a pain as the DPO had done a bodge fitting sealed lamps that did'nt really fit in, still I managed to work around this and mount them OK and everything is working well.

I mounted them on the front valance, I'm a bit worried they might suffer from flutter. A friend took some video clips of me driving it so will scrutinise that to see.

Oooh I found out the colour too, it is a period shade, it's Tartan Red. Another bit of the jigsaw done!

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Posted 2006-10-16 14:24:37 by Jonathan Alder

Next Installment!

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 06:39:26 -0500

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

Well, after lots of advice and head scratching I decided to buy some wheels. Brown & Gammons said 6*15s was plenty big enough, so I took their advice and bought some minilite-look-alikes with 205/65s. Attached is a photo, I think they look much better, but I'm still thinking that I could've afforded to gone wider.

My speedo has been dodgy so that's going into them for recalibration, once I've worked out what it needs to be recalibrated to.

Someone had a done a real bodge with the centre console/speaker cover which I've now replaced and it's looking much better.

Fitted some new spark plugs too. It was fitted with some GM ones, I'm hoping it won't foul quite so much. We shall see.

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Posted 2006-10-11 06:39:26 by Jonathan Alder

The Story Continues!

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 07:48:36 -0500

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

Today I paid a trip to Brown and Gammons and spoke to their main man who knows a lot about racing MGs. I asked him about a choke cable for the DCOE45 and he said don't bother, it doesn't need it. OK! He also recommended 7*15s running 205s front and 225s rear. Although he doesn't stock them. I've also got some ideas for spots and a reversing light too.

Workwise I replaced the heater matrix. It was straightforward enough except for a couple of things:

* It appears that the control linkage on the heater was rivetted on the wrong way, so that the there was a lot of stress on the cable came out of the sheath (I should've photographed it as I did it, but it's too late now!) so I took out the rivets turned it round and now it moves so much easier. A job well done! :D

* I mentioned in the my previous post that the engine was non-standard, well this was further proved by the fact there's no heater control valve! I'll need to do some investigation as to if I can fit one to this engine because there isn't an obvious place for it to go. Otherwise the heater's going to be either on, or on!

Other than that the heater works like a dream. :)

I also did some housekeeping on it too. It was missing the gearbox dipstick blanking grommet but not anymore so hopefully it won't smell quite so fumey in there. Plus I took out the passenger bucket and refitted it. With some fiddling it's now bolted down properly, the runners still don't do their job properly though. Also I replaced the black windscreen wipers for some chrome ones (the right size too!).

Other little niggles that are coming to light. It's been converted from pos to neg earth but on the cheap so the wiring loom is in a mess. Need to add that that to the to do list!

Finally it's been fitted with a weird windscreen washer bottle sitting where the brake servo normally would sit, I decided to top it up and noticed it was leaking. On further investigation the previous owner had pushed it on to the bracket too hard and split the plastic so now you can only fill it half full. Mmm nice one!

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Posted 2006-10-07 07:48:36 by Jonathan Alder

First Attempt!

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 13:25:27 -0500

Jonathan Alder's Journal --

Well on the 23rd September I picked up LEA27E (a 1967 MGB GT in a MGC GTS style) from Gloucester and drove it to Sussex (about 120 miles) and she never missed a beat. Although the speedo, after reading incorrectly for a while, gave up the ghost and started making a racket, so I pulled over and disconnected the cable from the back. A few days later I travelled from Sussex to home (100 miles) and again didn't miss a beat.

I have wanted a Sebring replica for a while now and I am extremely pleased with the car, however there are a number of things that I'm not too happy about that over the coming months I plan to put right, plus I intend to make it as close to a period racer as I can.

The guy that carried out the work did an excellent job in some respects and a bad one in others. So first off, here's a list of things I'm very happy with:

* The bodywork is excellent - he did a really good job with the fibreglass bits - it looks so good. There is some rust that I need to sort, but it's totally asthetic (a bit on the roof and on the tailgate) plus it's got the C bonnet, even though it's only a B ;) I was quite surprised that the previous owner didn't clean it before I picked it up, but it meant the surprise was all the better when I polished her and she came up like new!

* The engine has had a lot of work done to it and is very sweet with good oil pressure and it's got a high lift cam (don't know anymore than that) and it pulls beautifully all through the revs. It's missing the engine number and I don't recognise some of the aux bits so it may not be from an MG. But hell it pulls like a train and sounds sweet as!

* It's got twin air horns! They sound soooooo sweet. Yes I'm easily pleased.

here's a list of things I'm not too happy with:

* It's fitted with 6*15 Wolfrace wheels. These just don't go - they look just too '80s, and 6" wheels are lost inside those flared arches. I'm currently looking for some 7*15 or 8*15 minilites but it's proving to be difficult to find reasonably priced ones, and I'd like to try before I buy.

* He fitted a DCOE45, but it's set very rich so as well as guzzling fuel, it fouls the plug & if you stop it hot you can't start it again - a real p.i.t.a! I think he did this because he couldn't find a choke cable long enough. So I'm currently on the lookout for a longer choke cable. Although I'm getting conflicting reports - today someone said there was no choke on a DCOE45 - he was emphatic about it, although there is definitely a link on the top, so more investigation is required!

* He replaced the steering wheel with a Motorlita spoked wheel without the centre horn and moved the horn onto the stick (which is off something like a Maxi and looks truly awful!) but didn't move the headlight switch from the floor. I'd like to move the horn back onto the steering wheel and replace that awful indicator with the period one.

* He replaced the doors with some later ones with the BL openers on the inside and some awful armrest cum door pulls - very nasty! I haven't decided what to do about that yet. Those armrests will have to go though!

* The front seats were awful too. The rear seat is black leather with light blue piping (my first clue that red wasn't the original colour) the front ones are vinyl ones off a ~73 I think. They have now been replaced for some bucket seats, they're an improvement but but they are actually a quite uncomfortable and a bit cheap nasty. Maybe they'll wear in nicely. We shall see.

* I have already fitted headlight cowls a la Sebring. I now just need to match the shade of red properly so I can paint the runners that hold the cowls in place. I'll photograph and post later.

* The previous owner said the heater leaked so it was looped out. I have a new matrix that I'm going to fit tomorrow.

* I'd like to replace the grill for a mesh one like they used to have, I'm keeping my eyes open for one.

And that is where we are as of today! Watch this space as I think of stuff to add...

Thanks for reading.

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Posted 2006-10-06 13:25:27 by Jonathan Alder