Well you know who your mates are don‘t you ? Did you see what our esteemed editor headed last month‘s effort with? ”Don‘s disasters" indeed. And I thought this was an account of a smooth, uneventful restoration.
Well I finally got my vice back. The one my over enthusiastic son in law broke. The manufacturers sent me a brand new one which I collected in early January. While it was away I bought a great big old forged specimen from a big autojumble. This is now fixed to the bench. I reckon if I fix the returned one to the opposite end with the fixed jaws lined up then two long bits of angle iron should give me a good six foot metal folding facility. Watch this space!
Round the same time I somewhat shamefacedly took the cardboard box full of loom to the autoelectrician‘s ( who also happen to be Fred‘s sons ). I also took the wiper motor for overhaul. We had a good look at the loom on a bench and discovered an extensive length of badly damaged wiring with the insulation so worn away that a fire would have been only a matter of time. Perhaps Tony was right to insist that I took it all out but for heaven‘s sake don‘t tell him I said so! I ordered a battery whilst I was there in the hope that I‘ll need it before long.
The kit for recolouring seats arrived in the post this month. I saw the article in the Spring edition of Practical Classics comparing such kits and ordered the winner (though not before Peter Humpherson had tried it out first). He made a great job of his upholstery so I thought it might be safe for me. Sure enough it proved very good.
The basis of the procedure is to remove all traces of the lacquer which protects the old resin colourant and to then spray with colour before sealing with a spray of new resin. The lacquer is removed by rubbing endlessly with solvent soaked stockinette which involves some slight hazard from the solvent if used in a confined space. On the basis of this I successfully argued that the warm kitchen with it‘s extractor fan was the better place to carry out the job rather than the cold and unventilated garage ( previously described, when necessary, as the cold and draughty garage but I got away with that one). However like all minor triumphs in this life disaster lurked close behind. It transpires that stockinette, when cut, sheds millions of little U shaped bits which being very light get everywhere. As huge lengths of the stuff are necessary to clean a set of seats and door panels the quantity of bits shed provoked a vitriolic response, banishment to the garage, ventilated or not and the chilling line ”and when this is finished you‘re never going to do another are you?". Suggestions for getting out of this one on a postcard please!
Anyway, on with the saga. It‘s obvious when the lacquer has gone because the cloth stops picking up a sort of grey greasy deposit and the brown of the leather begins to show through. The plastic bits are cleaned with cheap cellulose thinners which smells worse than the provided solvent. Wisely, to rid the kitchen of the smell, I put the old cloths outside the back door to dry, looping them through the wash room door handle. Over the four days it took to clean everything to my satisfaction quite a few built up in the loop of the handle. Against the paint. (Beginning to get it yet?) cellulose thinners makes great paint stripper and I‘m now deeper in it than ever.
Still spraying the seats turned out to be unexpectedly easy. I nipped round to Tony‘s to get the engine crane to move the engine to create space on the table in the middle of the garage and set off home to spray. Half way it occurred to me that I didn‘t own a spray gun so I went back to Halfords and got one. So far so good. When I got home the first thing I saw was the box of kit that came with the compressor including a spray gun. Never mind, one for each substance I have to spray I suppose. I got the engine crane out of the car and into place with only minor foot injuries and then realised I‘d forgotten the chain. It seemed at that point a good idea to work round the engine rather than waste another hour going back for it so I covered it with an old curtain and used it as an easel.
Actually things went quite well for once. I‘ve never used a spray gun before so I played around with it dry for a while and discovered various adjusters which seemed to limit the trigger travel and spray ferocity so I turned them all down since previous experience with spray cans has been of massive overspray with colossal runs. This resulted in a pretty fine mist which covered slowly but eventually evenly without the dreaded trickle. Even at such a fine mist only two coats were needed and there‘s half the resin left. Pity it only has a life of 60 days.
Whilst the seats dried I tried to replace the headlining but without success. I can‘t get it into place and fix the screws single handed. It came awfully close to acquiring a fist sized hole till it dawned on me that the ideal chaps to fit it are the very ones who told me how easy it is at last weeks noggin. They‘re coming tomorrow, so not only will the lining get fitted but the engine will too since I remembered the chain last night. Next month‘s article will no doubt tell of how this intrepid bunch fitted everything in minutes with no hassle. Want to bet?
And finally I refitted the heater yesterday since it has to go in before the engine. Amazingly, after bashing back to shape, extensive pressure testing (well actually blowing down one end with a thumb on the other) revealed that the waterway was unperforated by it‘s traumatic removal experience and evidently fit for service.