I think I've just about got over the trauma of finishing it in time for the MOT. Thank you for all your kind words. Who knew putting it back together wouldn't be as easy as taking it apart. Oh, everyone apart from me it seems. It was quite a few months ago now but I can still vividly remember the joy of putting the doors back on and trying to get them to fit. I think that was the bit that nearly broke me. Now for the important bit... photos. I hated the sight of it for a while so I didn't take lots of arty shots of it. But I've done a load of camping in it this summer so here's a few photos of that. Now off to the MOT feeling pretty optimistic. Arrived at Big Bang fine. Nothing had fallen off, which I was very surprised about. But then Sunday morning I saw I had a flat. Sorted it. This was taken on the way home. En route to Dubs At The Hall Watch my paintwork!! Bugjam It'd been running pretty well, which was a relief as I'd only just finished running the new engine in when I took it off the road. On the way to Dubs of Anarchy I was 10 miles into a 180 mile journey when the brake pads came away. Springcamp deja vu. Drank cocktails whilst waiting for recovery to take me to the show. Except this time it wasn't lovely and sunny. Then did the double whammy recovery home again on the Sunday. The money I saved in petrol more than paid for new brake shoes.
I've done the last of the camping for this year so now it's time to start on the interior. The fun bit! As I said at the beginning, I'd given myself 2 years to finish it, when I bought it September 2014. Well surprise, September 2016 has come and gone, but hopefully I'll only be a few months over due. There's no massive rush like there was with the exterior but I'm planning to finish it by March/April 2017. I've done most of the painting on the inside, just one more coat. I've bought 15m of purple velvet to do door cards and cushions.
I've bought all the materials needed for the door cards and made a good start. I was given the door cards themselves for free. I wanted to have deep set buttons, so looked at thick foam, but then discovered wadding is a fraction of the price. I bought an 18m 90z roll for £20 from ebay. That should be enough to have it double thickness. For anyone covering door cards and you want it a bit padded, check out wadding rather than foam, even thin stuff works out cheaper than foam. I worked out I need about 100 covered buttons for door cards and cushions. It was going to cost about £35 for the uncovered buttons but then I found these on ebay, 500 for £6. They looked a bit different from the buttons I've covered before, but it was worth the risk for 6 quid. Already had the tool to cover the buttons. Bought 15m of purple velvet 25m of orange mini pom poms
I like the idea of covering the buttons in your choice of material, make sure you take and post up some pics with a "How to...."
Looks good but Its best not to have thick cab door cards as you will not get the window winders or lock handle on
Yep, I had thought about that on the cab doors. Still not decided how I'm going to do it on them. Might have to do them with no padding, or very thin, so the buttons can still 'sink' a little. Trial and error I guess.
When I did my door card my foam was to thick but I got away with it by chamfering the edges and around the door handle and winder holes. Cheers Andy
And it looked ok? With the actual window winder handle, can I make some sort of extender so the handle's sitting a couple of cm further away from the door? 'Cos any sort of continued rubbing on the fabric is going to wear it away I guess.
Looked OK foam was about 10mm. The extender could be a bit of a machining epic as the shaft is splined, an easier solution might be to make a thick polythene washer to protect your lovely fabric from the rotating central section of the handle, if it's about 1mm bigger than the handle it should be almost invisible. Cheers Andy Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
That is a great idea! I can't picture if the handle comes out at a slight angle from the door or whether it's flat against it. So will try different thickness of wadding on the area that's going to be under the arc of the handle. And maybe even extend your idea of some sort of plastic coating (I have some iron on plastic especially for coating fabric) out further. It might not look great but it might look better than the alternatives. I shall certainly put a thick washer around the central section. Thank you.
