Twiggy

Ok, as this seems to have run it's course for this fundraizr, I shall close this off now and say thank you to everyone who contributed.  At first glance, it would appear that we've done enough to keep us going for about 4-5 months (useage depending) so that is superb news.  Exact figures will be posted once I am not held up in a hotel room and struggling to log in on the world's shittest wifi.

Happy to contribute !

It's all the others that were the problem 

Good luck ! I hope it all goes well.

some weeks later.. it's time for an update...
Daimler / Jaguar heat box ...
Carrying on from having cleaned off the surface rust, epoxy priming it and painting the outsides semi-gloss black, my next task was to replace the foam seals around the opening vent, on the box's underside.  This is the one that opens up the air flow into the footwells.  Then having refitted the non-standard fan motor (as previously described, with it sitting on a thick rubber washer) I proceeded to refit the heater matrix. 
   
The inside of the heater box had no padding for the matrix to sit upon, so I added sticky back neoprene strips. ..which I thought would be a good idea as there are no fastening to actually hold it in place, save the rubber water pipe connection and the heater valve connection.  The heater matrix is now a snug fit inside its box with just the two pipe connections poking through the lid of this box. 
  
Next up was to refit (glue in place) the sound insulation pad which goes behind the heater box. This was in good condition and so reusable, as was the thick foam-rubber doughnut, which seals between the box and the bulkhead. I also re-cut the edge-frayed insulation pad off the front of the box to go on the end.  Originally it was only half covered, but now as you can see I've extended it to also be under the vent-flap springs.   Neoprene foam strip was again used around the footwell vent flap and around the tow round holes which feed air to the face vents. 
   
Because the car is going in for a full respray I didn't bother too much cleaning up the bulkhead.  Only really wanting to get rid of the old and perished foam seals.  They probably had a design lifespan of 10 years, so they had done well ..not least considering the heat and dirt of an engine bay.   I also pulled out two of the heater exchange pipes. The one shown runs across the back of the engine. It's clipped to the bulkhead, and made of steel. There's some deep pitting from corrosion on the outside, and possibly as bad on the inside.  I need to find someone who is handy with a pipe bender and have these remade in copper ... before they start to leak.   For the time being however I just power wire brushed them, epoxy primed and sprayed them silver (rather than the original black.  As my car will change colour from black to beige, I thought to see how it looked.     
      
Heater box back in place, although there's a bottom rubber mount missing.  Getting a hand in this back corner to get those control cables under the clamp was a pain ..literally.  And then getting the control bowden cable wires to work was hampered by the new pivot-clamps being faulty. As you can see the lathe machinist didn't get right into the corner, and so the cable's hole didn't clear the lever arm..  I've reused the old ones, which work fine.  

^ The heater pipers and box is now back in place.  The old heater valve I lost when I took it to the radiator repair shop,  I thought they'd lost it but in fact I was at fault with this one.  I had loaded the radiator and heater box into the Chrysler by its side door.  When I turned up at the barn I'd opened the side door to lift things out and hadn't noticed the heater valve drop out.  It landed on grass, which overgrows the edge of the concrete, so there was no sound.  I searched the car four times looking for the darn thing, but found it pressed into that grass at the barn ..after I'd driven over it.!  Hey-up my fault, and nothing to be done but to buy a new one.  That's what you see fitted here ..which is why I happened to have new cable pivot-clamps - which didn't work. 
With the control cables in place - they don't work.  The friction between it, the old cables and the levers inside the car is too much.. I've left for now, and will attend to them when I pull the dashboard out.  Wiring yet to be done.   All in all another five minute job which took well over an hour.  

The radiator and its cowl went back in okay, but the bolts which held the thermostat 's radiator pipe connection on were each too long. Although cleaned up, these are the same as were on there before. the gasket had disintegrated when I took it off ..looking as if it had been reused half a dozen times before.  I made a new cardboard gasket and painted it with primer (the gasket that is, as well as the where the rubber pipe sits over the cast aluminium) and then of course cut the bolts 1/8" shorter. Beforehand I think the amount of goo on the original gasket must have doubled it's thickness.

Job done.  Engine bay looks a little tidier, but there's still a long way to go.  The new-old-stock radiator being freshly repainted looks like new.  That being new original, rather than new after-market tat..  And the heater box, all cleaned up and repainted, with new seals, but still with its wiring to be tidied up and new insulation to be bought and fitted.  Btw Mk.II Jagwaars didn't have this insulation as standard.   I'll also need to buy a new squirrel cage fan as my friend Mathew didn't have one of the size I need.     
I started the car and tested it, statically, and then in turning the car around (outside) and while washing the car. The fan is so efficient that I placed a thick T-shirt over the radiator grille and could see how it was being sucked in. Still in time it did get to the 50-degrees necessary for the thermostat to fully open.  The water / antifreeze mix expanded and overflowed into a tray placed under the car. There's no expansion tank on these old cars and so the following morning, when it had all cooled down, the water level was down to the bottom of its filler tube.  I don't like that. I want the water to be where i can see it.  so time for a quick n' dirty mod . . .

The only thing I could find to make-do was a plastic milk bottle, which I squeezed into a wedge shape besides the cowl, and sat on a block of foam on the chassis. A piece of string and a dog collar, and the weight of water keep it in place.  I've now even drilled a hole in its lid for the overflow pipe to go through.  I cut the palm of an old rubber glove as a seal around the cap.  Such sophistication is surely befitting a Daimler   ..  It works ..exactly as it should.  I can refine it later.

Getting the car ready for road trials, included removed the defunct dangling horn and replaced the bumper.
That's all for this post .. just a little more to come.
Pete
 

Pretty uninteresting work-in-progress, but I'll drop it in here for continuity . . .
    
^ The Smiths heater's blower motor and squirrel-cage impeller which, with a few hundred variations, is much same as used on most British cars of the period.  You can see how the base of the impeller was bug'd by a prior owner or 'mechanic', whereby it didn't quite sit straight to the motor's spindle axis.    Credit must again go to British engineers ..that their products can be so mutilated and yet still work.   
I straightened it best I could but the throw out to one side is still +/- a millimetre.  That doesn't sound a lot but it looks and feels every micron of it as the motor's revs pick up. I tried to counter balance it with a weight but it didn't work. I need to get a replacement (just the impeller) but I'm reluctant to pay £35 for a second hand one.  My good friend Mathew has a pile of Triumph parts and reckons he'll have dozen (from Herald, Spitfire, Vitesse) to try..  For the time being I'll take dimensions and otherwise put the heater box back together, and then swap it out whenever I have the part.  
       
^  Yeah right . . .
Where the box had been ring drilled, to modify the case for the different model of fan motor, it needed flattening.  My hammer and dolly is in the storage barn 10 miles away, so I used a sledge hammer as a dolly with a claw hammer to re-straighten the edges.
   
^ .. placing masking tape across the ripped-out hole, I then marked the spindle hole of the impeller, centralised to the air-in hole on the other side.  With pencil & compass the critical dimensions could then be drawn out and two new mounting stud holes drilled.  Next up was to retrim the butchered ring-drillings so their barbs cleared the motor's body in this new position.  As you can see above I've removed one of the brazed on studs. The other two subsequently followed its flight path to the bin. 
So now to stop the motor rocking on its two studs and to add a little rubber insulation. . .
   
^ I cut a gasket from 5mm rubber sheet. The motor will simply clamp against that.  I tried it and it works well ..although with the bent and out of balance impeller it's not nearly as quiet as it should be. That'll remind me to change it !
 
^ First coat of semi-gloss black. Sprayed and then left to dry overnight so as to save hanging it and getting overspray everywhere.  ^^ I'd forgotten the box's front face - where the matrix goes in, so a bit of catching up was needed today ...to clean its old paint and surface-rust off and to primer it.  
  
^ the new old stock Daimler radiator has been pressure tested and found to be good to go, but 55 years of sitting in a shed left it looking a little shabby and with surface rust on the steel side plates.  Being very careful with the power wire brush near the core I cleaned it all up and have epoxy primed the first side plate.  Later this evening I'll turn it over to paint the other side. I think this epoxy primer is good stuff but it takes a good amount of time to dry in the cool temperatures. I prefer to leave it over-night before handling it.  Of course the core itself and the top and bottom tanks are non-ferrous and so they'll just be sprayed over a light coating of black  I've lightly rubbed down each tank for the fresh paint to key to the original.  
I also spent a considerable amount of time looking for a replacement impeller and comparing it with others.  New ones for the Mk2 Jaguar / Daimler are 'Out of Stock' from all usual internet sources, and the one for the E-type is a little bigger diameter but shorter.  No good to me then. 
So, that's all for today.  Not much.. but that's the reality of restoration ..mostly it is a slow grind with not a lot to show at the end of a day.
Right !  it's time for a cuppa.
Pete   
 

Following my post on 10th january, I've bought a new old stock radiator and taken it with the car's heater into Sheldrake & Well radiator repair in Ipswich.   They were wanting to charge £350+ plus VAT to recore the radiator, the new-old-stock one cost £150.  Still I took the new one into Sheldrake & Wells to have it pressure tested. Cost £25 + VAT but it offers me peace of mind.   The heater box is another sorry .. seems like they home-in on me.    In essence it comes down to my being a T-Fg-twat ..again, making an assumption and giving people the benefit of the doubt. Short version is that I took my old radiator in to get a quote for a recore. They gave me a price and also showed me a dozen or so radiators all ready for other customers to collect.  Each one of those had been recored and having been stripped and repainted looked not far off new.  That would be nice I thought, not least considering my car's radiator is 55 years old.  So while there I asked if they could do the same on the car's heater.  No problem the man replied ..£285 + Vat..  Again I just wanted the thing to be ready to refit, and thereafter be trouble free for the foreseeable life of me &/or the car.  
   
^ first pic shows what it was like when I took it in.  ^^ second photo shows what it looked like when I collected it, after the core was replaced, and my having paid £285 plus VAT plus another £6 plus VAT for an o-ring.   Aside from the second photo being out of focus (my apologies for that) and two shiny screws it looks exactly the same.     As I said I'm a T.Fg.twat insomuch as, having seen those chemically cleaned and freshly repainted radiators, I assumed for that sort of money I might get more than a core which cost £90 inc VAT ..from a well know jaguar specialist (almost never the cheapest source for parts).     Sheldrake and Wells, Ipswich is that company's name should you also wish to give them £200 + VAT for doing almost nothing. 
Just to make my day, they forgot to give me back ..and I forgot to ask for, the control valve.  So I've got to go back.  I phoned on Friday and asked but the chap I spoke to couldn't see it there. Mark, who I had dealt with doesn't work on Fridays, so I suggested he might be called, just to ask where it might be, so I might come back and collect it.  No that was not an option. "His time off is his time off"..  "please call again on Monday."
Happy customer ?  What do you think.. ??
- - -
Guess what .. I needed to take the core out to repaint the heater box  ..inside as well as outside. . .
   
^ possibly a dozen screws hold the lid on and the core just lifts out.  Only one was missing and another fell on the floor before I even reached for my screwdriver. 
...moving on

^ Hardura faced felt (noise insulation to prevent engine bay noise from going through the heater box and into the car) on the back face was still in good nick. Using a scraper I removed all of these carefully, if only to be used as patterns.

^ As it turns out, removing the fan was a pain-in-the-asp .. at Sheldrake & Wells charge rate it might have cost me a couple of grand extra.!  As you can see the squirrel-cage type fan rotor is not straight to the hole so when the nut was released the darn thing wouldn't lift out. Behind that is the fastenings for the motor, so it does need to come off.
    
^ The motor wasn't sitting square to the case and the base of the squirrel cage fan was bent.  The only way I could release it was to hammer a drift to partly straighten the bent cage and then to wedge and otherwise prise the motor straighter.   ..just another two minute job..   

^ with the cage out I could see what had happened.  Some primate changed the type of fan motor. To do so they had drilled a ring of holes and then crudely ripped out the centre so as to create a larger hole ..for the motor's slightly raised boss. However they hadn't flatten the edges of the ring of twisted and ripped out holes, and so even then - the motor didn't sit flat. They'd then buggered the squirrel cage by bending its bottom to hammer it in.  This was clearly parts of a scientific study to disprove Darwin's theory of evolution which effectively claims ; the smarter and stronger of a species will better survive than the lesser creature.  Alas, if only the parents of such primate mechanics had been rendered infertile.. the cause of classic car restoration would be so much easier.   
Three neat holes around the outside scratch mark are most likely from the original fan's mountings.  The three, somewhat skewed, brazed on bolts on the back face (see below) had tubes of rubber over them. I might only guess they were added because the replacement motor only has two mounting screws, and so rocked ..because it wasn't sitting flat (on the butchered hole edges).  To stop the motor from rocking ..and the squirrel cage squeaking as it turned, those bolts must have been added to steady the motor.  Ingenious !   ..or something like that.  
 
I'll deal with that later.  Moving on. . .

^ Today I cleaned off the residue of glue, the remaining old paint (clearly originally applied without keying or primer), and the surface rust.  And repainted it (inside and out) . . .
 
      
^  This box has lasted with just a very thin coat of original paint, despite a slight leak so I'm told, for some 55 years. And so the epoxy primer with top coat should help towards it providing another 255 years of service.
Now, left to dry overnight, I'll redress the fan's mountings tomorrow or Monday.
I bid you a good evening.   I could do with a beer !
Pete
 

With the more mild weather, and with the barn door shut to keep the 'breeze' out.. today I made the other half of the repair patch for the bottom dimple of the spare-wheel well.        The corroded through dimple in the centre of the spare-wheel well, in the rolling body shell, is not at all unusual. But that small piece, just 6" across, is not available to buy separately. So, using the spare-wheel well of  my Daimler, which happens to be in exceptionally good condition, as a pattern - I've made that repair piece myself.  I made it in two halves and then joined them. . .          ^ The screw boss, which in my Daimler is some 3/8" off centre, is used to clamp the wheel down.  The one from the rolling body shell needs to be reclaimed, so it might be welded inside the new repair patch.  If welded from the under side - all will look tidy from inside the wheel well, as the drilled holes and cut darts in the repair panel will be hidden. This patch's outside oval shape is not important, as on the job it'll be cut down to the size required.    ^ I've also cut a flat plate, to be tack-welded underneath it ..so the underside of the car will be tidy too.    - - -   Aside from the front under bumper valance panel, another little mod I'm considering is to reshape the rear wheel arch spats. . .     ^ I don't mind wheel arch spats, they're actually very practical ..it's just that those on the Daimler are a carry over from the earlier (broad bumper) model and I feel look somehow a little awkward on this car.  Some may recall that I changed those on the Slovenian Ami-Super I once owned, and was much happier with the new style I opted for.  Well now I'm looking to see if, and perhaps how, I might revise these. . .        ^ Genuine Coombes racing &/or road modified cars did away with the spats, and just added a rolled flange to cover where the body recess for the spat had been. In my opinion, that may have been great for cooling the brakes, but visually the under-arch gap is bigger than I'd like.  As a rule-of-thumb that gap shouldn't appear to be bigger than the front wheel-arch.      ^^ Sold as Coombe's style spats (silver-grey car) have (for my tastes) too hard a rolled flange, but otherwise have a nicer size cutout than the half spats of the original Mk2 Jaguar.  But again there's something a little awkward insomuch as the bottom corners tuck closer together ..more a horseshoe than a semi-circle.        ^ The Mk2 Jaguar's update model - the S-type, with larger boot, more accommodation space in the back seats, and noticeably better ride with the IRS ..not to mention numerous other little improvements, did away with the wheel-arch spats altogether.  Likewise, its siblings, including the Mk10 and 420 / Daimler Sovereign, and even the E-types and the Xj6 models ..each likewise with slim bumpers - had no rear wheel arch spat. Their wheel-arch shapes were similarly oval.  In my opinion, the S-type's slab of unbroken rear-side-panel makes the car look dumpy in her hind quarters. Don't get me wrong, it's a particularly excellent car (almost a compact limousine) and is very nice to drive and own, but something is lost of the Mk2's styling balance.  It was also a pain to change a rear wheel, especially if the ground were unsteady or soft  ..because the car had to be jacked up so very high to get the wheel out from under the arch.   ^^  The XJ6 was very much better, both in terms of changing a rear wheel and in balancing its hind quarter style with the rest of the car.    Today I was playing around to see how the XJ6's rear wheel-arch shape may look (as a modified spat) on the Mk2 / Daimler. . .     ^  With and without original rear wheel arch spat.       ^ XJ6 wheel arch repair panel, positioned level to the top of the tyre = 1~1/4" above the original wheelarch flare.  I was hoping that the oval shape (more hooked at the front) would be a compliment to the shape of the chrome trim along the car's side and the general roof / side window line.  It does to a large extent, but it's odd that the XJ6 panel looks so very long, when each model's wheels are the same size.?   In the second photo - I've cut the repair panel in half and overlapped the two / shortened its length by 7" !  And still it looks too long ..only now too high as well ..despite each mock-up being similarly aligned to the cream coloured masking tape on the top of the original spat's flare.     ^ seen from two angles (photography being limited by the interior width of the barn) the XJ6 repair panel was cut again and is now 10" shorter in its length.  I've also lowered it ..so, like on the XJ6, the tread (down the sidewall of the tyre) would be hidden. That's 1-1/2" lower than the original Mk2 spat's flare.    I'm not sure this is working, so I packed up for today, in view of looking again when I have better light.   Bidding you a good evening, Pete  

On Monday I had collected all the paint provisions Mathew had asked me to buy, and on Tuesday I delivered those. 
Thursday ;  The chap who I sub-let space in the barn from had advised that another car was coming in (for storage) on Saturday.  Unbeknown to him, the Daimler was still up on the ramps and in the middle of the floor so that I could lay about underneath it.  So despite freezing cold weather I needed to move the Daimler to one side..  That sounds easy, but when it's that cold, and every tool saps heat from finger tips, even these little tasks take a disproportionate amount of time. . .

^ The Daimler had to be shuffled back and forth to be pushed to one side because at the moment the radiator is out.  I'm sure the engine will run for a few moments without any cooling fluid but I wasn't wanting to push my luck.  I could have just rolled the car into the back of the barn, but then the car coming in for storage would then have been where the Daimler now is ..which would be in my way for continuing work (and welding), so shuffling back n' forth was good exercise.  I'd never realised how so very rounded cars are awkward to push on your own !
Next up was to try and make a repair piece for the bottom of the spare wheel well.  This is for the replacement body shell. . .
      
^ Just the dimpled recess in the middle is the bit which rots out (as is apparent on the rolling body shell in red-oxide), but only the complete spare-wheel-well pressing is available ..at £449.38 ex. VAT !  so I decided to try and make my own.

^ such a romantic working environment   .. candles would perhaps have made it a little warmer ?

^ measuring the centre dimple of NFW's spare wheel well as a guide, and using a roll of tape in place of a pair of compasses, I marked out the basic shape upon a reclaimed a piece of metal from the side panel of a scrapped appliance, cut in half and stripped off the paint.  I figured.. my trying to shape that dimple in one piece was too much to ask of my skills &/or the tools I have.

I started off with trying to shrink (with my new stretcher-shrinker tool) the inside of the semi-circle ..which worked to an extent in creating the dish, but not nearly enough. The Shr-Str tool's spec says its good for anything more than 3" ..which I guess is radius, whereas I'm trying to achieve a deep dimple of just 3" diameter.  Time then for more serious reworking . . .
   
^ Cutting darts from around the inside eased more dishing..  I reckon those drilled holes will be good to plug weld onto the underside of the boss and then I'll finish the bottom with a flat plate washer to tidy things up. 

The stretcher around the top rim worked well to flare out the dimple's brim. It's interesting to see how the semi-circle has shaped to more than half the dimple.   Certainly a couple of hours learning how to make this, and a scrap piece of metal is to me a useful savings over Martin Robey's repair panel.
Icy cold weather and a nasty cough, as well as diversionary roadworks (on power cables) near the barn, dissuaded me from going back out there to finish the other half of this on Friday, but hopefully I'll feel better next week. The forecast is for mild weather tomorrow so hopefully I'll see this little task done.  
Bidding you a warm and draught free evening,
Pete
 

So, the following afternoon, I cracked on with making the fuel capsule bracket.



It didn't come out too badly, and it turned out to be all for nothing. One of the tangs on the fuel capsule had snapped, and a replacement item was £24.
Weighing up the options of whether I even wanted/needed to re-introduce a moisture and dirt trap against the inner arch, I elected to remove the capsule entirely and connect the line into the fuel filler neck directly. There's no one way valve fitted now, but the pros outweigh the cons in this regard.
Instead, I opened the LHM depressurisation screw, jacked up the OSR arm and worked on the OSR unit replacement.

Aaand immediately shitcanned it as the supply pipeline union was heavily rounded off. Without a replacement supply pipe, there is no way in hell that I'm chopping into pipework. 
Oddly, I'm not sure where the leak is - it's not flowing out of the boot and there's a pool of LHM at the bottom of the 'cup' the unit sits in. Could possibly be an LHM sphere seal that's gone bad. 
With that work on hiatus, I went with an LHM pump change - the old one was functional, but the pulley had some distortion and the wobble was hilarious.
Alternator was removed for access.


With no further welding repairs required at the rear end, it was time to start seam sealing.
Initially, I went with Tetrosyl rubberised seam sealer in a mastic gun, then Tetrosyl brushable seam sealer.
This was a total disaster as despite giving them at least 24 hours between applications, it cracked in several places when I checked on it a couple of days later. Reading a few forums etc kept pointing to using a PU adhesive as a seam sealer and recommended Pureaflex40, which was less than £8 a tube from Toolstation.
Fuck it, let's find out.

Buuuuut on the way out, I remembered it IS an adhesive, and one of the rubber trim bits has been flapping for many years.
In for a penny.


Now that's clamped and secured (it did stay out when I removed the clamp!), it was time to give the affected areas a couple of coats of red oxide primer.


Stone chip hopefully going on tonight.

I feel really drained but glad the ‘shad is now out of harms way and awaiting the ministrations of my friendly local garage. I think ill buy them all a present as i turned up at lunchtime as agreed,

And although they were on their lunch the lads helped me shove it out of the way. 
One of them told me my next should be a hillman imp, which isnt a bad idea! Less hassle than moving a beached oil tanker, for sure.
As you can see in the background, they are shite friendly and are mini enthusiasts themselves.
Theres always a bit of pain to work through when coaxing a little used, or disused vehicle back into regular, if gentle use. Mr banger racer did a great job of a) not destroying it and b) replacing all the brakes and hoses etc and sourcing bumpers, interior etc. 
My main mission presently is to make it go reliably. Other than that im not particularly fussy- stopping and going reliably are 2 big boxes ticked; enough to spend a summer wafting about in it locally. 
 
 

Good luck ! I hope it all goes well.

Fleet shot…

 

At somewhere called Cross Gates. Wonder what made them so angry?

Good luck ! I hope it all goes well.

Also started doing a bit of digital art which I've made into T-shirts using a print on demand service so I don't have to hold any physical stock. I've not made an awful lot from the T-shirts having sold about £1k worth so far but I do enjoy the fact that someone somewhere might be wearing one of my shite designs.
Here's some I've done so far...




 


 
The last one was a request that someone paid £60 for just for the design.

And that brings us up to November 2023 which includes:

The 504 which was already done once before, the winner collected it then stuck it up for sale for £4500, unsurprisingly nobody bought it and eventually he'd given up trying to sell it having made very little effort so asked if I wanted to buy it back. I did and it went again last Sunday.
This week we have the 1985 Nissan Bluebird.

And next week is the LDV Pilot.

In September I saw these come and go!







 
Some of these cars were bought from forum members and some were won by ex forum members, The Lexus went to Pogweasel and the Honda H100 went to Breadvan...

The boot has the most dodgy bit- basically rather than dyeing the carpet- or acquiring the oem factory bits (ok thats probably impossible) - but instead they seem to have used bath rugs and turned it into Paul Raymond’s Sex dungeon

 

Good luck ! I hope it all goes well.

We'll be having a serious conversation when I get back to the correct side of the Pennines. Involving pointing at pictures of scrapyards and chopping gestures. 
So yesterday was a good ol' fashioned adventure*. 
Step 1: Bus wankerage to the shining metropolis of Selby... 

Step 2: Brisk 10 minute walk to the motor factors of choice*, YMF, in the rain. 

Step 3: Acquire said part and reverse step 2. 

Step 4: Return to car, throw parts in the boot and head back to WORK. 
Step 5: Finish work and spend 2 and a half hours extracting ded slave cylinder, fitting new one and bleeding 1,002 air bubbles out of the lines. All while cursing the car, the French, my life choices and anyone unfortunate enough to walk by. 
Just as despair was setting in at the lack of any sensation in the clutch, something* changed and I had a clutch pedal again! Probably more bubbles, the bastards... 

Built from aluminium salvaged from an old Lanchester boot lid, and covered in carpet that was formerly a Princess carpet set, I have finally finished the custom rear light covers and trim panel in the Princess.  It only took me eight years.

Hopefully it will take me rather less time to do the other trim panels in the boot.  I do have a board for doing the back of the back seat, and the exposed metalwork all needs to be redone in black.  The original floor mat wants to be replaced ideally, either in red carpet to match the interior, or black carpet since it's the boot so it's not mega important, I'll use the original as a template when I do that job.  Wheel cover is the original and can stay as is, and I need to replace the boot seal at some point since it has more issues than just overspray.

Woke up this morning to find a smashed up Ford Kuga outside my Hotel Bedroom window 
 

Important things first, outfit choice...

I have changed the boots to more sensible comfy ones though!

That's a shite update ☹️