Driver's Window

I have eventually done it! It's been buggered since I bought it. Took nearly 2 hours as my sausages are too big and it's stupidly designed. Mr Haynes was his usual useless self. 

From the finished picture, you might notice I have busted a pin off the interior light thing when reinstalling the trim. The cost these things are, it'll be like that for a while.

Here we go ...

Finished, not that you can see from this picture

Seats

Why is the seat bolt that needs a nut the one that is over an arm's length away and underneath an exhaust pipe?

Carpets & Seats

Harris, I dunno if you had anything to do with these seat bolts, but they really are crap. 

Two went in eventually, one is spinning around freely for a laugh and the other one, the one in the picture needs a nut on the end. To apply said nut, one needs to be very small and very flexible to reach round the exhaust pipe.

Seat out, sill carpet to go back in

Dead, broken seat out

Et Voila!

Once again, a big thank you to Lionel as the black dashboard is now in. Doesn't it look pretty! There are no longer any wires sticking out, these are behind a switch. All is now black - the carpets and the plastic bits. The instrument panel must have been knocked during the proocess as none of the dials work. I am hoping that the big plug has fallen out. The finale is a quick vacuum, clean the dash properly and then seat installation. Unfortunately, the engine still wasn't playing very nicely. It would appear that I have a TR7 again as 4 of the cylinders were a bit shy. It was decided that one of the carbs was stuck so off they came to be destucked by Stewart/Stuart. A couple of pictures follow, including the pit crew having a piss take fag break!

Going backwards

Unfortunately, not the car. It was pushed out of the garage on Sunday for some more trmming and things. It took several hours for Lionel and I to cut chunks out of the rear backboard thing so as to fit the plastic hood cover things. This of course included removing the hood several times. They look nice though and have really helped to tart up the trim.

Lionel also helped in getting some more electricity things done which included putting in place an in line fuse for the fuel pump and fitting the fan to a proper TR switch in the centre switch panel. I now have the black centre consoles properly in place and they look great against the new carpet. The new fan on a switch is a "rear demist" switch out of the teabag, it looks much better than having wires sticking out of the dash.

Talking of dashboards, it's gotta come out now as everything else is black! Guru Ed promised that he would assist on this one as he has done this job several times before.

As for the engine, it might be time to call upon Master Guru Guy again as the bugger has stopped starting and started to stop! I had the plugs out (again) but to no avail. I really have no idea wtf is going on here. An MOT was iminent. Not any more. Bugger!

What no update?

Very very sorry to be so slack with regards to Beast updates over the last couple of weeks. It has started perfectly (until this last weekend where it wouldn't fecking start again). But fear not, as there has been some progress elsewhere. I'll let you work it out. To paraphrase the great Tony Hart, here is the gallery ...

Blue, green and a little black

I purchased some Hammerite for some reason. I think I was going to paint the inner arches or something. Where I did paint it was on the new (recent) floor panel bits which were going a bit rust spotty (and rust and TR7s just don't get on).

Blue or green?

Hello! Long time and all that! So here's the first of several ...

Good news is that the black/green check door cards from the Teabag fit the Beast. That's good news as the car is green and the carpet will be black! And more good news is that the two black/green check seats from the Teabag that are in the roof will also fit. I reckon that it will look damned good! So that all means that I can tick off clean the seats (20) and replace headrest (19) from the To Do List. A good deal of the plastic bits I have in black somewhere thanks to the Teabag again! Here is a crap picture of what is going and what is coming back ...

What no carpet?

That was to be the job for the weekend but alas, 2 problems: Firstly, my mental measurements were a little retarded and thus there was not enough carpet available after Dan's room was completed; Secondly, sticking proper carpet to sills appeared to be too much of an impossibility with the lone stick of UHU that I had lying around.

I tested Gary's carpet for size and all looked well - not at all bad quality for the cash. I will still have to come to a solution of sorts for the back panel thing. And I will also have to find another plastic centre console bit as the previous one sort of obliterated whilst trying to remove it!

Here's the latest interior pics. I have definitely decided that whilst it is in this state I shall remove the dashboard and have a mooch at the clocks and heater. That should be fun! Pip pip!

Nuts

It was decided that the dashboard could wait a bit. Instead, I just thought I would prepare the interior for a bit of Hammerite before carpet installation. I also want to create a template of sorts for where the rear padding goes. So seats out then.

As you can see from the picture, there is a seat sat there all alone without his friend to keep him company. This one came out relatively easy - just 4 star shaped bolt things [whats the technical term?] and a little bit of NRDFCRT bending out of shape.

Three of the star shaped bolt things came out of the drivers side too. Alas there is one left. It keeps going round and round and not getting any looser. Wonder why? Bending NRDFCRT under the car to feel what was going on whilst trying to undo said bolt was not at all easy. It would appear that some kind soul decided to keep the bolt of evil in place with a nut. This nut is unfortunately not at all accessible.

Thus, this weekends fun and games will involve jacking up the beast to assess the nut further. One only hopes that the right hand side exhaust does not need to come off ...

PS The battery is flat again ... bet you can't guess why?!