A Mostly British Obsession
After struggling with the driver’s door reassembly yesterday, I came in today with a fresh air of eyes and (with some gratefully received help from Jim) got the door vent window to fit pretty well–the passenger one went together just fine. As far as the exterior goes, the only thing really left to do is fit the front and rear window trim. (I should also hit the wheel wells with truck bed liner, not a bad thing to tackle as I’ve got the lift space for the next few days.)
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I really need a new pose for this car, but maneuvering room is limited at Jim’s place…I have the driver’s door mostly reassembled but I realize now I made an error which means I’ll be taking most of it back apart tomorrow. Nothing new there. The lights all have lenses now, which is something, I guess, and I got the seats out–most of the ratty old carpet is gone.
Interestingly, there was a 1″ set of shims under the driver’s seat, which suggests a short driver or an attempt at not buying a new seat base cushion. I have my new covers here, but I’m going to have to buy new foams and diaphragms before I can reupholster the seats.
I got the rain gutter trim on today, along with the vent windows. I’m pretty unimpressed with my work on the gutter trim, but it’s shiny and passes a “glance” test, though not a very close one. I think I will leave it for the time being and buy a set of new trim when they’re remanufactured again. Rear window trim is going to be the same story.
So could I make some pocket money by resurrecting a free Rover Sterling 827 sedan in decent condition but needing tires and a water pump? I’m guessing not. I’ve never particularly been fond of them but from all accounts they’re decent cars. A friend spotted one and asked about it, the owner saying “take it away if you want it.”
The parts themselves aren’t too pricey but looks like the Acura engine uses the cam belt to run the water pump, so there is undoubtedly some fun there. (Looks to be about an eight to ten hour job reading through the procedure, and since it involves removing the timing belt, you might as well do that, too.) The tires are the death knell, really.
I’d be a bit shocked if you could even get $1000 for a decent condition Sterling. So I think I’ll just skip this one unless someone offers me a compelling reason to do otherwise.
With a lot of help from Jim, I got the front and rear screens installed today, and he helped me bang the headlight ring around so it would fit on the passenger side.
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The headlights and other lights are on–even though I don’t yet have the lenses for the sidelights or taillights at hand. I cannot get passenger headlamp rim to seat, so I need to attend to that. I can’t imagine that the originals were so hard to fit, and, frustratingly, I did pay for the “good” reproductions. Maybe that was a mistake, I should have gone cheap!
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Dash top is now recovered and respectable. This wasn’t too bad a job: Remove crash rail, remove defroster vents, remove fiberboard top, remove old material from board (mine fell off from heat damage). Then use contact cement to glue new piece on in two stages (top first, then wrap “extra” around to back on windshield side). Glue strip of foam along windshield on underside, cut holes for vents. Put back in car, bolt vents in, contact-cement the remaining “extra” fabric along dash edge to dash, bolt crash rail back on. (Haven’t got to that last part yet.)
You may recall this photo, taken last summer down the road from the house here. My friends at the BSA A7 & A10 Forum have chosen it as the best photo of 2009. I’m honored as all get out–and look forward to my prize: a can of BSA-brand engine oil!
After yesterday’s ruinous attempt at polishing some of the aluminum trim (resulting in a decision to pay someone to do it), I got a few things done today. I got the hatch latching mechanism installed, as well as the support stays. Thankfully Jim has a ’69 parts car I was able to steal some hardware from, as this car had none of the special pieces needed for the stays.
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I got the rear bumper and a few other gubbons on the car today. The bumper doesn’t fit as well as I would hope, but my car did have a fender-bender on the driver’s side in the back at some point in its life. That’s the corner that is being recalcitrant, so it’s probably a mix of slightly wonky bumper and slightly wonky car. The owner is beyond slightly wonky, of course.
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