Trim Diary #2 - Dec 23rd 2020

Here are a few pictures showing the work completed since the last update.. Very close to being finished now.

🎅 Happy Christmas to everyone and lets hope for a better 2021!!🎅

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Front bonnet complete carrying the same style from the interior

The sill and upright panel by the doors have been filled and sanded to achieve a perfect flat and straight edge, one issue with diamond stitch pattern is that you can see any unevenness in the panel being covered.

Centre tunnel looking good! 

Nearly finished! The seatbelt bracket is temporary only for the IVA test

Trim Diary #1 - Nov 24th 2020

Change of trimmer

I decided to change who I was going to trust to trim the car, Option 1 Sports Cars who did such a good job on the paintwork also have a small trim shop. They have a great eye for detail and only take on one job at a time, unlike a lot of trimmers who jump around between jobs.

The car was dropped off on 20th October, and they have been making good progress, what follows is a  diary of the trim process to date.

30th October

First mock up of a door panel in vinyl with other areas of the car marked out to determine the pattern and layout of the two leather colours and diamond stitching 

The seats I had made are not going to be used and I have decided instead to use the two Mazda MX V seats I have as a start point. The foam seats and back panels will be modified to reduce the overall width then trimmed in line with the rest of the car.

12th November

The rear trim panel that sits around the rear area has now been carefully fabricated in fibreglass and is ready for the final trim. The door panel for the near side has been completed again in fibreglass and foam covered ready for trim (no photo)

The two rear quarters have been trimmed, the centre panel is still in mock up stage in vinyl.

24th November

The original mazda seats have now been reshaped and covered, looking good.

Rear "seat" storage shelf has been completed

 Central tunnel is a work in progress

Update June 30th 2020

A few what sound like small jobs but were quite time consuming that I have managed to complete this month

•   Finalised clipping in all the wiring
•   Final fit on main switches and instruments

Steering Column

Having polished up the indicator stalk (see earlier blog) I decided to do the same to the component that sits behind the wheel 

Original

Original

 

 

Paint removed using
180 grade

 

 

After around 4 hours and lots of grades of wet and dry, all the way down to 7000 grit, here is the 

finished result

 

The steering column has now been finally fitted and all the cables neatly fixed in place.

Steering wheel for IVA

In order to get the car through the IVA test I need to fit an original VW beetle steering wheel. Most of these are now cracked and not good, as was the one I bought off ebay. So I set about repairing it with epoxy steel and my trusty dremel, then gave it a coat of paint.

Cracked steering wheel

Dashboard

The dials and all related cables have been finally fixed into place and the speedo cable fitted to both the speedometer and the nearside wheel.

Door furniture and window winding mechanisms

The door pull, opening handle and window winder mechanisms  have been fitted. I used riv nut fasteners on the door pull to ensure a secure fixing. The wood panel shown on the picture below may or may not be used when the final door cards are made, designs for which are still very vague. I'm not planning to use any of the interior kit available from Chesil, its not that there's anything wrong with it, I just want a more custom/unique look to the car.

Seats

Another IVA requirement is the design & function of the seats. Mazda MX5 seats are the seats of choice and are used in the majority of Chesils. I have had a set of custom buckets seats made, but I can't fit these for the IVA. So I have had to find and then will need to fit seats from the MX5, then post IVA remove and refit my bucket seats, which of course don't have the same mount points! So lots more work.

I found some MX5 seats and during the month I have marked up the fixing points which will be drilled in order to do a test fit next month.

Exhaust

I'm using an exhaust set up made by Vintage Speed. Once the correct set finally arrived (long story) I had the header tubes sent out for ceramic coating (https://www.zircotec.com/)

Uncoated J tubes

 

Ceramic Coated

Rear muffler

Slosh in the petrol tank

I decided as the tank is clean and new to give it some extra protection using Rustbuster Slosh tank sealer which is tested to be Ethanol proof and will resist petrol with over well over the current and proposed new fuel standards E10 - E15. Straight forward enough, bung up all the holes, pour in and slosh around then after a little while empty out any residual. https://www.rust.co.uk/product/slosh-petrol-tank-sealer-7

Next Jobs

• Fit exhausts
• Prepare seat mounts
• Final sound proofing to cabin
• Set up steering geometry
• Fit petrol tank and all pipes
• Make panels for under front bonnet

Update October 21st 2019

Window winder mechanisms

Fitted the door opening mechanisms and window mechanism, it took much longer than I expected.

The biggest problem was having enough bravery to enlarge the pre-cut top slot, it needed to be much longer. Then the rest of the job was just very fiddly

Engine bay trim

During my research on the 356 I came across a car in the US that had a very pretty although very impractical quilted leather engine bay.

I really liked the look, but my car is going to be used and it's not going to be a "trailer princess", so leather engine bay maybe not.

I then came across "big wig race cars"  a US based company who have a range of door panels made of pressed aluminium. This gave me the idea that I could get the same look "quilted" look but with a much more practical material.

Big Wig Racing door panels

One of Davids creations

So now to find someone in the UK who could custom me what I had in my mind. Step in David Cooksey, guru of all things relating to metal bending. Its really an art!

David got what I was after and took the car into his workshop so he could custom make what I was after. He has done a great job. 

Material marked up ready for hand rolling

This aluminium will be finally painted to match my overall colour scheme.

Hinges

The hinges supplied with the body were really nice quality but lacked on a bit of design flair.

I have had both sets of hinges used on the front bonnet and rear engine cover custom made out of stainless steel. The design I came up with matches the custom gear shifter and drilled out pattern in the seats.

The photograph above shows the original black hinges. The photograph on the right shows the custom hinges trial fitted to the rear engine cover. They they will look much better once I'm sure that they fit and they are polished.

First seat done.

Interior

Working with Rob at Intatrim we agreed a design and material palette. (see August blog)

The first seat has been made and I have to say it looks and feels great. We may make a small adjustment but for now 2nd seat is underway and we will try the additional design tweak on the 2nd seat.

Lots of work to do on the rest of the car interior design, but we are months away from those being important.

Body shop

The car is now in the body shop at Option 1. Frank and the team are hard at work on the preparation stage. More information next month.