Internal panels

Sat.19.05.07. Chris has worked tirelessly blending the engine panels into the body tub. Only able to labour for several hours at a time he has eventually achieved his desired outcome, the side of the vehicle is now one sweeping, seamless, sexy line. For the past few weeks I have remodelling the cockpit panels gradually refining the design by adding extra curves to reflect the other panels of the car. The dashboard has been ‘mocked up’ at least 6 times but is still not quite in harmony with the overall internal plan. In an attempt to accommodate most of the switches and dials from the vintage Jaguar dash the central area has become muddled, seriously over cluttered. There is always profit in the maxim ‘less is more’ so I intend to revert back to a minimalist approach.

I leave for my summer break in France tomorrow but for the first time with a little trepidation. In good heart, Chris wants to finish the cockpit area requesting that I leave the units I have been constructing over the past month. I could be over reacting at this suggestion with unnecessary feelings of being robbed of a creative area that I have felt contented, fulfilled, as a consequence have maintained sole possession. The threat of all of my work being altered, assimilated or even abused is disconcerting. In particular, Chris still harbours an idea of completely changing the style of the dashboard. Having made decisions by using endless drawings, cardboard, plywood and MDF models I genuinely feel that I am only one last modification away from perfection. To have this triumph usurped at the eleventh hour is quietly pissing me off. When there are much more pressing tasks to tackle such as, the engine bay still needs to be lined, the body tub removed, primed then repainted, the boot box space has to be re-cut, the petrol pipe has to be routed, the exhaust needs to be fixed to the car, the wings should be dispatched to Danny to be painted, the workshop must have another total ‘clean up’… etc….etc…but once again a focussed, ordered approach has been abandoned to be replaced by chaotic, random options. 

I am increasingly worried about leaving the work that I have personally designed and fashioned, but I have always been a possessive bastard and must assume that “Chris knows best and that I should unflinchingly trust him”. My arse!