Interior design

Fri.10.08.07. I have completed the basic structure of the dash as well as the console. To create the curve of the section that integrates the dash with the gearbox cover I have laminated two pieces of bendy MDF together. Secured on a cradle that replicates the exact curve the two pieces were glued, screwed and clamped. After the glue had set the section was freed leaving the curve intact, perfectly formed. The dash has been covered with brown Daler board to simulate the wood effect, the decals attached to imitate the instrumentation. The lower facet of the dash which will eventually be covered in leather fitting directly under the wooden segment; this portion will also contain the identification symbols for the switches which are located above. The side panels of the gearbox and prop shaft cover have been reduced in height to lower their profile. They will be re-made when their precise outline has been established.

All of this work together with the bumper brackets was taken to Westmead for the third ‘suit’ fitting. After the brackets had been identified as front and rear, left or right they were attached to the bumpers and offered up to the chassis: they fit perfectly. The complexity of the planes within the bracket would have been impossible to shape and fabricate by Colin. So, although expensive, they have been a wise purchase from Life’s Motors. They are incredibly strong, faithful in design, yet unexpectedly they are also ‘fit for purpose’.

Unlike my second ‘suit’ fitting which didn’t adhere to Colin’s ‘70s super car concept I could clearly sense an air of doubt. Chris tried his level best to somehow subvert my retro perception chipping away at the proposed elements until all that remained was an interior that resembled a 1976 Lamborghini cockpit complete with oodles of cheap bling, wide collared open necked shirt, orange flairs, velvet jacket, stacked heels, black Afro wig. I did suggest that I felt this image belonged in another car in another epoch not the Burlington to which the response was “Well, it’s your car; you have what you want, just as long as it is what I want as well!” I think not.

During April and May I had spent the best part of a month exploring, representing and constructing the interior, I was, perhaps, a fraction away from finalising the genuine heart of the car. I return from the summer to find that all this work has been undone, it has been replaced by an incongruous, brash, inferior, vulgar image that has probably been a ‘constant’ in every car that Colin or Chris has ever worked on: a bland, typecast, unoriginal, predictable notion that has no place in my vehicle. I shall conclude my model this weekend; present it on Monday that will be an end to it. A line shall be drawn; it shall be ticked off, boxed off, crossed off, so that we can move on.