Initiative

Weds.05.09.07. A sleepless night but renewed determination has taken me to Michaels workshop to exchange miserable stories about ‘dealing with the public’, ‘being let down’ but how thoroughly pleasant it is ‘working on your own’. We chatted on about the combination of ‘greens’ that I have been considering for the final colour mixture so given our recent mutual demise it wasn’t long before we both agreed upon Sage green leather matched by British racing green for the carpets. Job done, leather ordered; the seats will be covered by the 25th.of September. Bye, bye Michael and on to Nigel of Penk Autos of Standish. I had approached Nigel, Young Danny’s boss, three weeks ago with the suggestion of painting the car. Luckily, he is still interested in the work proposing that it would be much more sensible to paint the tub and engine panels first followed by the wings; this would ensure that the peripheral panels would have a better chance of remaining unmarked before assembly. Although a much more logical ‘modus operandi’ this is not how Chris and Colin perceive the task being completed, in fact their approach is quite the opposite. Sorry boys, the worm has turned, we shall follow the advice of Nigel and Nigel, tub first, wings later’, end of.

By lunchtime I had been to Richie’s workshop to cut the basic form for the door side panels and another simple dash outline. Within his workshop there are robust, power tools, in particular a rotary, belt sander, a 1200 watt band saw and a wonderful bobbin sander: all of which facilitate the procedures that I would find difficult in my cellar. As is the case with the under trim which recently has taken quite a battering with the constant changes. It has subsequently become very flimsy but worse still has developed into an undesirable end product. It is time for a fresh view and the component must be re-modelled.
I have personally, felt encouraged by the day. The interior is being realised, we have hopefully discovered a reliable, talented painter. Plait that.

The re- word

Tues.04.09.07. The beading has been stripped from the lower edge of the dash and bonded to the under trim. This has increased the volume of the trim excessively; later in the day 8mm was removed from the bottom face. Once shaped this proved to be an acceptable, more compatible mass. The batwings have been greatly reduced, attached to the ends of the dash and merged accordingly. During the afternoon I contacted John Gratton, the last person on the ‘painting list’, but he claimed to be ‘snowed under’ with work and couldn’t begin the job for two months. This would, inevitably, take us beyond our proposed deadline to conclude the build.

Regrettably, at Westmead, the rest of the car has remained untouched. There has not been any progress on the car for at least 10 days; sadly I fear that this will continue until Colin returns. Chris, increasingly, relies upon his input; he appears reluctant to continue independently without his support. Plainly this jeopardises the targets that I have set for September. Constant failure to meet ‘every’ objective throughout the entire project is becoming increasingly disheartening. I now do not recognize that the excessive modifications, poor quality components or inept ‘suppliers’ have been solely responsible for this present situation. We have never accomplished any of the established planned forecasts; programmes of work have been perpetually ignored, we have not been courageous enough to ‘sign anything off’ without pointless, repetitive re-design, re-build, re-cut, re-model, re-place, re-locate, re-invent. If I ever needed to be forceful now is the moment, a bold move is transparently fundamental; if I had the ‘bottle’ to confront Chris about any of these issues, if I had been more pro-active, dominant and assertive, if I had been much less apprehensive of experience and knowledge, if I had a double garage?

Cockpit

Burlington Diary September 2007

Mon.03.09.07.The various units that make up the cockpit design have been cut filled and sanded. The console area, which is now simpler but crisply angular, is much more compatible with the overall scale and the space that it occupies. The dashboard, however, appears clumsy uncomfortably incongruous. The batwing ends and the beading on the lower edge do not ‘work’ one feature too bulky the other over elaborate. A possible solution could be to amalgamate the ‘under trim’ with the beading but again the result would not be in keeping with the entire design. This exercise could be another ‘suck it and see’ or ‘hands on’ rolling experiment. I intend, also, to introduce some colour; adding the proposed shades to replicate the wood, leather and carpet. Because the gearbox and handbrake consoles are developing successfully I now feel confident to explore other areas of the interior, namely the door panels as well as the rear perimeters of the cockpit.

The Spitfire seats have been delivered to Michael who offered positive suggestions regarding the leather. ‘Andrew Muirhead’ had promptly returned a sample of ‘satin leaf’ but even though the quality was faultless the ‘green’ was too dark and would be too close to the planned colour of the carpet. The five metres provided would only cover the seats leaving very little else to trim the gearbox shroud: this could create problems with the anticipated blend, balance and colour of materials. Michael recommended ‘sage green’, which had been used in the original D type Jaguar; this would give sufficient contrast to the shade of the carpet and paint of the car. These hides are supplied by a new company who source the leather from Italy. The quality is excellent, the weight is slightly lighter; 1.2mm compared with 1.3 of Muirhead, but the cost is approximately half at £100 per hide. Not only is the price attractive but also the budget of £200 would purchase twice the amount of material, enabling other parts of the interior to be covered meeting all of the design criteria.

This is the start of an important month. Thirty days when recognisable goals should have been accomplished. The concluding dry build completed, the top coat of paint to the body panels, the interior trimmed, the electrics in place, the engine fired up, a successful approval from the DVLA and the all important road tests validating all of the problematic modifications to the car. But, I sense the looming presence of predictable, premature defeat reconciled by excuses engendered by doubt and a lack of belief, self inflicted worries fuelled by inertia rapidly evaporating the paltry, wavering enthusiasm that still remains. It is only when the tide goes out that you can see who is not wearing a bathing suit.