Return to basics

Tues.30.10.07. The consignment of rubber trims and strips has arrived from Woolies together with the four bonnet catches: I later discover that these catches are designed for a straight edged bonnet and not the curved type; basically they are the wrong type for the car. There was me thinking that all the mistaken, hurried, premature buying was behind me. “I’ll tell you what, we’ve wasted some money!” was the comment that I thought I would not hear again. The various rubber extrusions have trimmed the edges off the many aluminium panels to tidy the engine bay. The larger 8mm flat strip will form the cushion between the body tub, the outriggers plus the box section of the chassis before the two are bolted together.

Today, I returned to an aspect of ‘work’ that I dreamed I wouldn’t see again, just like ‘ordering the wrong part’; that of cleaning up rusting metal. Over the past 15 months many of the brackets that were fabricated early in the project, to assist as fastening points for the multitude of modifications, have suffered badly from corrosion. We are not really sure of the reason, whether it was the ‘rust proofing’ product that was used or incorrectly applied, poor quality steel or too much handling, the parts need to be stripped of paint thoroughly ‘wire brushed’ back to fresh metal. 

This always has been one of the nastier jobs: first of all applying paint stripper, rinsing then rubbing away the flaking paint to finally reveal the metal by means of a pillar drill followed vigorously by a wire wheel. Fine, black dust fills the room there is no hiding place from the toxic cloud. Every orifice exudes dripping rusty snot trickling onto the top lip, red eyes streaming. But the reward at the end of the session is gleaming, polished ‘brush marked’ metal, eager to ‘take’ a new coat of Hammerite then to be proudly assembled onto the car.

I have quickly forgotten the ‘bad part’ of the morning probably because of the success with the shiny brackets or most likely due that I have grown to realise, ‘here we go again’ never has actually gone away.