Atrification

Mon.21.04.08. There has been very little movement over the past week due to Chris being determinedly absorbed to finish his kitchen. I have been chasing the stainless steel nuts and bolts from Aidpak. Roy Summers informed me on Friday that he would assemble the complete order by today: he does, however, have a problem with the dome headed nuts that hold the windscreen mechanism to the bracket. I suspect these will have to be accessed via John at Life’s motors. Meanwhile, Michael of Premier Autotrim, has been visiting his relatives on ‘Mars’ over the past two weeks subsequently he has not been able to begin the panels and tunnels. But, more alarmingly, Richie has applied the first layers of stain on the dashboard and feels that instead of lifting the grain the timber has become dull and lifeless. Adding more stain would muddy the colour even more and would move the shade further away from the Mahogony of the steering wheel. He wants me to offer my opinion before he proceeds any more.   

Tues.22.04.08. An early visit to Richie’s workshop confirmed that the dashboard is really quite dark; consequently it has hidden much of the subtle features of the grain. But in natural light the nuances of the timber creeps through. The vividness of the French light, particularly in the south, should reveal even more of the qualities of the timber; add an appropriate level of fading after a hot summer and the colour could be perfectly aged. Unfortunately, the richness of the dash has out shone the, now apparent, insipid tone of the wooden rimmed steering wheel which being ‘lighter’ appears ‘weak’ against the other timber parts. Stripping the entire dash and other trim could be another option but it has been decided that if the tone of the steering wheel could be deepened and matched then the entire ensemble would be acceptable.

Fri.25.04.08. It has been a very quiet week with very little progress on the car. Roy Summers of Aidpak has been avoiding me all week but judging from the last conversation between us he possibly does not have many of the parts that I have requested: so I assume like many of the other bogus suppliers he has gone into hiding. Michael assures me that he is making progress with the remaining panels promising to have them completed by the end of next week. Again it is a question of how many monkeys will fly out of my ‘butt’ before this happens.