Rick and Geoff

  

Tues.08.06.10. I finally managed to pin down Rick who had previously promised to arrange a meeting with his ‘upholstery’ colleague Geoff who can ‘fix’ the dodgy upper element of the dashboard. It is known as the ‘crash pad’ in the trade, which I initially did find disconcerting. Nevertheless I have an appointment this afternoon to discuss the problem. Rick has owned a derelict mill south of Preston for the past ten years where has operated his own diverse business, but also sublets many of the other units, one of which to Geoff

The rain was intermittent during the afternoon which made the journey to Preston slightly hazardous but eventually we arrived. If nothing else that emerged from this trip one thing is for certain ‘the Burlington does not handle the rain adequately’. Even with goggles the smallest amount of precipitation creates problems principally regarding vision. The original Dunlop ZX tyres were also unable to cope with the ‘greasy’ road conditions. 

However, Geoff seemed to know his stuff; he is quite prepared to attempt to ‘fix’ the trim but he is not totally happy with the procedure. He, correctly, prefers to create a mould using 400mm plastic pipe, this is then softened by applying heat, once the profile has been formed the ‘maquette’ is covered then bound with leather. Unfortunately this is a much more lengthy process than the one proposed, which involves a little bit of bish bosh bashing of the existing rubber pipe, a slight shaving with a Stanley knife plus liberal sploshes of ‘Araldite’. I just hope that this is a very cheap but sufficient remedy: but experience tells me that it won’t be. The job should be finished by late Thursday afternoon; fingers crossed.

The other major achievement today is that I have designed a ‘blog’ in the hope of generating an interest in the written aspect of the project. E’mails have been sent, threads within the net established, so far 8 blogs posted, ‘Luc Matter’ a Dutch publicist has been informed (who incidentally, appears to be genuinely interested), Amazon Ltd are advertising on my site: with a little luck the promotion may prove to be beneficial in many ways.

Thurs.10.06.10. The ‘crash pad’ trim has been ‘fettled’ by Geoff: it has not been the best job in the world but most adequate for the moment. He has also re-covered my motor cycle seat: a much better result. The entire work cost, a remarkably cheap, £45.00, so no complaints there. Unfortunately, Chris has not been touch all week, as I leave for London and then France on Friday the snag list will not be completed until I return on the 20^th. July.