Description

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” –Mark Jenkins

Sunday 27 April 2008

Retro Metro

I think we are all agreed the sewing machine and I are never going to be a match made in heaven, but thankfully we are now at least tolerant of each other. After all my hard work this week; getting the measurements wrong, the cutting wonky and overcomplicating the method, Ant finally came to the rescue. After a bit of frustrated discussion, some teamwork (and a couple of lengths of unpicking) we finally have one half of the front window and one half of the back window covered! we both think it looks pretty good, which is always a bonus. Ant has also cut the lenths for me to do the two long side pieces so I should be able to finish them all this week. The new back window rubber has been glued in place and the dashboard lights are all now working. The spare wheel holder is bolted onto the front (only one bolt still missing!), and Janet is on the case for our spare parts list. So Bee is almost all set for our week off next week when we can put her on a ramp and have a look at the brakes and tracking.

Sunday 20 April 2008

Open Heart Surgery...

The sun came out, so too did the large drill... The hole needed to fit the 240V hook up was a lot larger than we had first thought and was painful to watch (especially as the aging drill gave up shortly afterwards!). 2 hours of manual metal filing later and the box was snugly in place. the perfect colour too which is a bonus.
I have started on the curtains and have only fallen out with the sewing machine once, (although 3 hours work has only managed to get the hem sewn on the lining material!) gonna be a long task, which needs to be completed by July when we take her to the Newt Beer festival for a couple of days. :-)

Sunday 6 April 2008

April Snow Showers!!


240v hook up and indicator switch arrived this week. :-) but what a bizarre weekend weather wise; gorgeous sunshine on Saturday so we went out and chose the fabric for the curtains and seat cushion covers - 15m of beige, cream, orange and brown retro 'metro' and 15m of beige lining material.
Ant fitted the new indicator switch only to discover the left indicator wasnt working so it came straight out again for some tinkering... but today we woke to snowfall, and by lunchtime the ground was covered in 3 inches of it!
Relieved to say though that Mr Fix-it's fiddling, cleaning and soldering looks to have done the trick and we think the switch is now working.

Tuesday 1 April 2008

Found one!

Ant spent Sunday afternoon 'tinkering' whilst I spent it 'pottering' and as a result the fuel gauge is now working correctly (he discovered the adjustable level meter needed adjusting), the curtains, indicator switch and dashboard panel are out and ready for repair / replacement and the veggie patch is now planted up and full of seeds.
After emailing a load of online parts shops Sunday night, we finally ordered a chrome indicator switch yesterday from http://www.megabug.co.uk/ - fingers crossed its the right one, at £50 its going back if it ain't, or I will have a paddy instead!