Bank Holiday Week

Well we couldnt have asked for better weather - and what a week - we havent stopped; Ant fitted the new brake hoses, which solved the veering problem (and he even allowed me to drive half a mile up the road to my house as a result!). Matt did the MOT for us on Tuesday and apart from some minor headlight adjustments, Bee is in tip-top shape. :-)

We bought some new wood and spent a large part of the week making all new worktops which look amazing; Ant cut, carved and sanded whilst I stained and waxed each piece. The new sink is now in and has a proper posh matching wooden surround.

The curtains are now all hanging and to my surprise fit beautifully! however we did decide, (for health and sanity reasons) to visit my Auntie Pearl who is kindly going to make the matching cushion covers for the bed foam as I dont think my patience with the sewing machine will stretch that far.

The spare wheel is mounted and just needs a cover, the new under dash tray is fitted and the sink waste pipe is connected, but unfortunately we still cant find a suitable 3 way fridge.

Yesterday we went to 'Bug Lovin' at the South of England Showground in Ardingly, but didnt find anything we needed; quite a disappointing meet to be honest considering the £10 each entrance fee! But we did see a splitty which had been taken back to bare metal, laquered and done out as if it were a hawaian beach bar inside - was my fave out of the bunch. We have now come to the end of our week off and the Captain has agreed to let me repaint the wooden bed and seat frame, to get rid of the royal blue which no longer matches anything!

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.

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. :-)

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.

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!