[Jeroen]

Decided to unpack my new steel plate and do a quick trial fitting.

So here we are. Length is perfect.



Tomorrow afternoon I just need to cut out this one corner. With that done it will fit flush against/around the wall and against the window frame, identical to the wooden top.




Jeroen

[Jeroen]

First thing after work; took the angle grinder to my steel top.





I am very pleased with the end result!

Perfect fit. Now to get some more machinery to go on top!

I’m also happy to report that I managed to cut of the top of our head board too. So over the weekend we will be fitting this bed into one of our bedrooms

[Jeroen]

As I mentioned earlier, whilst getting the chip in the Jaguar's window fixed, the lady mechanic Pascal, got me touch with her partner. Who does interior restoration.

On Sunday evening they came round to have a look. The driver chair of the Jaguar is in pretty poor condition. I could have had it just repainted, but I decided to do it a bit more thoroughly and get it properly mended by replacing the worn down bits.

It does mean that both the driver and passenger seats have to come out. Because after the leather repair, both chairs will be resprayed as well.

I have never taken a chair out of the Jaguar so, I need to look into that. Probably will have a go at it this weekend as I am in Romania for work all week.

Also, the dashboard of the Alfa Spider has some cracks. He will fix that also.

I will take some good close up photographs of all of the above to really compare before and after.

More to come

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Last night I decided to quickly remove the seats from the Jaguar so they can go to my new interior restorer friend.

First thing is to reshuffle the cars a bit. The way I normally park them means the Jaguar is always ready to use and I can just reverse it out of my garage.

The Spider is easy to get out as well. Although it does mean moving the Jaguar deeper into the garage.

The Mercedes, because I use it least, is the furthest away from the from the door and I need to back out the Jaguar first. It is likely that the Jaguar will be without its seat for some time. It is not that it will take that long to get fixed. But there is a bit of a logistic challenge. Pascal lives here locally and her partner Joost lives all the way up in the north of the Netherlands. That is where his company is as well. He usually visits Pascall here every other week. So he will need to pick up and subsequently return the chairs during one of his bi-weekly visits. The Spider dashboard repair he can do whilst returning the chairs.

So I decided to move the Jaguar to the back in the garage in order for me to still have continuous access to both the Spider and the W123.



As usual, did a bit of research on this job. Removing chairs tends to be fairly straight forward, but you never know. My Jaguar workshop manual had a whole page dedicated to it!



Easy enough. But as soon as I wanted to undo the very first bolt there was a problem. These were Torx bolts. I bought a set of Torx spanners when I got the Jaguar and noticed that Jaguar used them a lot. However, my set only goes to T40 and this is at least one or two sizes larger.

So this afternoon I did a quick visit to my favourite tool shop. As always came home with a bit more than I set out for:



So I got myself the bench grinder as well. I will bolt it onto my new workbench extension I made earlier.

Nice set of Torx sockets.



Also picked up one of these brake / rotor callipers. Always handy.



Tomorrow morning I will have a second attempt to take the seats out.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

With my new Torx bit I set to work early Saturday morning:


First thing is move the seat backwards, which gives access to the forward anchor points of the seat rail. Remove one bolt per rail with my new Torx bit.

Next thing is to move the steering wheel up and all the way inwards to the Dashboard



That gives you access to the rear anchor points of the seat. Disconnect the battery and wait a couple of minutes to ensure the airbags don’t go off unexpectedly!



With the rails detached I managed to move the seats around a bit. Put a block of wood underneath one real. That gave me access to get underneath the seats to unclip the various multi-connectors. There are for the power/control of the seat controls, seat heating and side air bag.

Not too heavy on the required tools, this job. But you do need the correct (large) sizes!



Also, undid the safety belt anchor bolt

Next with a bit of fiddling I could remove the seat across the rear door.



Quite interesting to see all the technology underneath the seat; Electronic controllers, e-motors, etc





This is why I am getting the driver seat re-done. To be honest, it looks pretty disgusting in these images, it is not that bad with the naked eye, but still







This is known as the long leg version of the Jaguar. You sit in the rear seats.



Took me about 40 minutes to get both seats out. The most tricky part was manhandling out of the rear door. I could have used an extra pair of hands. Not too many bits that had to come off. Some bolts and some plastic bits, covers of the guide rails.



With the seats removed you are likely to find some long lost items. In my case it was an old, dried up winegums (I love winegums) and some loose American coins. Which proves this car came from the States.



Many people like the idea of buying a classic car from the States. Their thinking is that the car is unlikely to have much rust, if any at all. So dodgy dealers have a pot of American coins and will throw them into the footwell, boot liberally, irrespective where the car came from

To me this American origin rust free thought is just not realistic. Plenty of US states that have very wet climates. California will be bone dry, but that only means you get different issues due to intense and prolonged sun exposure.

Usually cracks starts showing up in Dashboard, discolouring of the seat fabrics etc.

And American models of European original often end up having these awful and hideous American bumpers.

As I was working on my car, a guy came round asking if we needed any scissors sharpening. I had not seen this for decades in the Netherlands. This gentleman must have been well into his 70’s but he still went around from house to house. We were happy to give him some of scissors, kitchen knives and some gardening stuff, including the blade of my power mower. These days, we live in a throw away society. It would be difficult to find somebody that can sharpen your knives here. So very happy to have the guy come around.



Also finished mounting my new grinder to the workbench:





Looks good and works well. I drilled a hole for the power cable behind the grinder and led the cable underneath the workbench.

I found these little plastic clips that you can stick onto any surface. Keeps the cable in place with a tie wrap. Power supply for the next piece of machinery already in place



Today, Sunday, I am taking the W123 to the Dutch National Oldtimer festival at the circuit of Zandvoort. You might have heard that the F1 is coming back to Zandvoort. Heavens knows how.

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Love the long-limb modification!

I never had a luxury car with stuff like heating and electric adjustment, although I suppose that the cars I drove in UK would have had seat-belt tensioners. Have got so used to no-tech seats in Indian cars that I forgot all that stuff, and was initially quite surprised at your air-bag comment. Even more surprised, of course, to see the under-seat view!

Well done with the grinder. Has been on my wish list for years. Used to have one: polishing mop one side, grinding stone the other. As a hobby jeweller, it was the polishing side that got the most use by far.

Would suggest some sort of dust control. Mine was super-rudimentary: the machine was in a cardboard box kept on its side! Some flaps top and bottom reduced both the dust and the danger of stuff getting slung out at high speed. Reduced, not eliminated: one or two things flew past my ear to hit the opposite wall. Polishing is the most dangerous workshop thing I have ever done. I knew how to hold things so as to not loose fingers, but, back then, I didn't realise I ought to have been wearing full-face protection. I was lucky.

On the tool front, I recently became aware of the price of a vise (not vice!). Whyohwhy did I give away two! One, probably a Record, engineer's bench vice of a reasonable size; the other, one of those carpenter's vises that is fixed to a bench, which I had inherited with bench and a house that I moved into.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

L
Would suggest some sort of dust control. Polishing is the most dangerous workshop thing I have ever done. I knew how to hold things so as to not loose fingers, but, back then, I didn't realise I ought to have been wearing full-face protection.

Thanks, I do not think I will be using it that much. So I am not that worried about dust, yet. It is just one of those tools that is so easy to have handy and ready to go, when you do need it.

Yesterday, Sunday, I visited the National Oldtimerday at the Zandvoort circuit. I have been numerous times over the years. It is an interesting and enjoyable way of fiddling with cars.

The formulae is simple, they advertise in just about all magazines, social media, first 500 classic car owners are admitted free of charge with their cars, the rest pays Euro 10, which is very reasonable. There is racing, you can take your classic onto the circuit and do a few laps. I have raced on this circuit in the past, many, many years ago. More about that later.

It is about 1.15 hour drive and the weather was quite horrible, lots of rain. But once I had arrived the weather cleared and it became a clear sunny day. Still cold, only 10-11oC but pleasant enough.

Parked the W123 next to some newer models:



This event attracts all sorts of Classic cars. All the usual ones. For some reason, I do not know why, a fairly large number of pretty ordinary classics always show up. A lot of these cars were the cars of day when I was growing up. So I concentrated this time on the ordinary cars, rather than the Ferrari’s, Lambo’s etc.

Not a huge Porsche fan myself, but I do admire the earlier ones, 316



Two very well maintained, but very simple Renault 4



This is a bit of a special / rare one: Borg-Warner



Two Honda Civic, early model. Lovely little car!




I really love this little Simca. It’s on its second owner, from 1982 onwards. He has recently finished a massive restoration that took many years! I have come across it a couple of times. It is really stunning!!





I used to have a Simca Rally 2, which was a variant on the above model. That was also the car I have raced some 40 years ago on this very circuit!

This is a similar one, to the one I owned. Although this one is race prepared, mine was still road legal and orange/black striping. Very cool!



How about an original Toyate Celica? I drove one of these for four days across the steppe’s in Kenia in the early 80’s.



Opel GT, lovely little sports car that got it’s inspiration from the Corvette, easy to see why.



A bit of an overview. There are well over a 1000 classic cars on these days. Everybody drives up, walks around, has something to eat, drink, look at the various market stalls, chat with other like minded owners. Very relaxing, very enjoyable.



Some classic car racing ongoing as well. Some of these cars have a pretty professional team with all the kit you can think of.





A VW Sirocco, not quite sure, it is definitely not the original version, probably a mk 2 or 2?



For some this is the mother of all hot hatches! The Simca 1100 Ti. Note in those days the letters Ti were in red, obviously!



Morgan, TR7, TR7, MGB



This is a very rare Fiat 850 Coupe. My sister had one of these. Bought it second hand for a fistful of guilders in those days. These things rusted so badly you would not believe. Very rare to see any survivors.



Another trip down memory lane for me. Autounion DKW. My dad had several of these:



The DKW power plant, a three cilinder air cooled engine.



Just like I remembered my Dad’s



Another beauty!



An overview of the Grandstand of Zandvoort. Word has it it will be officially announced this week: Zandvoort will host the F1 three consecutive years starting 2020.



Jeroen

[sagarpadaki]

Do i see a ford logo on the grey color rectangle box on the under seat of the jaguar? Looks like airbag control module.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Do i see a ford logo on the grey color rectangle box on the under seat of the jaguar? Looks like airbag control module.

Yes, you are correct. It is a Ford box. Very few Ford bits on this Jaguar, but this is one of them. On later Jaguars, when Ford still owned Jaguar they were a lot less discrete. Some Jaguars had the same indicator handles as in my Ford Mondeo, which was also shared with Aston Martin. Americans just did not get these sort of finesse in those days.

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

People today might find it hard to believe just how simple and basic the original Honda Civic was. The interior was on a par with the early Mini! I drove a 1974 (I think) Civic when it was 13. Quite poky, once the "slush box" auto transmission caught up.

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

On the tool front, I recently became aware of the price of a vise (not vice!).

First call the paramedics, then check out the cost of 'real' vises, say Kurt. Not the junk you see on HF.

Regards
Sutripta

[Thad E Ginathom]

Well, Machinist's vices!

But bench vices: it was stuff like Wilton that I noticed the prices of recently. That was shocking enough.

[Sutripta]

^^^
The costly vises are are those used in milling machines, and bench vises which can (literally) take a hammering.

Regards
Sutripta

[Thad E Ginathom]

bench vises which can (literally) take a hammering.

As they are supposed to do. I soon strained the last little Stanley table vice I bought.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Sutripta

^^^
The costly vises are are those used in milling machines, and bench vises which can (literally) take a hammering.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

As they are supposed to do. I soon strained the last little Stanley table vice I bought.

There is a huge difference in cost of real professional tools and hobby/amateur tools. Most of my tools are pretty decent quality, but not anywhere professional grade.

I am very happy with my bench vice. It cost all but Euro 35. Which might sound a lot in India, but is actually very reasonable here. About the same price as the bench grinder

I was comparing notes some time ago with my old friend Rolf who owns and operates a workshop. He is somewhere in this thread too, doing some work on my Spider.

My pneumatic impact wrench cost around Euro 50, his Euro 750. I have a really good set of sockets, but again his set was almost 12x as expensive. And so it went on. Conclusion; on average his tools were a factor 10-15 times as expensive as mine. But then again his tools get used every single day.

I use my pneumatic wrench maybe once a month, if that? He uses it every day a lot. His compressor runs every day, mine runs now and then for a bit.

I like tools and I like to have good quality tools. At the same there is a fit for purpose, which in my case is just my hobby. Things like sockets, spanners, screwdrivers all need to be good enough so you don’t get frustrated of them not fitting, not gripping or slipping etc.

I am looking at buying a mini-mill (finally!). Again, for the same size/capabilities you will find a huge price range. Mine is likely to see only occasional use. But when I use it, it does need to work properly, be easy and precise etc. But you don’t necessarily need professional grade for that. Quality/price is a function of type of useage I feel.

That is probably true for lots of different things in life, but very much so and very visible (in your pocket) for tools.

Jeroen