up date 2.375

I'm back again. I did get the latest round of paint, rattle cans are nice and easy to store with zero cleaning after painting but the £ doesn't half add up. I seem to regularly just come in a snip under the £30 mark so I can "just" wave the card at the machine ! well, armed with paint I did paint up the sills and also 2 very small patches I notice that had very thin red paint and it is blatantly easier to do that kind of thing now especially as it is in a work shop so over spray does not matter, it had to be done. I had noticed it so I know I would not stop noticing it !
Oh the freshly welded hand brake bracket was painted as well. As you may be able to see it looks like the front bracket broke it's weld to the cross member, and was still used so twisted the rear bracket as well as lifting the front bracket away from the cross member. Nothing a bit of heavy handed beating couldn't sort out with a little welding as well.

The day after (Saturday) I was back there and good old Malcolm had already cut some nice gauge 40 x 40 angle iron into 40mm wide brackets. So I got straight on with double checking my lay out marks for both seats, I found that the 2 inner brackets where very close to the central tunnel so went off and ground the brackets to let then locate nicely and still support the seat runners fully and finally ground back some paint before clamping them in place ..... then double checked the measurements yet again. I have to admit I have fallen into the trap of thinking as long as the seats fit width wise, alternative seats is a straight forward job if you have a welder to hand and no interior fitted.
This is what you need to watch out for, enough clearance for any door hard ware when the door is closed, enough space to reach the hand brake, enough space to change gear, enough clearance for the seat adjusters even when the seat is pushed back for a tall person, your head is not to high and will hit the roof (only just managed that one), that the runners are not in the way when a passenger is trying to get in the back of the car but they still allow the seat to go back far enough and finally that it actually feels nice to the pedals and steering wheel to drive the dam car. But depending on the seats, when I pull the lever to release the runners so I could try them in different positions, only one is spring loaded, so one would shoot off and I had to move the other one my self. Not to bad but it is easier to do that with the seat out of the car but when I picked the seat up it was to easy to accidentally grab or knock the release which of course moved the spring loaded runner. Only one of my work neighbors has fitted alternative seats, and he was full of sympathy when he came to see how I was doing, he knew the struggle and self doubt which doesn't go until they are mounted by which time there is little tweeking that can be done, more of a just start over.

There are the seats ...mounted on just the front brackets. By 3pm my knees had had enough where I was knelt down grinding the brackets for quite a while and crawling round the car so called it a day. I had managed to sand, prime and paint the pedal box and steering column brackets so wasn't to bad. The rear brackets seem to be looking like they will be single risers welded to a spreader plate that will bolt to the floor and the inner runners will be mounted to a upside down U shape which will straddle the tunnel and I am hoping to avoid a spreader plate on those. The carpet has to be considered and I hope to drop the carpet over the outer mounts and then bolt the middle U once the carpet is in.
I picked up another set of carpets a few days ago as they where being sold very cheap and with underlay which I don't have. I had planned to clean up both sets of carpet and choose the best looking parts out of each set as they are both black. I found out the set I got is really good and needed very little cleaning, although I have not looked at the other carpets for at least 3 years as they are hidden in the loft.

Whilst I was painting the pedal box I remembered the clutch peddle need changing as the arm attached to it is different for a servo set up and the accelerator pedal doesn't even mount to the box. When I was tidying the garage ready for the mini's return I dug them out to sand and prime. That was as far as I could go ... someone may have picked up the stone chip paint instead of the gloss black paint from Malcolm s work shop, sigh. Oh, these peddles where bought ages ago and have just sat in a box, digging them out to prep and paint I saw 2 bolts through the accelerator  mounting plate ... that still had the captive bolts that go through the buck head. Yep the buck head that seems to have rusted away, I think the car that it came out of was in a sorry state, was a tad awkward getting them off as I had to file a flat onto the round head to get it in a vice so I could undo the nuts.

As Malcolm works away on a Monday I still don't have the paint ..... but I have been staring at the door catch that fit to the car, I might have colour coded them tonight. Not the loop that the lock latches onto, just the plate. This may bight me later, but it looks nice :)
Eeeeeek, I have just noticed. Just a couple of days ago we made it to the 5 year anniversary of owning this lemon. That said I was thinking it was at least 6 years and I did take nearly 2 years off due to an injury, so  don't think I am doing to bad :)