Light at the end of the tunnel

 Yep, that light at the end of the tunnel is not the tiny dot way off in the horizon any more, infact teasingly bright. 

The last few days I have..  um, I've done stuff. It's been a bit of a blur and jumping around on other projects and chores.

After a day of doing lots of other life bits I was determined to do even just a tiny thing. I went off to the garage to check rear suspension level. Measured the floor to rear end of sills and .... bang on. Note to self must check the hi low locking nut is done up!

With that done so quickly I looked at the bonnet hinges, I was sure there would be a missing nut. The missing nut or bolt has been such a common theme I thought I should get on and check before I actually needed to be installing them. To my amazement everything was there. The hinge arms paint work had suffered a little but nothing to bad, and I just couldn't be arsed to repaint. I did see I was missing just one plastic washer that would be fitted either side of the hinge arm and between the 2 plates coming out of the bulk head. After a little stare, I really did think they looked just like a plastic take away tub plastic. I found the obligatory saved take away tub that had a broken lid, ripped a chunk off, found the hole punch to make a hole and then drew round the washer.

Spot on thickness, quite pleased with that and thought "it may be late by why not try fitting the arms". The answer should have been, because it's a right pain and takes ages. Aftera while of holding the hinge arm, plastic washers,covered in grease to stick them to the arm. I grab some extra aids, masking tape to hold the bolt in the ring spanner and a small screwdriver to align the washers and hinge arm to the hole in the bulk head plates. There is not much space or visibility doing this job, so it was great to move onto the drivers side and find the windscreen wiper motor made it even harder that side. But at 1 something am I was triumphant.

While I was waiting for the brother inlaw to collect his son, I found a simple job that didn't matter if I couldn't finish. I templated the boot carpet and had just enough time to finish the first cutting in of the carpet. The carpet isn't pretty but for a free upcycled boot carpet it will do as a good guide for the new carpet when I'm feeling flush.

The new indicator (and horn) stalk turned up. I was keen to get on and install that and see if the horn would be brought to life. I removed the wiper stalk from the shared mounting plate, discarded the old indicator stalk ..... and noticed it really wasn't as shinny as the new one. Shock! Of course I did, out came the polishing compound and the stalk was carefully polished to revive it a bit with out polishing off the painted wiper symbols. It has to be said, when doing detailing work a nail brush is a god send for getting at those nooks and crannies.

Saturday.... door fitting day, eek. The new door fitting bolt kit was found and layer out. Door openings masked up to try and save the paint work from woops moments. It went quite smoothly, it may have helped that I'm a carpenter and have fitted many wooden doors. Once on to asses alignment, added shimms and I was happy enough to put the nylon nuts on for a final bolt up. The door catch mounted to the car tricked me. I thought I had run out of adjustment to pull the door in. It turned out I needed to pull that out, to allow the door catch to fully lock and pull the door hard in.

The to do list is really getting small, little bits keep cropping up to double check, lock off etc but far enough for me to ring around mini friendly garages and ask what their lead time is for mot's