Day 51 Pull the other one… its got hinges on it.

The last couple of weekends have been taken up firstly with a cycle ride across the country on the Way Of The Roses - Morecambe to Bridlington 170+ miles of up hill, down dale, and 35 mile an hour winds and the occasional “oh crap! My brakes are burnt out what do I do now?” That was fun weekend all in all… couldn’t climb stairs for a week after but a great time was had by all.  I chickened out at 45.7 mph simply because I didn’t know the road and didn’t know what was coming up after the bend ahead. Some of the lads really wanted to hit that magic 50mph mark though none made it.

Last weekend I went to the Stafford Kit car show which compared to other shows I’ve been to was an anticlimax.  The advertising was minimal and there were but a few car clubs present.  In part, I suspect, due to the poor weather forecast.  However I did get a chance to chat with Graham who was showing the Demo car.  I took a number of photos for my own information and we spent an hour discussing various aspects that I would be encountering very shortly in the build.

Back to earth and now able to move my legs with out pain I went back to the doors and Boot lid.  I decided to get the doors at least swinging correctly with at least some of the fixings in place. 

So to the Drivers door: I took the spreader washers off because they were fouling between the hinge lip and the fixing bolt and restricting the adjustment range on the door.  The washers I will modify later when I happy with the alignment. After that I found a number of points where the door was rubbing.  A quick go with a rasp and sandpaper made short work of the problem.  There is still some cutting back to do on the door seal mount and the door gap isn’t even yet but it swings freely.

The passenger door had problems of a different nature. I have previously mentioned the incorrectly fitted rivet nut. Now this is where it got a bit weird.  The rivet nut I thought was out of alignment was actually in the right place for the hinge plates to line up together.  Despite being 5mm different from the other door.  So does that mean the bottom rivet nut is out? Thinking I’m losing the plot I hung the door in the car using the fixing I originally measured as being out and the two top fixings.  I check and the door was in the right place. In fact it fitted better than the driver’s door.  It wasn’t until I looked down the side of the car I spotted the problem.  The front edge of the door was sitting about 6mm in on the sill.  The top edge of the door under the “A” pillar looks fine.  So I can only assume the bottom fixing that I thought was out might actually be in the right place and the middle two fixing holes are out.  I took a couple of spreader washer and packed them behind the bottom hinge which brought everything back in to alignment regards the body but this has repercussions when you try to open the door.  More thinking required…need beer!

Moving on to the boot lid: I was almost glad to see the demo car has the same alignment issues on the bottom edge of the boot lid.  The key issue is to get it aligned right on the leading edge at the top. An Email from Graham identified the up/down, forward/backwards adjustment the left to right adjustment is less conventional - Just push it, gently lean on it till it aligns.  I managed to get it so far within a few mm but that last couple of mm is a bugger.  I took the lid off and nibbled a bit of the bulkhead that was fouling the hinge.  But when I put the lid back on I still can’t quite get those last couple of mm.  So I called it a night.