[Mick O'Malley]

Yesterday, for the first time in earnest since June 3rd, I ventured down to the deliciously cool man cave to play with the Monaco. After a bit of a tidy up of some boxes of my children's stuff stored there, and a once over with the yard brush, I had to decide on something simple to ease myself back into the build.

I've never really been happy with my upper seat belt eye bolts, positioned as they are to crack the odd vertebra or two in the event of being hit from the rear, so I decided to reverse them, which will allow the mounting plates with their captive nuts to be recessed into the plywood seat back. The belts themselves would have to emerge through the rear deck with this arrangement so I set to measuring and marking where the holes would have to be cut. To make this arrangement tidy, and please the MOT inspector, I decided that ally escutcheons were needed.



I made a card template, transferred the outline to ally sheet, and tin-snipped out the blanks. I cut the central slots with wood chisels and bent the flaps in the vice by tapping a piece of thick steel through, before drilling the rivet holes.. A trial fit of the belt end plates verified that my measurements were correct. The slightly ragged ends of the slots will have to be dressed in situ.



By this time the early afternoon sun was streaming into the cave and the thought of getting into the hooded paper suit to cut the slots in the body decided me to leave that for another day.

I'd long ago realised that, whichever pedal box I used, an access panel would be needed for the master cylinders. After some more careful measuring of the position of the footwell bulkhead and the pedal box, I marked the body ready for cutting which, again, will have to wait for a cooler day.



Regards, Mick