Froggyman - I think my only talent is not letting the fact I don't know what I am doing stop me!
Although, following on from my previous comments above...
I really hope I get the chance to do a 'retirement project' where I would be tempted to give engine rebuilding a go.
After all, what could possibly go wrong?
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Frustrating Friday:
I fitted the 'fir trees' to both headrest panels, making sure they were all straight.
Then I had a play with a couple of strips of aluminium to see how I might hold the gear lever gaiter in place.
As there are currently only 4 bolts holding the rubber gaiter in place and that doesn't seem enough for the leather.
So my plan is to create a gaiter base made of two layers of alloy, with the leather in between.
Then this base will be fixed into position with the four bolts.
So I set up a test piece with three different sized rivets.
( Obviously the real leather would be trimmed to be hidden under one edge. )
The two smaller ones have the same size head, but different depths (if that makes sense).
I really like the big head rivets, but there is a lot of material left on the inside.
After a liberal application of some hammers on either side, I was left with this.
So I just need to check if I can get away with the extra thickness of the big rivet.
As the outside edges of 'top' layer of alloy would be bent over both the leather and 'bottom' layer to hide the join.
Note:
Regardless of the final rivet choice, this 'sandwich' approach really does hold the leather solidly.
Finally I spent ages trying to work out hold to fold the leather over the back of the headrests' plywood panels.
Something along these lines, but with everything pulled tighter.
That was proving tricky enough, especially with the thickness of the joins along the bottom edge.
But the real problems was I just couldn't hammer a single tack into place, as the foam was acting as a shock absorber.
I abandoned the headrests last night, but, thankfully, I've just had an idea while typing this up.
So I am off now to see if I can finish off these headrests, or at least make a start on the gear lever gaiter base.
Until next time, take care, Paul.
