[Mick O'Malley]

Having worked out, at long last, a workable partial solution to my Phaeton's imagined engine mountings, I ordered some box section ally which I hoped would arrive today. No such luck! So, I turned my attention to trimming the Monaco's tonneau cover. I'd originally intended to edge it with the special tape in black but a trial run with an off-cut of the double duck, also black, with black thread had my eyes popping out, despite brightly illuminating the work area with the Anglepoise lamp. Thinking back to the A352's tonneau, I decided on body colour matching trim. The trim has to be folded over the edge of the fabric and held in position whilst sewing, tricky to say the least, so I decided to iron it folded first. My second hand sewing machine had always been a bit jerky, despite my having given it a good clean and lube overhaul on purchase. I realised this morning that I'd not done the same with the accelerator pedal. Opening it up revealed ancient fluff and light corrosion on the rheostat, the latter responding well to contact cleaner. A spot of oil on the hinge and its operation (tested power off) was way smoother. Result!

I then remembered that I'd fitted the 'lift the dot' gubbins after my now departed Stateside seamstress friend had edged my A352 tonneau for me. The fasteners would need to be removed from three sides of each half to be double sure that needle breakage was avoided. However, the long centre edges of each half had sufficient overlap meat for me to make a start on one edge.



Taking it very steady with the now super smooth machine saw me completing my first attempt with reasonably tidy success. Once the metal fasteners are off (there are 28, each with four tabs to be bent up!) I can both do the rest of the edge and work out how to make tidy corner joins.

Regards, Mick