Interior Trim
 

The aforementioned door cards...

http://i65.tinypic.com/16l9piq.jpg

...with which I am particularly pleased.

This morning at the striping studio...
http://i64.tinypic.com/hth1tk.jpg
and
http://i64.tinypic.com/2ppc3gy.jpg

and then I had to drive it home-
in the rain-
past the gravel pit!!!

Very nice indeed!

Proper

Some finishing touches...

from festoon bulbs in a parking light-

http://i66.tinypic.com/33ttdf5.jpg

to some LED marker lights-

http://i66.tinypic.com/33agh7l.jpg

Similar to the side repeaters on my Jago-

http://i65.tinypic.com/11ij28l.jpg

(please note the carefully crafted, brush-painted, ready-for-anything off-road finish).

Looking good

Looking good but not keen on the front indicators.
Are you going to fit the perspex headlight covers, would be a nice finishing touch.

OK Jag, the front indicators and bare headlamp fittings (no chrome bezel) mirror the original A6GCS Fantuzzi.

I've now fitted the "final" grille and the headlight covers:

http://i65.tinypic.com/25hlrbt.jpg

Also- relying on your good taste and discretion I ordered some stainless door handle covers- they look rather good.

Ian - I bet it feels good seeing all the finishing touches going on to the final paint. :cool:

Enjoy, Paul. :)

Thanks for that, Paul.
It has been a longish job- just over 4 years and not over yet- woodrim steering wheel, low back seats and stainless wire wheels yet.
The best decision I made was to get Chris and Dan to mount the new body panels for me. It meant that the car was off the road for 2 weeks and I could drive it thereafter. That has made so much difference and was such good value that I'd recommend that approach. Even driving around in a gelcoat with patches of primer made every journey such an event that it has always been hard to stop smiling broadly. I now feel that I can take the car anywhere and my problem now is to know when and how much to polish it. What a problem to have, eh?

Cold where you are?
 

The scene this am:

http://i63.tinypic.com/2ykfarq.jpg

Is there any official (BMW) guidance on when not to lower the hood in low temperatures?

In my Alfa Spider days, word was not to even touch the rear screen when it was frosty and not to lower the hood (the rear screen also folds on those) when the temperature was below 10degC. The screens seemed particularly prone to cracking. Neither was there a zip-out replacement option. Someone had come up with a two-piece glass conversion- I've not seen similar for the Z3.

Don't fold the hood when too cold as it can crack the rear screen.
If you really must take the roof down in cold conditions, run the heater until the interior and window has warmed up.
Glass rear windows are far superior in every way.

The "Mad" in Madaboutkitcars coming to the fore here me thinks!��

There is nothing like driving at night in cool conditions with the heated seats and heater on full blast.

I agree 95% with that. I'd always rather be driving with the hood down.

The other 5% relates to driving on streaming wet roads where other vehicles can cause that "up periscope" moment.

I was commuting Southampton to Manchester each week from June to start of December and only once had the hood up for and length of time.

MOT Pass
 

Passed MOT today after an embarrassingly low annual mileage. Best to take an average over almost 5 years now- 1450 per annum.

Rear Brake Caliper Bolt Dust Caps
 

Pre-MOT I'd renewed the rear disc pads and parking brake shoes. One of the dust caps protecting the caliper bolts was missing. Looked on eBay and they sell for about £9 each.
My solution was to buy four 22mm (7/8") "Round Plastic Black Blanking End Cap Caps Tube Pipe Inserts Plug Bung Steel Leg" for £1.66 and trim the three retaining flanges off with a craft knife. Perfect fit.
Hope it doesn't invalidate the warranty.

Barchetta by the beach
 

Now that it appears to be summer, I went to the "last Thursday" Bike/Car Nite on the Weymouth Esplanade last evening.

http://i68.tinypic.com/2yltqfo.jpg

Over 160 bikes and a dozen interesting cars attended: Mclaren, Corvette, 3 Mustangs, Ford Galaxie, blown Chevy, 1600E Cortina, RS500 Sierra, TR6, etc.

The news is that from July, cars will be welcome EVERY Thursday. Charity contribution £3. 18:00 to 20:00-ish.

http://i64.tinypic.com/2cieik2.jpg

Another toy
 

I've been enjoying the recent dry weather and putting the time to good use by reviving another of my toys- a classic Sylva Fury with 1700 crossflow engine:

http://i67.tinypic.com/20fxhm1.jpg

http://i63.tinypic.com/35n6n85.jpg

http://i67.tinypic.com/1z16w7m.jpg

Now MOTed and taxed after a 9 year rest under cover on the drive.

"TinyPic is shutting down in 2019
TinyPic will be ending its image hosting service in 2019 because we can no longer support a free service that derives 100% of its revenue from ever declining on-site ad revenues. "

Oh oh, all of the pics on my thread are tinypic hosted, that is a lot of relinks.

Very nice - Jeremy Phillips certainly knows how to design a car!

Looking good for 9 years under a cover! A nice alternative to all the Lotus 7 lookalikes. Enjoy while the sun shines.

That is a very nice looking car.

Looks more roomy than a seven style. Is it though ?

Asking for a fat friend ...

Yes, unencumbered by the scoops and bulges required for bike engines which came later.
The Phoenix, which is a Fury without doors is based on the chassis of the Striker which is his Seven-style car. Lets just say that I tried one of those before I settled on a Fury. The passenger seat was comfortable but the driver side was narrower.

Needed tyres, battery, starter solenoid, column switches, fan belt, all fluids, water pump, heater matrix, exhaust manifold gaskets, rocker cover gasket and carbs overhaul. Waxoyl and Hammerite too.
To be enjoyed anytime- no hood but it has a tonneau cover.

I went to the Old Ford Rally at the British Heritage Motor Museum at Gaydon yesterday.

This year I was very impressed by the site itself- no more parking on gravel, lots of tarmac parking areas nicely landscaped and marked out. There are 24hour toilets and showers for the over-nighters as well. The camping area is still on a windy ridge but it has a good view of the show. I gift-aided my entry fee so have free entrance to the museum for a year.
I had a quick look around the ground floor of the Jaguar museum building but the only other person there was a lady polishing the fingermarks off of some of the cars. The upstairs area is still rammed having seen it through the windows whilst driving past to the new car park. A shame as there are some interesting cars up there but too close together. The Sunbeam Alpine Club also had a gathering in one of the car parks- they got 78 cars there...
I saw this on one of them- it had a set of stainless wires with "reverse ear" spinners. Never seen ones like that before.

Car Show in the village
 

There was a car show in our village last weekend. Held as part of an activities weekend, it also included the chance to climb the church tower hence the view from the top.
Full list:
Alvis 1952 Tourer
Aston Martin DB7 Vantage
Caterham Seven
Ford Sierra RS Cosworth
Frontline Abingdon (modernised MGB Roadster)
Honda 750 F2 4-cyl
Land Rover Defender V8 6 wheeler
Land Rover S1
Maserati GranTurismo Stradale
Massey Ferguson tractor 1949
McLaren 720S
MG Midget 1930
MGB GT
Morris Minor Traveller
My Z300S Barchetta
Porsche Carrera
Subaru Impreza Estate STT
Subaru Impreza STI
Westfield Seight

For all you twitterati out there
 

If you use twitter, that's one of those new-fangled interweb thingies; check out "Belles Italiennes". They tweet some great pics of classic Italian cars.

Like this one:

https://t.co/y4LCILPcBX

Retromobile 2020
 

Just returned from Retromobile 2020 in Paris. A very good show- it gets larger each year but didn't feel so crowded. Felt really at home (being from Abingdon) because it was over-run with MGBs. At least two Aston Zagatos and a fair few Jaguar XKs from SS to Es.
Of course the gem of the show for me was the little jewel pictured from the Fisken stand. I'm guessing that Bruce Male has put it up for sale. I wasn't sure it was his and didn't think to ask but comparing pics it probably is.

The Fisken's site says:

Ex Jean Estager Tour de France class winner
Subsequently raced extensively in France and Spain
Modified in period to longnose with headrest
Comprehensively researched history and still complete with the original engine
One of the most recognised and loved participants on the Mille Miglia, initially in the 1980’s in the hands of Stirling Moss and 15 times with its current owners family!



The A6GCS/53 was a triumph from its dazzling debut in the 1947 season. The Maserati 2-Litre, 1,985cc inline six was updated with a cast aluminium block and overhead twin cam with dual plug ignition to produce 170bhp - gaining 50bhp on the A6GCM Grand Prix car from whence the engine came. Combined with the lightweight tubular chassis from Gilco, vast hydraulic drum brakes and drivers such as Ascari at the wheel, these spartan sports racers seemed unstoppable. Indeed, the successes of the A6GCS/53 provided such an economic bolster to Maserati, that it was able to make the transition from building purely racing machines to producing some of the most beautiful road-going cars of the era.

#2071 has led a rich sporting life across several continents. Its engine blasted on to the competition scene when it powered Luigi Musso’s car to fourth place in the 1954 Mille Miglia before being united with its matching chassis upon its completion in May 1954, the same year in which Jean Estager drover the motor car to a class victory in the Tour de France. Fitted with its distinctive ‘slipper nose’ later that year, the car then passed between private enthusiasts in South America, California and Europe and undergoing an extensive restoration in Holland. Following its restoration, it was entered by its German owner in to the 1986 Mille Miglia with none other than Sir Stirling Moss at the wheel.

The recent entry list is vast and varied, encompassing Tour Auto, Laguna Seca and no fewer than fifteen Mille Miglia entries with its current custodian. The Maserati is accompanied by an extensively researched history and retains its original engine. This immensely eligible and capable Maserati is one of the finest of its kind.

Price on Application of course...

Like this one: 1961 #Ferrari 250 GTO Prototipo

https://twitter.com/ItaliAuto/status...801681920?s=09

Electric Z300S
 

Well it looks as if Z300S number 8 (?) is going to be electric.

Check out the thread here:

https://zroadster.org/threads/z3-00s-ev-project.37379/

Air Intake Hose Replacement
 

I spent a happy hour yesterday on my 2.8 undoing jubilee clips whose heads I couldn't see to release the pictured items into the wild. The car exhibited the start/not run symptoms but unplugging the MAF sorted that. I think that the splits have been present for some time. Nice surprise- £25 the pair on eBay.


Air Intake Hose 13541705209 (the one on the left)
Air Intake Hose 13541435627 (the one on the right)

Just be grateful your intake rubbers are standard. I had to 'join' some 2.8 intakes with some 2.5 intakes when I changed the intake system to get better breathing and more power.

Jubilee clips, silicon beading, bicycle innertubes and much swearing finally got an air tight flow and another 1/2 second of the 20-80mph time

I guess that's what kit cars are all about. Pursuing goals with individual ingenuity. It transfers to life in general as well.

Sounds interesting

I think you'll find that electric cars are almost silent !!! (gets coat).

The guy is obviously an electrical/electronics engineer to be playing about with CANBUS signalling, etc.

Simpler times- a guy in the Jago club electrified his Fiat 850 by replacing (just) the engine with a forklift truck motor. Even used the standard clutch and gearbox. Controlling the battery output was the hardest part, trying to emulate the throttle via the right hand pedal.

Whilst I like the idea of electric cars from a performance point of view, the complexity of putting a safe and reliable system together is beyond me ! The chances of shorting something out and having a fire you can't put out would give me sleepless nights as well as the cost of building it !

I'm in the process of replacing a battery-to-fusebox lead on a Z3. It's a 40mm2 cable rated at 300A that goes to a busbar behind the glove box. There is a good number of 200A, 100A and 80A fuses before you get to the "small" fuses under the bonnet.