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. "