Hi Munky, the progress of panel styling has not progressed much, the passenger side needs to be profiled the same as the agreed driver side as pictured. Then there is loads of work to fill and smooth the buck, then paint, then the moulds. It will be spring before the panels for my build are available.
However, I still have the custom dashboard as pictured earlier in the thread to finish and fit. Progress has been on hold whilst we had the kitchen and bathroom re-modelled in our house, but that has just finished. I did the stripping out to reduce contractor costs, and also insulated much of the roof at the same time. I had planned to cover the dash with vinyl, but after visiting JaguarTVR to see his projects, he has convinced me that crackle paint is the way to go. I plan to try it out in the very near future, and if it does not suit, can still use the vinyl.
I have also been slightly diverted by another project. As Chris quite rightly insisted on building the first Z3gato, my big retirement project diminished in work input from me. Chris will deliver a road legal car, but with untrimmed coloured gelcoat panels, so all of the prep for painting etc will need doing, and meantime, I need to buy all the lights.
My plan to keep myself out of the way of Mrs Barber is to buy a classic Lambretta scooter wreck and refurbish it. To that end, I have been making a motorcycle lift by converting a £80 table lift by building an extended base, table top and stabilising struts from scrap angle iron. I just began my first welds (after a basic induction training / practice) this week. I am waiting until after Christmas for the one or two projects that will come up on ebay as some folk realise that they have spent too much over Christmas, and that the work involved is more than they realised, so want to sell off the projects. A friend is trying to convince me that we should go on a road tour and source the scooter in Italy, and bring some others to sell on and finance the trip. Tempting.
Meanwhile, I was going to change the Z3 interior to black, but when explaining the project to an inquisitive neighbour, realised as I was saying that California Sage Green was the intended paint colour, that the current Oregon Beige interior would probably look OK. The challenge is to get the custom dash to match that colour. I will probably have to have paint made up to match the gear lever gaiter.
I also need to strip out the storage box etc and use the vinyl to re-cover that area. I will not remove the roll bars until the car is due to go down to Chris for the build next spring. Chris will let me have a rear shelf to cover in advance of fitting, and will also make an interior roof panel (same as Kidge did on his 275 build) so that I can prep and line it ready to fit into the build.
The upshot is, it will be spring before any meaningful build stuff appears. I cannot wait to get the car. We have a wedding to attend in eastern Poland next summer, and I would love to take a leisurely tour in the car to get there (even in an unpainted state a la IanA).
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