Back in the saddle again (background melody)!
So it’s been a while since I’ve got anything done to the 72. Haven’t much felt like it in the evenings of the past couple of weeks – not been feeling enthused for some reason. Also last weekend we had a great Sunday afternoon cruise – almost too warm though bizarre for October 1. Anyway, thanks to my brother who gave some good advice along the lines of “stop looking at it and studying it – just go for it” kicked in this weekend and mostly today to start getting the interior panels installed and all the panels are now installed, here’s how.
Rear Quarter Panels
So, basically that’s what I did. I did the rear quarter panels Saturday and they seemed to go OK. The prior advice of not trying to line up the screw holes was good and who’d have though that those interior kit screws will go through metal – albeit with a little assistance.
The only problem I see is the passenger side one at the top each is about 1/8 to ¼ of an inch too far forward. Will have to see what can, if anything should, be done about that.
Kick Panels
Today I started on the front kick panels and those went OK as well. I had to work a bit harder to get the screws started into the metal and managed to break a drill bit in the process but those have both gone on as well including the map pocket on the passenger side.
Door panels
I really had no idea how to fit these so I went ahead and put up a plastic inside cover to seal the door somewhat. John (MG Doc) had mentioned that to me the other week and I had some clear thick plastic left over from when we moved in that I could use (they had used it to cover the carpets – very handy).
Having stuck the plastic in place I sat down and studied the clips for the door panels. Having never seen these before it was not obvious to me what went where. However, that extra, Winnie the Pooh, “Think, Think, Think” moment I had was worthwhile because it suddenly came to me how the clips went into the door panel and then would “pop” into the holes in the door. Now there’s no holding me back!
The door panels ended up being quite easy although I did have a couple of issues of the clips moving on the first door. A little bit of pulling back and adjusting solved that and the passenger door was much easier. Seems to be best to start at the bottom edge and work your way up.
To complete things off I installed the door handle bezels and things look quite good. The doors are a much tighter fit now and have to be slammed shut. Obviously with the panels on there’s more in the way for the door seal to cope with. I’m not sure if this will compress a little with time or whether there’s a small door adjustment that can be done. The driver’s door does stick out a little more than I’d like at the bottom/back edge.
Cockpit Rail
After this excitement I came back to reality and mowed the lawn but after that I got Tara to help me glue the new cover to the cockpit rail. We started by gluing the front edge and used clothes pegs to keep it in place. It’s definitely a job for 2 people. Later we rolled it over and glued the material to the back edge with some more glue and again used the clothes pegs to hold everything in place. I actually found putting the pegs on the opposite way around actually worked best. So far it looks OK but I keep smoothing out some wrinkles on the corners. Hopefully they’ll press out OK.
So that’s some good progress and I’m about ready to put in the seats I think. My word – I might be about to drive it around the block soon!
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