5th April 2008
It's April. I was supposed to be finished by now, but it feels like I'm nowhere near. Actually there's not _that_ much to do to make a working car, but plenty to keep me busy for another week or two I reckon.
So onwards. I've managed to get my rivnuts and tool back, so first job is to get the four lacing buttons in along the cockpit sides for the half doors to hook onto. This actually took quite a while as it was mighty fiddly drilling upwards into the top tube, with awkward access. After some grumbling, I got there, and it looks like it should work ok - I tried a piece of tensioned shock cord around one to ensure it fits ok. They are certainly pretty out of sight (and therefore difficult to photograph!).
After that, I spent some time cleaning up inside the car in preparation for being able to put the seats back in. But then I wasn't sure how wise that was in case I need to drill again for the fixing at the rear of the half doors.
Ah yes, I should mention that I got my scuttle and aeroscreen back from the Westfield factory. This involved some complex combination of collections, meetings, and deliveries by friends and family - so thanks very much to those who helped with this! I guess I need to have a lesson in fixing holes in GRP myself at some point in the future, but for now I think these will go back on the car as is, for the sake of time.
So next I looked at continuing with the front edge half door fixings. I made up the second angle bracket. I am thinking I will attempt to bond these to the door - I hope it will be enough, but if it isn't I can always drill and fix later. This fairly short list of tasks seemed to consume a few hours of the afternoon, so I gave up at that point - at least I have made some progress, even if it's not really enough.

8th April 2008
It just wouldn't be right if I didn't feel pressured, or have some setbacks. And today the penny dropped on a splendid setback. I've been making some decent progress with the steering wheel controls in the background, and had it almost finished, just needed to solder the wires to the buttons. Before I did that I mounted the quick release coupling back on the wheel with the wiring neatly in place, then I figured I'd try it on the car to ensure it still fits ok. At this point I realised the error of my ways... the top row of buttons obscures the view of the dials through the top part of the wheel. Stupid mistake.
I've also decided, before I go any further, that I want to redo the foam seal strip around the edge of the half door, to hopefully make a better job of it. Unfortunately, this is going to take a bit of time to remove neatly, though judging by the little bit that I tried, it will come up clean eventually.

9th April 2008
After feeling pretty despondant about the car, I did at least manage to make myself make some sensible progress for a couple of hours. I spent a while removing and cleaning up the rest of the half door foam seal, so that is now ready to have a second attempt at bonding it on. I also quickly knocked up a cardboard template (lesson learned) for the mk3 version of the steering wheel controls - looks like it should work ok, though clamping the wire on at the back is going to be something more of a challenge.

11th April 2008
I've spent the last few days progressively bonding bits onto the half door. The seal is now all back on (with hindsight, I should have used a new piece of foam) and looking a bit better than last time, but still not perfect. This evening was a fairly critical step as I carefully worked out where to bond the front angle brackets, and have clamped them in place for the bond to set - hopefully I have got it right, and they will stay sufficiently stuck...

12th April 2008
And now it's nearly half way through April! I really need to get on and get this car sorted. So a full day in the garage today.
First job was to see how the brackets I bonded to the door have faired. The good news is that I seem to have managed to get the positioning pretty much spot on, and they are well stuck. They are a bit tight to push on, but a bit of silicone lubricant improves that. Seems to work well, the door is held in position nicely.
So, on to sorting out the rest of the fixings. Along the bottom edge, I decided I had to succumb to drilling the doors as I couldn't see a simple / neat way of bonding the clips on to hold the shock cord. So I spent some time fitting the two bottom edge fixings, and making up some cord loops (probably temporary, I'll get some black cord I think). Again, this seemed to go too well, and worked fine first time.
Onwards to the rear top corner of the door. Here the door actually fits better if it is pulled outwards rather than inwards, because of the way the door moulding sits on the rear arch part of the bodywork. So the simplest solution (although possibly not the prettiest) here, is to utilise the cage. I decided to fit a loop of cord to the door which can loop around the cage and attach back onto the door. An inventive solution of a clip and a cord button fitted in same place. It works really well, the only downside being the button head is against the cage and will need some foam or something to prevent it scratching.
Half door finally fixed = yay!
The only outstanding job on the half door (that I'm aware of so far), is that the front corner fouls the aeroscreen, so I spent a while cleaning up the scuttle so that it could be refitted properly - I think I can still do all the wiring and bits that I need to with it in place. I could then place the aeroscreen in position, which allowed me to work out how much I need to remove at the front corner. A few progressive attempts later, so that I don't remove too much, and the front corner of the door fits all properly. Although I've not yet re-attached the dash, so can't check it all fully fitted just yet.
It always feels like I've not done much for the amount of time consumed when I write things up here - can it really have taken me most of the day to do the above? Well yes, I guess I'm mostly summarising the results here.
With only an hour or so left of the day, that was taken up re-fitting the seats and lower harness belts. See? Sounds trivial, but its a fiddly job requiring the arms of Mr Tickle, so it takes a while.
With the seats back in, the garage space is clearing and the car is coming back together. I need to get on with a spanner check at the front end of the car, and then get it back down onto its wheels and out into the sunshine. Oh and sort out the other half door before the end of next weekend, but these things are generally easier second time around (famous last words).

15th April 2008
I've spent another few days progressively bonding the seal onto the other half door, so that is now done, and this evening I started work on making the angle brackets for holding it along the front edge. As ever, not as straight-forward as I hoped as I'd forgotten about the asymmetrical nature of the bodywork which means that the gap between the cage and the body, that half door has to slot into, is smaller than on the other side, too small in places. So I had to slacken the cage bolts on this side to give a bit more room - I'm hoping that an extra washer on the bolts should space it out sufficiently further.
Got the brackets made and drilled for the grommets, so they now need finishing off and painting, ready to be bonded on before the weekend, so I can finish off the rest of the fixings on this door.

18th April 2008
Work on the half door has continued throughout the week, such that by the end of this evening, it is all but finished. The only bit that is outstanding is the shock cord (I bought some but its too big, so will get some of the next size down), and trimming the top corner of the door to fit around the aeroscreen. It seems to fit ok, not quite as well as the drivers side one, but should be good enough.
Another job which I had started previously was to look at fitting some press stud bases along the top of the scuttle for the tonneau to fit onto, whilst the aeroscreen was off. My first attempt at this didn't go quite right, so a little helpful advice from m'chums on cam7, and I have refitted two of them, which seem to fit much better.

19th April 2008
Another full day in the garage today, the deadline looms later this week, the car is off to have it tonneau modified / fitted on Thursday, so it needs to be working by then. Fortunately, there's not too much left to do to turn it into a legal and working car. Time to crack on.
First job of the day was to check that the studs I fitted yesterday had worked out ok (I put a smear of adhesive sealant under them to stop them spinning), and the good news was that all seemed well, so I fitted the rest of them, and left them to set.
Next I figured it was high time I actually got on with doing the spanner check at the front end of the car. This is a simple enough task, just a bit tedious, whereby I visually inspect / touch / spanner everything I can in, on, and under the engine bay. Whilst I never usually find anything wrong, this time no different, it is a fairly important job as it hopefully prevents any unforeseen failures, and makes sure everything is in good working order.
That took a while, so once that was done I was able to clean up properly where the studs were fitted, which then allowed me to re-fit the aeroscreen. I also cleaned up and re-fitted the pedal cover panel at this point. Which then allowed me to re-fit the dashboard and connect all the disconnected wiring back up - the only except to this is that I have not re-fitted the 'brow' dash with all the warning lights back in position, as I wanted it out of the way to ensure the tonneau is fitted properly across the top of the scuttle. I'll work something out for this once the tonneau is done, and I know the lie of the land.
With that lot done, I was able to start the engine to make sure it all works, which is always a decent bit of motivation to get the car all sorted out.
As the dash and screen are now back on the car, I could spend a little time finishing off the passenger side half door. It seems to be a bit more of an awkward fit on this side, and I'm not too sure why, but the doors shouldn't be going on and off the car all that frequently, so I'll just live with it, it seems ok once it's on. One thing I did have to do on this side was to add an extra washer to the side mounts of the cage, just to space it away from the bodywork a little to allow the door to fit between the two.
The only main thing left to sort out now is the steering wheel. I spent a little time back onto working on making a new mount for the buttons, but I didn't have long left to fiddle with this, and it takes a bit of time with alot of trial fitting and fettling to get it right. I think this job may get postponed a little.

20th April 2008
I need to get the car into a driveable state today, and fortunately a good day of things yesterday meant there wasn't much needed to achieve this. I decided that is it sensible to postpone the steering wheel mods a little to enable the car to be in a working state for its date this week, its non vital. So I put the steering wheel back together as it was.
The other job required was to clean up the year old gaffa tape residue around the bootbox, and refit it. I shouldn't have this again as I will have a proper boot cover, but I shouldn't have left it so long, it's a pig to get off once its baked on. Soon enough it is removed, and all polished up.
Then it was just a case of a final sanity check to ensure I've not missed anything obvious, put the nosecone back on, and get the car back down onto the ground. It always seems really low and small when I do this after it's been up in air for a few months.
I then pushed the car out, and took it for a couple of laps of the village to get some temperature into it, and to clean the brakes up a bit. This is always a bit of an issue at the rear after it has stood for six months, but driving round with the handbrake on-off for a bit usually gets them going ok. It's a bit damp out today, and I was reminded (whilst down the uninhabited roads where no one lives cos they haven't finished building the houses yet) that there's not alot of grip - still good fun spinning the wheels up in the first few gears!
     
At that point, I shall leave the car pretty much well alone. The only thing I need to do before it goes in this week is to fit some shock cord to the passenger side door. I'll order some more (of a hopefully better size) tomorrow, and this shouldn't take long to do one evening.
I fitted the doors (they need a clean) and took some pictures of them with the car outside. Then tidied up in the garage, and swept a couple of months worth of detritus from the floor.
     

23rd April 2008
Well the car went off to the trimshop this evening, and to say I am feeling twitchy about it would be an understatement.
I have a bad feeling that something is going to go a bit wrong...

26th April 2008
My twitchiness about the outcome from the trimshop was caused by the negative comments about my requirements by the chap doing the work, when I dropped the car. He really sounded like he didn't want to do the job at all, which was a bit odd, and was quite negative about my design requests.
I got a call from him yesterday bemoaning the amount of time he had had to spend on the tonneau, though he has almost finished it. He also asked about how to get the seats out, at which point we agreed to postpone that bit of the job, cos its a bit fiddly, and would take him a while to do (at cost to me). I can always take the seats over separately, but I've been thinking about potential alternatives...
Anyway, as a result of this, it was with some trepidation that I went a got the car back this morning. I wasn't sure what I was going to find. Fortunately, I was fairly pleasantly surprised. For starters, the chap was alot more friendly, and he had done the job almost exactly as I had asked, and has done a nice job of it. It is in two parts, a boot cover and a cockpit cover (which can be zipped in half, though not totally separated). The boot cover laps over the top of the rear bulkhead and the cockpit cover attaches to the top of that. Also it attaches along the top edge of the half doors and and top of the scuttle.
A load of pictures which probably explain it better than words can:

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