Confession time.
I saw the email that Tom Elder had commented on my thread and I was so proud that he was reading this (never ending saga) that it motivated me to wander out to the garage yesterday. Here are the fruits born of that 'labor' and a wee tale to help warm your wintry Monday woes.
The garage at my house is under the master suite. It's quite literally inside my house. As such, it has two and a third exterior walls. Of those, only one is fully above grade. (split-level house problems?) The north and west facing walls (1 and 1/3 respectively) are half-below grade. The east facing wall has a large garage door and a man door. Those doors are both insulated. All the exterior walls are insulated. My house has heat.
Despite all these factors, it was balls cold in there on Sunday. I ran the space heater for 45 minutes, maybe 60 before it was comfortable and about 3 hours after I turned off the space heater, the interior temps had nosed over 'comfortable' and were rapidly approaching untenable...for the work I was doing.
What was this work, you ask? I'll get there, I promise. (Typing helps warms my fingers and they're cold right now.)
Two weeks ago, Kevin and I ventured through gale-force winds and single-digit temps to visit Henry Holsters for some more custom laser-cut panels. We had Andrew cut some panels for Kevin's 964/993 thing and I took some posterboard templates for the rear panels on the LBDC. Kevin's panels were short work. My new panels were a bit more.
Here are my sweet templates.
The pink/white one was my working template. The green was (is?) a little nicer version that would be easier to scan into a computer...if such a device was available. (it was not) Andrew steadfastly drew the panel in CAD and then cut it from cardboard. This took several iterations before the cardboard matched the template. During that iterative process, Andrew showed us a full sheet of Tegris that we may or may not have brought home for another project.
He also showed us his (somewhat) new Bambu X1 Carbon 3D printer. (the same that Julian has) Kevin was marveling at all the widgets all over the factory that had been 3D printed, so Andrew fired up the printer and made Kevin a scissor/shear holder...in <20 minutes total time. Like from warm-up to completion sub-20 minutes. Unbelievably fast compared to the printers I'd seen prior. Why it's pink is a question for Andrew that neither of us asked.
Once the new rear panels were done, our business concluded and we trekked back home to languish in wintry project doldrums. (I have badly suffered for a lack of motivation this winter.)
So time-warp back to this most recently passed weekend and the email notification from Pelican that motivated me to warm the garage and get to work.
I removed and dismantled the rear side interior panels and found the perfect winter task for the LBDC.
From there, I wrapped the lower section in leftover felt from the headliner project and then set to affixing the Tegris panel to the now felt-clad lower. Truth be told, I'd been pondering this for more than a week even if I'd done nothing to the car itself. I'd even ordered some supplies...which had been already delivered.
A little refresher on Tegris. It's entirely comprised of layers of woven nylon fibers. As such, cutting it leads to frays. So too does drilling. So once lasered, you're left with very tidy edges that essentially coterize during cutting. I do not have a laser at all and HH is 2 hours from home. Any modification that I may do will need to be executed carefully so's to not fray the edges and undo my panel.
Using a torch and a series of awls, I poked (precision) holes in the Tegris and OE panels. I then installed black snaps. If you've taken apart these panels, you know the factory fastened them with staples hidden under the upper upholstery. If you haven't, now you know. This system will not do for my particular use. Visible hardware was the only thing other than an adhesive that would hold upper to lower, so I opted for black snaps that
should tie in to the black, exposed hardware on the door panels.
Here's how it came out. (Disregard the wrinkles in the back seat seatpans. I'll address it when I buy more Super 90.)
I'm not in love with it, but it's not bad. The feedback I've gotten so far has been overwhelminly positive, but I feel like that artist who hates his own work. So maybe I'm just being too hard on myself.
I'm going to have to have new panels cut to address some design flaws that I managed to make despite making a paper template. The eagle-eyed among you will likely see one. If you see both, you'll realize all my fears about the tiny details that only I am supposed to be able to see. I'm also going to cut back from six snaps to four and see if I like that better.
Either way, what's done is done...for now.
I'm still not motivated.
And I still have not done Kelly's side.
The suspension pieces are still on the dining room table next to the hide.
The engine piece has made its way to the garage. But has yet to be unwrapped, much less installed.
I hate winter.