Minor Pause

There won't be much happening with the car until mid December. We are currently re-decorating William's (13 year old son) room so it's essential we get him back into it ASAP to restore some semblance of order to the EVogue houshold. So far the whole room has been scraped, filled, gap filled, sealed, and the ceiling is painted (first time we haven't done a white ceiling). He has a wooden desk/cupboard structure that came with the house and that's been restored as well.

Since the room tended to be a bit dark we had a skylight/sun-tunnel installed and lashed out and got him a remote controlled aperture thingy for it. It's going to be a great room.

Someone on the AEVA forums pointed out that the kind of person who takes on an EV conversion (much less a restoration) is the kind of person who DIYs everything around the house - busy, busy....

Anyway, just a minor "on-hold". I'm still hoping to be on the road for good just after Christmas - so a lot will happen during the latter part of December - stay tuned!

Should I Blackout behind the grill?

The orginal paintwork has black paint behind the grill.
I have done a quick and dirty Gimp change to the photo.
Which looks better? (Comments welcome)
While I know it's wrong and looks slightly odd, I like the extra "life" that the blue behind the grill causes.

With blacked out behind grill.

Front Chrome Fitted

It may be a small step but the front chromework is finally fitted back on the Vogue.
She has her face back. The headlight "eyebrows" were a real pain to fit and took about two hours alone.

Another view.

This comment added later. I learnt something about getting stuff re-chromed when I had the eyebrows done. Don't assume that the electroplater will clean up the non-visible bits. Take a wire brush to any non-visable parts of your chrome piece(s) before giving it to the electroplater. The insides of the eyebrows were a mess of flaky chrome when they came back. I wire brushed them and waxed them but it would have been better to have a reasonably smooth finish. The outsides look great!

Headlining Finally Glued

I can't believe that it's been over a year since we made the headlining!
The headlining is finally glued into place. This has been a bit of a stalling point in the restoration because until the headlining and dashpad are installed, the windscreens can't go in.
I bought lots and lots (about 200) "butterfly" or fold-back clips at Officeworks to hold the headlining in while the glue was drying. The glue is contact adhesive (bought from the auto-upholstery shop) applied to only the bodywork.

Front windscreen opening.

Rear windscreen opening.

Rear drivers (right hand) side.

Passenger (left) side.

I'll buy a small pair of very sharp scissors to trim it as I have to get very close to the body of the car to make it neat.

We are delighted with the fit of the headlining. The last of the problem areas appeared to resolve itself as we glued it down. I think leaving it to stretch for such a long time before gluing was a good idea :-)