Yesterday saw me head down to Kent to pick up my new Shortie! :D I got on the motorway to come back home about 4pm.

 

At 9pm, I was safely tucked away... on the hard shoulder of the A1(M) near York with a grand total of 1 wheelnut holding my rear passenger wheel on!!! The other 4 studs decided to shear off while I was in the outside lane - there was an almighty bang, the back-end of the car went completely loose so I had no choice but to dive for the shoulder! :(

 

The recovery truck arrived at 11pm and I slowly edged my new tripod onto the flatbed, before we headed off back to mine.

 

Spoke to Mr F this morning and he's ordered me 10 new rear studs, so my new car is currently undrivable. Seems it had cheap slot-on spacers on the back, no spigot rings and the end result was 4 wheelstuds missing.

 

Gotta love Zeds, eh...?!

Edited December 4, 201411 yr by Mondo

I didn't get a great deal of sleep last night as I had loads of things whizzing around in my head, so I thought I'd try and put my insomnia to good use by coming up with a concrete idea for my impending retrim. :)

 

Even though I only did it last year, it was always a "rush job" as I just wanted to get the cabin looking presentable... I do like the current trim but I feel it's a little boring and safe (well, as boring as a red interior can be!), so some improvements need to be made.

 

So, after some long deliberation and a sort of test run using some scraps this morning, I think I've got it sussed now.

 

The overall look and colour scheme will remain the same as I really like the way that the leather and Alcantara work together, but the perforated leather on things like the armrests and the gaiters will be no more. It would've worked if I'd used the perforated leather elsewhere, but it's a bit isolated as it is so it's time to replace it.

 

I'll also be changing the stitching colour to silver, rather than the dark grey that's currently in use. That'll help tie the interior to the exterior and help to keep the "silver & red" theme consistent. That of course means that there'll be nothing of my current seat covers that can be reused anywhere - everything will have to be made from scratch again!

 

There'll be a little more embellishment on the seats this time too... nothing too OTT, just a couple of things to make them stand out a little more and, I suppose, to showcase what I do. As I really want to try and attend more shows this year, it makes sense to have everything tip-top when I do. :)

 

The steering wheel, gearknob and handbrake handle will be seeing some little tweaks as well... as long as what works brilliantly in my head works just as well in practice! The dashboard is a "maybe" at the moment... I'll have to see how things pan out...

 

So there you go; I think that covers everything without actually really saying anything! :rofl: All I need now is the time to do things over the next few months... I can see some very late nights in my immediate future.....

 

:thumbup1:

How do I get my dials looking like this? Nice and bright white, is it simply replace the existing bulbs???

 

I bought some white LED strip off eBay and filled behind the gauges with them. So the light isn't localised - it's spread all over the cluster. :)

Looks really good to me, matches the brightness and colour of my STACK gauges perfectly going by your photo.

Yeah that cluster looks brilliant!

 

You KNOW you want to do the dash in leather Si :p I'm going to do some tests at some point.

Yeah that cluster looks brilliant!

 

You KNOW you want to do the dash in leather Si[emoji14]I'm going to do some tests at some point.

Red trimmed alcantara[emoji14]

Yeah that cluster looks brilliant!

 

You KNOW you want to do the dash in leather Si :p I'm going to do some tests at some point.

 

The problem with trimming the dash (aside from actually having to trim the dash!) is that I'd then have to do the top half of the doorcards, or it'd just look stupid.

 

If those are trimmed, then the centre console really should be done or it'll look out of place... then there's the boot plastics to consider...

 

One snowball! Plus a trimmed dash takes a bit of "originality" away from the cabin. It's a "maybe" but it's certainly not a priority... especially as I know first-hand how much of a chore they are to do...!

Another piece of the puzzle has just dropped through my letterbox:

 

 

 

 

Some custom-made badges for the alloy centrecaps :)

 

I wanted to try and replicate the nose badge I have and, truth be told, I think he's done a cracking job! Yet more things that tie into other things about the car :thumbup1:

Cool [emoji41][emoji106]

More to the right I would say...

 

Thanks, guys :biggrin:

 

I'm looking forward to seeing how my Zed looks when the alloys have been completely revamped this weekend! :thumbup1:

Thought about the red bonnet badge for my alloys but it didn't look right with a red car so went with the black badge.:)

 

 

 

 

Another piece of the puzzle has just dropped through my letterbox:

 

 

 

 

Some custom-made badges for the alloy centrecaps :)

 

I wanted to try and replicate the nose badge I have and, truth be told, I think he's done a cracking job! Yet more things that tie into other things about the car :thumbup1:

 

Nice where did you get these Si?

 

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Thought about the red bonnet badge for my alloys but it didn't look right with a red car so went with the black badge.:)

 

 

 

 

 

I actually prefer the red ones Gaz

Nice where did you get these Si?

 

 

Off a chap on eBay, Ian - here.

 

Really helpful guy and he made them and got them out to me super-fast!

 

Right, the last pieces have now arrived... although I am a little undecided on them at the moment...

 

 

 

Anodised valves. My line of thinking runs thus: The rim bolts on my wheels are anodised red and these valves are quite short and unobtrusive, so shouldn't be glaringly obvious. They keep the colour theme going nicely.

 

I think I'll see what one looks like before the tyre goes back on and make up my mind from there. If nothing else, they'll get rid of the standard black valves which (to my mind) are a little unsightly.... :)

Careful Simon, you're treading a thin wire here!

Careful Simon, you're treading a thin wire here!

 

Ha!!

Well, my Zed is now residing in Hartlepool while the wheels get refurbed. It's very strange (and a little nerve-wracking!) not having her on the drive.... :sweatdrop:

Time for a quick update, I think.

 

My wheels have been acid-dipped and shotblasted and some colour applied - I popped down to see everything last night. Hopefully I should be able to go and collect her at the weekend as there's still more to do :)

 

End of update! :lol:

I seem to have inherited some of Richie K's bad luck here.... :(

 

There's been "an issue" with the refurb, inasmuch that they seem to have exposed the painted wheels to too much heat (to cure the powdercoat lacquer) and it's bubbled all the paint... so I've just been told that "all he can do" is to strip them again and powdercoat the entire wheel in a flat grey (not a metallic, as I wanted) because " he's spent too long on them already and he's nearly out of pocket"...

 

"That's life" apparently!

 

So I've asked him if he can just paint them how I want them, rather than trying to combine paint and powdercoat, because I don't want a set of flat grey wheels. He responded by saying that if I buy more paint (£75) then he'll cover the cost of more shotblasting and he'll do them exactly how I want them.

 

So that's an extra £75 added to the bill for an issue that is no fault of mine whatsoever!!!

 

Thoughts, people? I'm far from a happy bunny here... he assured me that a two-colour refurb would be no problem, but now I can either have a set of wheels that are nothing at all like how I wanted them to be, or I can pay through the nose for something that he said he could do from the outset!

 

Raging...!!

Have you paid him yet?... I would pull out, get the wheels and not to pay or get a refund as he hasn't be able to supply an advertised service.

Would you be out of pocket if you went elsewhere? He made a mistake (and has admitted as much) and should

redo the work at his expense to the agreement you made with him when you gave him the work.

Have you paid him yet?... I would pull out, get the wheels and not to pay or get a refund as he hasn't be able to supply an advertised service.

 

Would you be out of pocket if you went elsewhere? He made a mistake (and has admitted as much) and should

redo the work at his expense to the agreement you made with him when you gave him the work.

 

No money has changed hands at this point.

 

I replied to his offer of paying an extra £75 by politely saying no as there should be no way I'd ever be expected to pay for something that is his fault and his responsibility... and he replied by saying that he'd do the wheels how I want them at his expense.

 

Which is exactly as it should be!

 

There's been many a job I've done where I've needed to order more leather (due to miscalculation or mistakes on my part) and never once have I asked a customer to pay extra! It's simply not the way things are done! If the mistake is mine then the responsibility (financial or otherwise) to rectify it is also mine.

 

All being well, the car will be ready to collect at some point on Saturday... watch this space, I guess.....

No money has changed hands at this point.

 

I replied to his offer of paying an extra £75 by politely saying no as there should be no way I'd ever be expected to pay for something that is his fault and his responsibility... and he replied by saying that he'd do the wheels how I want them at his expense.

 

Which is exactly as it should be!

 

There's been many a job I've done where I've needed to order more leather (due to miscalculation or mistakes on my part) and never once have I asked a customer to pay extra! It's simply not the way things are done! If the mistake is mine then the responsibility (financial or otherwise) to rectify it is also mine.

 

All being well, the car will be ready to collect at some point on Saturday... watch this space, I guess.....

 

If he can't fix it just go somewhere else, it's not worth paying £75 more for a job that should be done properly first time.

If he can't fix it just go somewhere else, it's not worth paying £75 more for a job that should be done properly first time.

 

As I said, all I'm paying now is the price that he and I originally agreed, which is exactly as it should be. :)

 

Fingers crossed that there no more unforeseen problems, either before or after...... :no:

Hope it all goes well for ya buddy:thumbup:

 

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Oh, and welcome to my world:tt2: