Sorry for the delay, I had planned to take my dad a few times to see the car but both times Sydney got 150mm of rain which would not make for a nice trip. I finally took him late June and then I went to see the car again in July as I had a two week holiday in Manly, using up credit from holidays cancelled previously due to COVID.
Hopefully everyone enjoys these photos
Firstly I finished building a Telecaster using the body the painted for me. Very few parts are actually Fender, nearly everything is aftermarket and I had fun deciding which parts to use. I fitted a 4 way switch so I can get Bridge, Neck, both in parallel and both in series. Both in series sounds great. I also got the neck plate done with a MG badge. Overall the guitar is as nice to paly as any Tele I have tried in a shop and cost a bit more than the cheaper made in Mexico models. The trimmer has promised to make me a strap with left over leather once he trims the car which will make the guitar closer to the car in appearance. I think it will be nice to have a matching guitar and car.
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The main reason for visiting the workshop was the trimmer had chosen some leather and carpet he thought would suit my car and they had sent a small sample that I had held near the guitar and was happy with but really wanted to see it as a big piece with the car. In this photo you can also see the handbrake that looks nicer than I was expecting. while most of his customers have it all covered with leather I am thinking about just having the bottom half covered and leaving the chrome wider part exposed, maybe it might be hot to touch but it will mean the leather not getting dirty from constantly being touched.
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They were working on wiring up the dash while I was there, certainly a lot of wires.
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The car was on a hoist as they had removed the diff, I had not seen under the car before as it was on the ground on my previous visits. The reason being is that the wire wheels need a skinnier hub to clear the guards and secondly the diff shop has some improvements to the LSD they said they could do while changing the hubs to the skinner size. While I was there they raised the car so dad and I could have a look underneath.
Note that the engine is on a slight angle in the donor MX5 so the bottom of the sump and drain plug are flat, but in my car the engine is straight up so the sump is not completely flat and the drain plug not at the bottom. When changing oil I plan to jack up the car and to remove and clean the wire wheels, so I will make sure I let it drain with the engine angled to get the most amount of oil out.
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The main muffler has a sloped section at both the front and the back, the idea is if I scrape it on a speed bump it slides over rather than damaging the muffler.
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The underneath is matt black, some customer pay a lot more to get body colour in the cabin, boot and underneath, if you look at my post from 8/12/2020 on page 6 you will see another car like that. I did not get it done for three reasons, the cost, you don't see the boot or cabin once it is all carpeted, if I do scratch underneath the car it will be easier to touch up a matt black.
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