Strange title I know, bumpers don't go with wipers but that's what we got this time.
Rear bumper time it is . . No pictures while assembling - it all happened too quick but on the bumpers are. A little disappointed in the chroming in a couple of places but I think I will have to live with it because I just don't want to be bothered with the hassle
Rear of the car showing bumper and lights
Rear Complete with number plate bracket
On to the wipers here they are fitted.
New arms and wipers
Only thing is they are just crap - really crap, what to do? I thought lets look at the old ones, rubbers are dead of course but are they as bad? of course they aren't they fit properly not like the new crap. After a lot of fiddling I have re-worked the old wipers with the new blades
A quick update on door handles. . . I thought like the door is fitted rite so lets fit the door handle - it only has 2 fixings and it wont take long so the other Sunday morning I went to fit it.
So first I needed to fit the B post door peg, I had done this before so it was quick to just put the peg back in the B Post.
B-Post Peg & Trim
Then I put the lock into the door, 4 screws, no problems but when the door shuts it is about 4mm short of fitting flush to the panel. Nothing to do about that - couldn't adjust the peg anymore to get the shut I wanted so 2 plates were made to space the door lock inside the door. Door shuts great!
Now the to fit the interior handle - guess what you cant fit that with the door lock fitted so out it came again, handle rod installed and refitted - great!
Now the door handle - having already fitted that into the door I was confident BUT I hadn't fitted it with the re-positioning lock had I, so out it all came again, some tweaking of the lock and handle and back it all goes, great!
All fitted and aligned, I shut the door and twang, a rattle, frustratingly the interior handle rod spring tension had bust. This was part of the lock mechanism and it took some ingenuity to design and construct a fix using some foam, all back together - hurray!
Next up on the short list after sorting the boot trim was to construct some new interior trim panels for the rear wheel arches.
The Short List:
Construct new rear wheel arch trims
Install rear seat pans
Figure out what to do with the rear seats/trim
Fit the new washer bottle, electrics and water piping
Install boot trim
Refit the rear bumper irons
Install the battery - why not
The car came with some trim panels that cover the metalwork around the B-Post, rear bulkhead and seats and were grubby to say the least what you think?
The starting position
What to do to solve all of this mess? Well, I wasn't keen on the seats for starters - what use are they? only children could really sit in them and would you let them - I think not! I thought that the best thing to do was to remove the seats and create a flat floor for extra luggage space - we gonna need it - see the boot?
To fill the holes I purchased a couple of blanking plates but as with these cars that didn't really work out as you can see. . .
Blanking Plate - Just Doesn't Fit
Seems the best thing to fill the holes is the seat pans so they got cleaned and painted and bolted back in without the seat foam and cover. But first the side panels, these were well not worth saving but did provide a pattern and some parts that I used to construct new side panels from 3mm plywood - some images of a few steps. . .
The starting point, 2 holes and 2 grubby panels
The new side panel made and sticking the cover on with a mix of spray and evostic contact adhesive
Image before adding the final cover - just some cushion foam to give a "Feel"
Side panel in place
Sides panels, Rear panel with carpet and bespoke box to make a cubby hole and flat surface
Cubby open - see the seat pans inside
Carpet of the flat surface - main carpet to be fitted to front face.
I am quite pleased with the effect this provides, all side faces are covered in the trim material and the rear and floor faces get the woollen carpet treatment, provides a nice finish I think.
Pretty much completes the short list at any rate...
