Imprisonment - Day 83

Imprisonment - Day eighty three
Friday 12th June 2020

Cars - 35
Motorbikes - 1
Bikes - 2
Dog walkers - 2
Walkers - 3
Runners - 3
Horses - 0
Horse walkers - 0
Molehills - 0
Cycling temperature - 12.7c

At last a warmer if not brighter morning. I saw Double and Ginger Dog this morning and lots of other people none of whom I've seen before.

I did a lot of bits and pieces to the Bentley today and little on the switch panel as I had intended. Ros came down to the Motor House early on and helped me lift the windscreen on to the car. I was amazed how quickly we got it in place and the six bolts pushed straight into position. I loosely tightened them as we moved onto getting the hood back on. Again this was an easy operation. In less than half an hour Ros was walking back to the house job done. I finished tightening up the nuts on the screen and the ones which hold the hood in place. I'd missed fitting a couple of turn buckles for the hood as the holes had been obscured by the coats of paint. Once I'd found the holes they were easily fitted. I then fitted the wires to the windscreen wiper. Refitted the two digital temperature gauges and the bicycle digital speedometer which I adapted to fit the Bentley. All the various wires associated with theses items are held in place with stainless steel clips but theses clips were fitted to the car mainly with steel screws so I changed these to stainless steel most of which needed to be shortened to fit. I fitted the door stay strap to the passenger door and finished off a little leather work to cover up the heads of the windscreen bolts on the inside of the car.

I then turned my attention at last to the switch panel and removed all the switches warning lights gauges etc being carful to mark certain wires if they had to be disconnected from the switch or gauge. I then cut a new panel out of some scrap aluminium sheet and worked out what size would best and what is the best lay out. The old panel has evolved over the years as items have beed added. The oblong hole for the battery condition gauge was a time consuming job as I had to drill holes in a line to punch out the rough size I needed then I tidied it up gently filing it to fit. Fortunately aluminium is a soft metal that is easily filed with my diamond file so care was needed not to take too much off. The positioning of the switches and warning lights etc. needs a bit more thought which I will do tomorrow.