Speaking of chav...
Discussion
Jon39 said:
Your car is a credit to you Karl-Franz. Not chavvy.
A while ago, IIRC, you showed a photo of your wings without headlights. Not sure what you were doing there, or is there something obvious that I have not seen?
You are known to us as a skilled engineer, who always likes to be working on improvements, that most of us dare not attempt.
What is your next project? GT3 wings would not surprise me, or a complete GT3 look-alike. Tempted?
Thanx for the kind words.A while ago, IIRC, you showed a photo of your wings without headlights. Not sure what you were doing there, or is there something obvious that I have not seen?
You are known to us as a skilled engineer, who always likes to be working on improvements, that most of us dare not attempt.
What is your next project? GT3 wings would not surprise me, or a complete GT3 look-alike. Tempted?
The bonnet was painted (at great expense) by the local Aston factory authorized repair facility. They are aware of my penchant for taking Astons apart
so they suggested I could save some money in labor costs by removing and later reinstalling things such as headlights and side strakes myself. The reason they need these removed is that, for a proper paint match, they must paint a portion of the wings as well and blend it in. This, I am told, is due to the orientation of the metal flakes in the paint.
No plans to turn my car into a GT3 at the moment.
It's just a standard epoxy floor. I have lots of fluorescent lighting in the garage so that it is easier to see my work.The side effect is that it makes the floor look brighter and cleaner in pictures. Having a nice climate-controlled garage with a clean floor and a good set of tools makes working on cars a much more pleasant experience. I just wish I had enough room for an underground lift like they have at the dealership.
krisdelta said:
Lovely looking car Karl, have you re-done your laser detector fitting for the interior lighting binnacle also? Surely a consultancy role in Q for you is only a matter of time
Thanx, Kris.The new cars have a different (and larger) setup for the dome/map lights due to the addition of the rain sensor for the wipers. Consequently, creating a housing for the Valentine 1 similar to the one in the previous Aston was not possible. I studied the different possibilities, and the best that I could come up with was to mount the detector in the same area but outside and below the dome light rather than within it. I modified the mounting bracket so that it slips into the hole where the microphone used to be in older cars
Valentine sells a module called Savvy which allows you to power the detector by plugging into the vehicle's OBD-II port. The benefits of this include: No hard wiring to fuseboxes or ugly cables to cigarette lighter ports; The unit powers itself On and Off with the ignition, and; You can use a dial to set a vehicle speed under which all alerts are automatically muted. I actually attached the remote display to this OBD-II connector which places the unit in a location (in the lower panel right beside the fuel filler and bonnet release) that allows me to view all the information through the 7 to 8 o'clock opening in the steering wheel without it being visible at all from outside the vehicle.
To finish off the installation, I covered the detector unit in matching Alcantara which makes it blend with the rest of its surroundings. Its location behind the rear view mirror prevents the unit from being seen from behind the vehicle while allowing easy access to the mute button.
As usual, all was done without any permanent or irreversible modifications to the car. I'll try to take a few pictures of it later for you guys to see.
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