Walking to a bus stop in town the other night, I noticed bright lights to the side of the high level bridge. On investigation, I found that a film crew were at work.
Filming
Carpet
After watching this morning’s cycling, I made my daily trip to the storage yard; this time to fit carpet.
Unfortunately, I’d been supplied with a set of Right Hand Drive carpets, so the main cab floor piece doesn’t remotely fit.
Which means I need to wait for a replacement before we can re-fit the front seats. This is something of a pain since the van’s booked-in for re-upholstery on Monday.
One positive, though, is the carpet provided to cover the (not very attractive) under seat storage compartments.
Tour of Britain
Yesterday afternoon, we went into town to watch the end of the third stage of the Tour of Britain. It’s quite a few years since I’d seen a stage, so the scale and organisation were a great surprise. Definitely a good thing for Newcastle.
Since today’s stage was to start across the river in Gateshead this morning, I walked down to the quayside to watch. All 20 teams were introduced as they signed-in, before the 11:00 start.
An excellent way to spend a morning.
Viva Las Vegas
A lady (who I relied on a lot) I used to work with is currently in Las Vegas. She sent me pictures of a crappy van.
Isn’t this the most beautiful thing ever.
Belts
It may seem a minor thing, but I fitted new seatbelts in the van today. However, the originals were ancient and were frustrating to use when one is used to modern belts.
I’d never previously fitted a seatbelt, so the job took longer than it probably should have. I do have some leftover bits, but I’m assuming these were optional.
Cab floor III
Well, that’s the floor finished.
There’s just a small amount of rust to sort out, where the new kick boards will be fitted, then we can lay the floor insulation and carpet.
Sherry
This is a glass of Sherry, in a whisky glass.
We have no Sherry glasses. This is because I’ve not tasted Sherry since the age of nine. Yes, nine.
I’ve had asthma as long as I can remember and, when I was a kid, medication was pretty much non-existant. My own treatment mostly consisted of tranquelisers, with the aim of preventing me from exerting myself, thus triggering an attack. There were some pills in the event of an asthma attack, but they were ineffective.
Now this is weird, since inhalers were available. Che Guevara used French inhalers, which I assume we’re something like the current mainstream reliever. Of course, these weren’t readily available in Bolivia, resulting in the inevitable attack, delay and capture (the rest is history).
In the UK, I can’t say why Ventolin (I’ll use the brand name) also wasn’t available in the UK all those years ago. Maybe the drug was accessible then, but it was never offered to me. Or maybe it wasn’t available on the NHS.
Anyway, my parents heard that Sherry was beneficial for asthma sufferers. We’re not talking about keeping kids quiet by getting them drunk; rather, a small glass each evening to relax the patient.
My first glass of Sherry would have been at the age of eight. It tasted vile and it took a lot of encouragement to make me drink it. However, after a few weeks, it began to taste nice.
A few weeks ago, I bought a bottle from Tesco. It was labeled Jerez Xeres, so I knew that meant it didn’t contain fish (or other animal) bits. It sat in the wine rack since.
For some reason, I decided to try some this evening (why would it work? .
And it was (is) truly disgusting. I think I’ll stick with my inhaler.
Cab floor II
Since my Wickes delivery (cement) arrived early, I made a start on masking-off the cab ready to paint. It was good to see that the rust treatment has turned black, so it maybe just needs cleaning up a little more before priming.
After masking most of the cab, I gave the seat mounts a coat of primer, since the runners on the driver’s side had been in a bit of a mess (there aren’t actually runners as such on the passenger side.
They look a lot better after just the one coat.
I should probably say that the seatbelt are going to be replaced, so I didn’t bother removing them right now.
Cab floor
Well after several delays (there are always better things to do), I made a start on the van’s cab floor today. The seats were really easy to take out, so I was pretty optimistic as to getting the floor cleaned-up quickly.
But then I took the rubber flooring up. It actually came up easily, but the old 1970s double-sided adhesive tape was firmly stuck and a real pain to remove from the floor.
This picture’s from around the halfway point in tape removal and sanding.
There was quite a bit of rust, as I’d expected, but it was limited to the surface. The blue/black areas below show the rust treatment starting to work.
To be honest, though, after removing the kick boards, the van’s really in decent shape for its age.
The paintwork in the picture is all original and virtually rust free, a good thing since this is the front of the van.
We knew that the van had spent most of its life in Florida, which has undoubtedly contributed to its preservation. However, a find under the driver’s seat shows that the van had made at least one lengthy trip before moving to the UK; to Wyoming.
I also learned that seat belt design had remained unchanged since the bay window Type 2 was introduced in the late 60s.
I’ve a cement delivery tomorrow, so a coat of primer should follow on Thursday.
Barbecue II
Well, the heaps of stone and rubble in the garden have been reduced from three to just one – achieved by relocating much of the stone to the old barbecue area.
Unfortunately, the garden does now look something of a mess.
