wolfrace 116 Posted January 31, 2018 Nice one! Looks great hopefully I'll get a chance to have a nose at it sometime! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Danish 294 Posted February 2, 2018 A nice warm inside job tonight. I acquired a Mk5 centre console last year, and I've just bought a Mk5 GL/Ghia gear stick gaiter. Both grey and both 35+ years old so I'm just using them as templates for making a pattern and making new ones in black vinyl fabric. Tonight's job was sitting in a comfy chair separating the pieces by unpicking the stitching: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beowulf 87 Posted February 3, 2018 Pod is looking great Jayne. I made my own vinyl gaiter too. Relatively easy job but can be a bit tight on the machine at the top. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MrMacca 4 Posted February 4, 2018 The camping trailer a neat piece of work Danish Unique ! :showoff: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Danish 294 Posted February 5, 2018 You're right Tony - stitching near the top is tricky and my machine is grumbling at stitching from the smooth sidefor a nice seam. Maybe ebay is a better optipn or at least I'll need thinner vinyl. Thanks for your kind words Macca. It's all very exciting. But as it's unheated I'm having to wait a while to try it out :-( Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beowulf 87 Posted February 6, 2018 You may have seen it but here's mine. I used quite thin vinyl. Not sure how long it will stand up but was cheap lol. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mk5Mike 36 Posted February 6, 2018 (edited) The camping pod looks fab! Are we going to get a peek inside? Edited February 6, 2018 by Mk5Mike Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Danish 294 Posted February 6, 2018 (edited) The camping pod looks fab! Are we going to get a peek inside? Sure. :) At the front is a locker. It contains a 12v leisure battery, and I'm busy fitting a mains battery charger. There's a 12v electric cool-box going in on the right hand side. The galley is at the back - so you have to go out of the door and open the hatch at the back. There were options for a gas hob and mains, but we just went with a sink and a pair of 12v cigarette lighter style sockets. This photo was taken not-quite-finished so there's no tap. The right-hand locker is storage space, the left-hand holds the water reservoir for the tap. We decided all we really need is a portable gas ring to be able to boil some water for tea, coffee and easy stuff like Pot Noodle. The main cabin is mostly filled with a sofa bed. We went for venetian blinds, and red/light grey/dark grey colour scheme for a 1980s look: If we're ever caught out with bad weather, the pod is so small the options will be the nearest pub or an early night. So we have a few creature comforts - a car radio and a portable telly with DVD player. Another couple of 12v sockets for charging phones, etc. All set for a quiet night in. Mmmm, Vin Diesel or Dwayne Johnson. :headscratch: I used quite thin vinyl. Not sure how long it will stand up but was cheap lol. Here is the gearstick gaiter I made. It's 'ok' but I'm not 100% happy so I'm going to make it again, but using a black suedette fabric which will be easier to work with. Edited February 6, 2018 by Danish 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wolfrace 116 Posted February 6, 2018 Looks great to me. I'll have that one if you think it is no good! :D Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Paul B 22 Posted February 7, 2018 Nice gaitors :-) and a brilliant trailer.. Wow! I couldn't find a proper gaitor so ended up making my own. This one is proper leather which, I must confess, I got a friend at work to stitch for me. The ring is made from resin and turned on the lathe. It was a bit chunky though and I've since done a slimmer version and this time mixed aluminium powder into the resin so it's silver all the way through. Finished on the lathe again to polish. Not quite chrome but looks good. No picture of that version at the moment. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RichardJ 59 Posted February 7, 2018 (edited) Good work on the gaiters everyone :thumbup: Mine was shabby as anything, so I also tried to make up a new one.... with terrible results. I could cut the triangles out OK, but it looked so bad when I had finished stitching it together that I didn't even try fitting it to the car, and just binned it. I quickly realized I completely lacked any semblance of leather/vinyl working skills. In the end I had a stroke of luck and stumbled across a place on ebay that did leather gear gaiters that fitted my mk3 (advertised as a Cortina mk2 gaiter, but it was almost exactly the same shape as my old mk3 GT one). They also did the handbrake gaiter (advertised as a Cortina mk5 gaitor - same centre console as the mk3 GT), and a cover for the centre console lid, so I was spared the embarrassment of trying to cobble those together. Edited February 7, 2018 by RichardJ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Danish 294 Posted February 7, 2018 (edited) Looks great to me. I'll have that one if you think it is no good! It's not that good - the vinyl is too thick so it's not very flexible. I couldn't find a proper gaitor so ended up making my own. This one is proper leather which That looks very nice. I was thinking to use turn the top of the gaiter inside and use a cable tie - which isn't anything like as good. I quickly realized I completely lacked any semblance of leather/vinyl working skills. I do have some skills - I've made tombstone covers before, but this was too tricky. You have to recognise your limitations. I've had a generous offer of an original gearstick gaiter, and I'll buy a reproduction handbrake one. But I'll make a new cover for the top of the cubby box myself. Edited February 7, 2018 by Danish Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mk5Mike 36 Posted February 8, 2018 Thanks for the tour - it looks just as good on the inside as it does on the outside! 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Danish 294 Posted February 18, 2018 Thanks for the tour - it looks just as good on the inside as it does on the outside! Thanks Mike! It's going to make quite a difference to what I do with the Mk3 I think - definitely a lot more camping. I think the Friday of Cortina Day weekend is first on my list, then OSF's "Tour of the Moor", Mmk3 Nationals, Powderham, maybe the Mk1 & 2 Nationals. Definitely lots of camping! I haven't really directly done much on the Mk3 over the last couple of weeks, but I've made some real progress generally. I've been nursing a bad back for months, since slipping/rupturing a disc last summer. But last weekend I managed to finish my new workbench. It's key to moving PAL over to the Emerald ECU. LED strip lights, 8 x mains sockets: With an RCD and 16A power coupling: In other news I've been preparing the camping pod for the Mk3 nationals - at least three days of camping, maybe more. So I wanted electric hook-up to recharge the battery. I bought a humungous drill from Screwfix, measured at least six times, then I drilled! Now I can use a standard caravan power inlet and hook-up cable: 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Deano66 250 Posted February 18, 2018 Nice work Jayne :thumbup: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
