STAFF CAPS SILVER SHADOW PROJECT
We finished the end of the last update in a state of mild frustration - all the efforts with the gearbox actuator had merely improved things a bit rather than curing it, allowing it to select Park perhaps once in three or four attempts. Then we'd discovered a front brake caliper seizing on. It all felt like baby steps, but baby steps in the wrong direction.
Findlay, my partner in this restoration, suggested cleaning the carpets with a special detergent-sucking vacuum cleaner he'd borrowed, and as a way to make us feel better about our progress, it was a useful idea. Within minutes of attacking each footwell, the cleaner's waste-water tank resembled a jug of Guinness, such was the concentration of grime it picked up. We think the late Duke and his passengers were smokers, and while any smell of stale tobacco seems to have dissipated after 35 years in a garage, the ash and smoke residue hadn't gone anywhere. Until now.
Encouraged by Fin's success, I took all the spares, tools and boxes ofwe've had the car. It soon became obvious how sad the boot carpet is; it looks as though something mildly corrosive has spilled onto it in one patch, while other areas are just threadbare or tattered. However, there's plenty left for a pattern, so this will be the one piece of interior trim in JUD 1D that gets replaced.
