Ive repaired a few things with superglue and bicarbonate of soda, try it, just put a small amount of bicarb in a small pile and drop some superglue on it. When its set hit it with an hammer, you will be surprised how hard it is.
Bash
I'm a guitar player, so I've used super glue for all sorts of repairs. The bicarb trick is commonly used to fill over-cut nut slots (where the strings are supported at the headstock). As bash says, it's s rock hard.
It's also used (without bicarb) as a drop-filler for dings in the lacquer finish. Once dried, you can scrape the glue filler with a Stanley blade then polish to a high gloss finish. Result is nearly undetectable.
That's fantastic Pete, looks great. Can't wait to get mine done now!
"Farmer" Richard
1990 Lotus Excel SE (Lilith) 2022 MG MG5 EV (not due to be a classic for quite a few years...) 2011 Nissan Leaf (Ragly - EV pioneer, must be due to be a classic one day)
Still waiting for your address Richard - I made the pin at the weekend . PM me.
Pete
PM sent. I tried earlier but it seems to have gone missing without ever being sent. Hopefully gets through this time.
"Farmer" Richard
1990 Lotus Excel SE (Lilith) 2022 MG MG5 EV (not due to be a classic for quite a few years...) 2011 Nissan Leaf (Ragly - EV pioneer, must be due to be a classic one day)
It's all fixed!! I had a fun 3 days at the NEC Resto Show, with very welcome help from Alan_M (whose previous experience with dashboard removal was invaluable), Phil (Tanz) (who undid the undoable nut) and Tony (Metblue) removing the dashboard to gain access to the heater box.
The only slight glitch was that I left the heater box in place, and there wasn't quite enough space to get a standard cordless drill and drillbit in to drill the hole in the end of the lever. This was fixed by using my little electric screwdriver instead (having wandered off to the autojumble to find an appropriately sized drillbit with a hex fitting to go in the screwdriver).
Pete's nicely machined pin was glued in place using JB Weld - I needed something thick as the hole was a bit too big so there was a bit of slop to take up, superglue is to thin to fill the gap. Left overnight it was satisfactorily solid the next morning. With the cables lubricated too while I was in there, it now all functions nicely. I also took the opportunity to lubricate the blower motor, which had taken to squealing unpleasantly.
I've got a good picture, but it's only on my phone (and the Grand Tourers Facebook page) at the moment, so I'll move it somewhere I can link to later on...
Also, once I've got all the great pictures Alan took, I'll do a proper write-up of the dash removal procedure, while I can still remember how it went.
"Farmer" Richard
1990 Lotus Excel SE (Lilith) 2022 MG MG5 EV (not due to be a classic for quite a few years...) 2011 Nissan Leaf (Ragly - EV pioneer, must be due to be a classic one day)
Here's a picture of the fixed box, with Pete's machined pin glued in (note I haven't connected the control cable yet!):
"Farmer" Richard
1990 Lotus Excel SE (Lilith) 2022 MG MG5 EV (not due to be a classic for quite a few years...) 2011 Nissan Leaf (Ragly - EV pioneer, must be due to be a classic one day)
. PM me.