New member - Excel SA

[MetBlue]

If your window frames have needed some TLC, I'd suggest testing the movement of the glass in the channel early on. Just fitting glass and moving by hand better than nothing, but ideal if you could fit motor and run under power. When I changed my door beam, I had one hell of a job getting the glass to glide smoothly, in fact it still doesn't, sometimes sticking and needing some hand assistance. I think I've only seen 1 car with a perfect movement both sides. Shim thickness (washers) between the door beam and frame can alter the 'twist' and dramatically affect the running of the glass - and the seal fit.
Door beam doesn't need to be parallel to anything. The only thing I found critical was shim thickness behind the top and bottom hinge plates. Too little and the door leading edge catches the rear of the front wing (explanation is complicated, but there may be something in my "job jobbed" or "longest resto" threads ).
GOOD LUCK.

[Excel SA]

I have trimmed the fiberglass at the top of the doorframe on both sides to get the seal to fit against the frame - the door skin has to line up with the body and the frame needs to line up with the body and the door skin....

I haven't checked the movement of the glass in the window frame for some time, but did test it before sending it out for powder coating - will have to fine tune that part of the installation when everything goes back together one day.

My instrument binnacle had a few issues - the leather had dried out and shrunk, and there were some lumpy bits that you could see and feel. I unstuck the leather on the top to see what was going on, and found that it looked like the high density foam it is made from had been patched with body filler. The shrinking leather had then pulled that apart as well as pulling the front edge up.

I re-repaired the damaged section with some foam, and tried to re-install the leather and stretch it back to fit - no amount of pulling, tugging, heating and steaming would move the leather - I tried hard over a few months. The leather just won't reach the back edge of the binnacle anymore.















The leather on mine has a seam sewn all around the front edge, all the pictures I've looked at don't seem to have it though - any idea if mine is correct or not? A new cover will be required.

I can only see the pictures I'm posting from onedrive on my phone....

Neil.

[Pete Boole]

I can see the photos Neil.

Pete

[TonyL]

I think you're right about the stitching. I think only early Excels, with the Elite S2 style dashboard have stitching like that.

I see there are stitched leather Excel instrument binnacle covers available on ebay, & those have stitching like yours, so yours must be aftermarket.

[Excel SA]

Thanks Pete - photo thing is doing my head in!

Thanks Tony, mine looks like the aftermarket one - it seems to have been pretty well made and fitted well until the leather shrank. Now to decide whether to lose the seam, keep the seam and stitch in black or stitch in red! The one benefit of the stitching is that I think it will hide any imperfections in foam, but it is a lot of stitching.....

I have invested in a very used walking foot sewing machine, it is taking some time to get somewhat useful at using it though.

Neil.

[bash]

My car is a 86se, and it has a slightly shiney plastic finish, it doesnt have a leather finish / cover. I would post a picture but Ive given up trying to get one drive to work even after the suggested fixes, I dont think Ive posted one for a year or so. Im going to go on a limb here but if you are going to throw the old one away is it worth removing the outer protective coat and soaking it in a bucket until the leather softens and can be stretched. On the other hand Im not as bright as I look.

Bash

[Excel SA]

Hi Bash,

I'm pretty sure it's not original - the binnacle has been repaired (badly like most things...). I've tried hard to stretch the leather, not soaked it in a bucket, but steamed it until it was pretty wet and tried to stretch it, but I couldn't stretch it much at all, if at all, maybe a mm or two at most. I need a lot more than that for it to cover the back edge at the top of the binnacle - it has shrunk by about 20mm or so I'd guess.

I have some replacement leather so will try with that - the center console has been redesigned and that needs covering, as well as the top of the back seat, and the strip under the windscreen.

Neil.

[bash]

Looking forward to seeing the results.

Bash

[Hawaiis0]

I used Furniture clinic black balm on my binnacle. Worked great.