Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

While Darren was metal bashin' I had a mooch around the workshop.
He's employed 2 young lads since I last visited. One owns an Austin 10 & an Austin 7, the other's looking for a Ford Pop.
1950s Bentley, converted by someone in Germany. Darren pronounced it as "horrible". It's in for a rebody & sort out.

[Manky Monkey]

Mismatched exhaust headers will be remade too.

[Manky Monkey]

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[Manky Monkey]

Supercharged Wolseley straight 6. Original chassis. New body & interior, including ali race seats, by Darren & the boys.
The "boat tail" body panel in the foreground's for the Bentley.

[Manky Monkey]

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[Manky Monkey]

Darren altering my 'guard.

[Manky Monkey]

I want a string bound steering wheel! I've been thinking about this since my trip to the Vintage Sports Car Club hillclimb meet in Gloucestershire the other week, (Darren had a hand in several of the cars there). Love the look of wrapped wheels. Wonder what mine would look like done in black string?

[Manky Monkey]

So a well spent day. Good job I enjoy road trips!

[Olds]

I want a string bound steering wheel!

Might look good, especially if the spokes are painted green like the body to give contrast.
If you do it I'd suggest using hemp or cotton . They have good grip, absorb sweat well and don't stretch as much most synthetics.
I'd also stay away from anything that might be waxed.

[poprodder]

i dribbled at them boat tails. 

[triker_Chewie]

natural hemp fibre (un-coloured) and dark painted wheel and spokes, my vote

[Olds]

i dribbled at them boat tails. 

Yep, me too. Would love to try doing one, Even know of a local 30s rolling chassis but I've run out of space.

natural hemp fibre (un-coloured) and dark painted wheel and spokes, my vote

Not voting but tend to agree with Chewie. Black might just end up looking like a steering wheel cover. Natural gets dirty quickly but it's easy and cheap to redo.

[Manky Monkey]

I was actually thinking nickel plated wheel with black leather:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121085027032?var=420128999085&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

To quote an email from my older -& far cleverer brother, Mr Brock:

15" wheel , 47" round , allow 16 turns to the inch , 752 turns , 1" tube , 3 1/8" round , 2,350 inches , 195 feet !

-so now you know how long a piece of string is.

[Manky Monkey]

Didn't get to the workshop till nearly 5 this evening, so not a huge amount done. I changed the battery terminals -I originally fitted snap shut, quick release jobbies, but they didn't fit in the battery box very well so the cables were at odd angles. Always thought they might eventually come adrift. 
2 quid for standard ones from Ebay. Job done.

[Manky Monkey]

Then I took a look at the shock mount. With the newly rebuilt shock propped in place I could see I needed to slice an inch or so off the end to give some reserve travel space. Under normal driving, the shock would never go that far, but as we've proved, sometimes it does. I was hooning about off-road in the Pop, but if I'd had to do an emergency swerve on a motorway for example, the same could've happened.
Now the shock's free to travel upwards until it's horizontal without fouling on the mount -if it goes that far I'll have more to worry about than a snapped shock absorber!
I was going to plate the end of the mount in again, but it's made from 3mm + steel box section & I really don't think it needs it. I gave the spring a rub down with wet n dry paper & blew it over in a couple of coats of gloss black, (eventually I'll have both springs powder-coated black). So tomorrow I can put it back on the shock & bolt it all back together. Then I'll do the same on the other side.