So, despite having not made any more progress on the house (we have narrowed our selection of colours on paint, so I need to go and buy some, but I keep putting it off, because I’d like to do the woodwork first, and that means getting the minor sorted and back together, which means, ideally, a few days off in a row), I’ve treated myself to a birthday gift.
Heated seats.
Now, if I was clever, and trusted myself, I’d also like fabric covers for the seats in the minor, but I don’t think I’m quite at that level*, although I’d miss the look of the vinyl. I understand that they make leather seat covers to match the original vinyl ones, which is an interesting possibility. Anyhow, for the ‘moment’ I’ve got new foam, new seat springing things (it’s a big rubber sheet to replace the original straps) and new straps to replace the ones at the back.
Irritatingly it’s a job I’ve actually already done once, when a seat frame collapsed on Rebecca years ago I stripped the driver’s seat down and replaced the broken straps and ‘repaired’ the seat with a ‘temporary’ repair of riveting it using a chunk of scrap aluminium. That was about 8 years ago though, and at the time I didn’t buy enough straps to replace the straps in the back section, so ended up selecting the least-bad of them to make the back up.
Now whilst both seats aren’t actually too bad on their seat bases, on both of them the backs have given out hopelessly, making driving actually quite uncomfortable. Since she’s off the road for a while longer it seemed a good opportunity to fix the seat problem. It does make the tetris cushion Kathryn made me redundant from the car-comfort job, but it’s such a gorgeous cushion I quite like having it in the lounge, where it is unlikely to get quite so dirty.
I’ve got a spare seat base which I can use to replace the temporarily repaired one, and in an exciting development (and the sole reason I got new foam) I’ve got… seat heaters. I’ve wanted them ever since experiencing the excitement of seat heaters on Chester (although they are both now, sadly, dead). I actually bought everything to do the seats except the seat heater and foam because I felt it was really an unjustifiable expense. And then I thought about it a bit more – I’m hoping not to need to strip the seats again for a very long time. Which would mean no seat heaters for a very long time. So I trawled the universe and found some reasonably priced carbon seat heaters (these seem to be the in thing in seat heating, although there’s something e-ink based elements which sound like ‘the next big thing’), with a mod suggested so that whilst there’s only one temperature control you can at least switch the two seats independently.
I’ve also, finally, bought the liner for the glove box, which is interestingly fuzzy inside. I don’t recall the original being fuzzy (and we all know how I’m a stickler for originality ;) ). So, that’s quite exciting. Anyhow, I’m trying to persuade myself to go down to the garage, but I’m not really in the mood for attacking seats. Especially since I actually spent my birthday at work, and this morning having a few hairs zapped, I’m quite feeling like spending today reading :)
I’m not very good at taking days off. And some days it’s nice to work on the car, but I was pretty tired yesterday (shattered, let’s be honest) and so the idea of curling up with a slice of birthday cake, a cup of tea, and a book is pretty appealing. I do need, however, to do the washing up first.
* Although, one of my birthday gifts from Kathryn was an awesome Contemporary Upholstery book – because up under (or combined with) the pile of boxes upstairs is the remnants of a 20th century chaise longue which I’m wanting to reupholster. Just need to actually sort out the boxes first.
