DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

I said that it would be a while …… some chores have been chored, plus I was asked to do a last minute 2 days sailing course. Bit chilly day 1 and absolutely no wind, so plenty of boat handling for the students, but it blew a fair bit on the Sunday, so that was better for them. They’re back at the end of January for the final 3 days.

Until then, more time for the car (and the lift). Since the last update I have managed the odd sneaky trip into the garage, but it was always a quick trip, add some glue, leave and come back another day. Repeat ad nauseum.

Having got the reinforcing strips where I want them (hopefully that is in the right places – I centred them, and they line up with the locking clips on the front and rear bars, so …..), time for the webbing strips. There was a lot of attach with bulldog clips, trial fit on the car, etc. before any gluing.

I decided to approach the gluing in several stages. First I glued the webbing onto the three reinforcing plates, then the side plates, then wrapped it over the ends of the reinforcing plates and glued.

First, glue to the plates



Then to the sides




Then once that had all settled, I drilled through the webbing, using the original rivet holes in the reinforcing plates. Otherwise, once the webbing is wrapped around the ends I wouldn’t be able to see the original holes.


Turn over



Add loadsa glue, fold over and clamp




There has been endless trial fitting of the roof at each stage, to check that nothing had moved - it’s amazing how dusty a car can get if you don’t drive it


That’s the roof to date. Glue is drying, then rivet the webbing, add hessian and foam, then time for the vinyl covering and headliner…….


In other news, the new lift arrived


Was unboxed


Oil was ordered. Messaged ebay vendor the day after due date as it was still showing as not arrived with the courier. 6 days later (after involving ebay) he said he would check. 2 days later, having involved ebay again and got a refund, he messaged to apologise that it had been lost and as he had no more, he would issue a refund. Strange that it is still on his ebay shop, but now at full price, not the 30% ‘special offer’. So, oil ordered from a separate supplier, and this morning …..



I've wired in a spur for the control box

And all we need now is the Garage Bitch to arrive on Friday to help lift the bl00dy things and instal them.

I'm tossing a few cabers as we speak to get match fit for Friday boss

You're probably aware but just in case, before you put the cover on the roof, don't forget that the folding roof arms should 'snap' close if the webbing is tensioned properly....

Thx - they are a bit of a challenge to lock out now

… and there’s more ….

Rivet webbing to reinforcing plates


Trail fit (yet again) to car. Gaps look nice and even, although seal needs a little more d=finessing


Add hessian




Fold edges over and glue. Then add foam


Trim (not folding edges over here)


Trial fit to car (again !)


And drape with original cover, just to keep some of the dust off while I wait for it to get warmer or brave trying a heat gun to warm the new cover.

I used a heat gun

Loads of work in that roof

Now you’re the expert in the process you’ll never have to do it again!

Oh I do hope never again ! It’s not been too hard but is taking soooo long - glue a bit, wait for it to dry, glue a bit more, wait some more, etc, etc

I still find traces of that horrible spray glue on random parts of the kitchen where I recovered my roof.

IKWYM - I spent a goodly while on my knees yesterday, using cellie thinners in an attempt to clean it off my new garage floor tiles.

It’s Friday, so it must be the Garage Bitch’s visiting day – yippee.

Last night I was having a think – a good job that I was already lying down. Having measured the lift, the 911 and SWMBO & my dailies, I was comfortable about the front to rear positioning of the lift. I had intended to have the control box in t’other end of the garage, but my nightmare was about being able to roll an engine out from under the car, all without needing to roll over the hydraulic pipes, etc.
So, after the obligatory coffee and talking of the b0ll0x, out we went, armed with tape measures and finally came to the conclusion that the control cabinet (& hydraulic pipes) would need to be at the door end of the garage. This was a problem in that I had wired an electrical spur and junction box to the other end of the garage – took ages to drop the ceiling and route the cable behind the insulation !. Not a major issue, and a suitable length of cable, plus additional junction box were promptly ordered from my local ScrewFix. Unfortunately, when I tried to remove the specially thinned section of the junction box (where the cables would enter), about 30% of the side simply exploded away. I’ve used it for now, but that was a waste of 95p.
The other issue was that my air hose reel can only fit where the control cabinet now wanted to reside. This particular issue has not been fully resolved, as we speak (or type / read / whatever).

Step 1 was to measure, mark the floor and move the ramp platens into place.


This took far too long, was hard work, but once in place


We retired to the kitchen for more coffee and more talking of the b0ll0x.


While waiting for the 1 hour ScrewFix delivery (that took 2) GB removed the air hose reel. He did this by placing a spanner on each of the 4 securing rawbolts and simply snapped them off ! Strong stuff this oak.



A top tip for all you budding garagistas, is not to use a fire extinguisher as a handy leverage to get your aging body upright

I'm not revealing who did this, but let's just say that it wasn't me.

Anyway, cable finally arrived from ScrewFix (we might have been sitting in a coffee shop having lunch when it finally arrived, we might not have been, I’m not telling), so electrickery weas made to flow to all of the right places, hydraulic pipes were attached, and buttons were duly pressed. Nada, nicht’s, sweet FA happened. I think that we have a duff photocell, as everything works with it over-ridden. It is permanently showing a green light, and doesn’t go red if I unbolt it and shine it at the roof or at a mirror.

But by pressing the photocell override button, we had motion


Bit of a worry when it went all the way up but no sound about coming down again. I realised that if I sat the GB on it, then all was well and we had sufficient going of the downwards motion.


This was supposed to be relatively quick playtime, but it took 2 of us from 7:30 until 14:30. The GB had to leave, so I drilled the holes for the holding down bolts using the required 16mm SDS bit. Unfortunately the bolts wouldn’t fit in the resulting hole, which is when I realised that one of the ‘wings’ on the end of the drill bit had sheared off, so I was drilling a rough 15mm hole. More shopping needed, but as an interim, I just dropped some M12 or M14 bolts into the holes to prevent the lift from sliding forwards when I drove over it.


It would have been churlish not to try it for real, so ….




And the adjustment of the top stop

Close but plenty enough room (probably)

As usual, many thanks to my old mucka, the Garage Bitch for his help (it's only about a 30 mile ride each way for him).

A pleasure as always my fellow mucka

And I had forgotten about the fire extinguisher. I just stuck both hands out and pressed on whatever it rested on to help me up. A proper "Fetch me my brown corduroys" moment I can tell you. Nearly shat meself

I should have burst into song when the cloud of dust cleared

"Tonight Matthew I am going to be ....."

A bit disappointed tbh., I was expecting The Garage Bitch to turn up in gimp mask or with whips and thigh-length boots.

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