Toe Now (or Ton Know)

Catching up on some of the fun parts of maintaining a British car!

Our small town has their annual fair this weekend and there’s always a parade on Saturday. I’m getting Pearline cleaned up and shiny so we can participate.

I’ve had the tonneau top since I bought all the other parts in 2020, but I hadn’t laid it out and fit it into the car. It’s heavy canvas, so it should repel rain well enough. I’m more interested in it to keep the seats from getting too hot when we’re at our favorite taco place.

The tonneau did not come with the snaps and buttons installed, because each car is different. So, I had to learn yet another skill–upholstery. I started with the couple of snap buttons on the sides and then moved on to the “Lift the Dot” studs that are at the front and go around the rear. The snap buttons were easy enough–punch a hole through the canvas for the stud on the female part of the button and put the cover over the stud. A couple of hits with the special tool crimps it together. I ordered extra buttons, but later realized that my car is missing 2 of the male pieces attached. I’ll have to order those at some point and drill some holes in the doors.

For the “Lift the Dot” snaps, I used a leather punch to make 1/4” (6.5mm) holes for the stud that’s mounted on the car. Then, I positioned the piece with metal teeth over the hole and used a slim metal punch to put 4 holes in the right places for the teeth to go through the heavy canvas. On the back side, a separate metal piece covers the teeth as they come out the other side. Finally, a bit of crimping to get the teeth bent over the backing plate. This took about 10 minutes per snap.

On a completely separate note, but relevant in some way. I was at my local True Value hardware this week and they had a close-out special on pressure washers. I picked up a Honda 3,400 PSI (235bar) pressure washer for a great price. No more feeding quarters into the machine in a bay where the previous user cleaned their horse trailer.