So, where was I?

Oh yeah. The dashboard was in pieces and the centre console was out of the car.

Little bit has happened since then....

1) The wood came back from the paintshop. More on that in a moment.
2) Our instrument mech friend pitched up at the pub one night with the seat memory switch panel fixed. Over ?1k's worth of kit, sorted for rather less. This is what is technically known as an epic win The switch panel was duly fitted back into the console.
3) Topped up the hydraulic oil reservoirs. Well, I say 'topped up'....pretty much filled from bog-empty. The brakes and rear suspension work a bit better now
4) We changed some bulbs, refitted the seat and memory switches (see 2)) and put the centre console back in the car. This would have been so much easier had the seats not been in place. Hey ho.
5) Then today came....well....the following.

First this piece went back in (an utter swine of a job, worse than removing it in the first place):



Then this little lot followed (also a pig of a job, since it needed a few shims to line everything up right):



And in quick succession we ended up with a few more bits attached:






You can tell I'm no bloody photographer, can't you? There's a couple more photos to post when my prehistoric internet connection finally drags in the e-mail that they're attached to. I can't promise that they're any better than the above, but they do have a wide-angle shot of the whole dash. Tried to record the engine sound with the owner's phone as well, but it really doesn't come out very well. Will have to borrow something a bit better and get it uploaded.

Still a fair amount to do, but definitely light at the end of the tunnel now. Bunch of cosmetic stuff, the tracking wants looking at, and the ever-present mysterious twittering sound from behind the dashboard still hasn't been eliminated fully.

Oh, and a lesson in why cheap leather 'refurbs' are never a good idea. This is what the drivers seat looks like right now despite the last owner having paid to have the seat renovated:



Looks even worse IRL. It'll look a lot better than that by the time we're done....

Nice, looks very clean and well done

Did I totally miss your previous thread or something?

Cheers

Previous thread is here.

Looks great, love the colour.

Keep us posted.

Fantastic Keep the posts coming.

Thats a great job.

Try Gliptone this time for the leather restoration, its not a cheap nasty paint type, best iv seen.

Cheers Jez.

Taking the car for a run later on to get the rear end pumped back up and make sure we have enough LHM in the system now.

Cheers for the tip DiamondMark. I'll pass that one on to the owner.

Get a contamination test done on the hydraulics if it dosent come right up.

Absolute sex.

Good job - keep the updates coming! Piano black inserts look great.

Pumped straight up, ride is back to being as good as it was now as well. Amazing what a Bentley can do when it actually has LHM in the reservoir....

Car drove very well in fact. Taking it up to a restaurant later to give it an extended run up the A444. Really happy with what we've done this week.

Now if we could just have some decent weather when I next do something on it, that'd be great....

This looks interesting, big old bus gets new'd. I approve.

Looks much better with the black dash.

Lovely, looks to be all coming along nicely there. You should bring this to a Motors meet some time ...I think a fair few people would find this very interesting. Although you might need a whip round to fund the fuel for the rides

I'd love to do something like this with a Jaguar XJS ...I don't have the space though ...or the knowledge, but if I had the space I could play around and gain the knowledge I suppose.

a V12 xj coupe is just the sex. XJS a bit "meh" imho

There aint many coupes left, at least you can find a half decent XJS project car.

I'd love to....fancy paying for the petrol?

In all seriousness, a halfway local meet-up wouldn't be expensive at all. And even driving a distance isn't exactly out of sight now that the engine work has been done and it's actually operating properly once up to temperature....God bless muppets who 'repair' vacuum pipes by wrapping them in electrical tape, 'cause no other bugger would bless 'em....

The interior reminds me of an X300 XJ, and the thing that baffles me when you see one of these nice Bentleys drive past is that the driver looks like he's seated so high up.

Thats because your car is quite low and those Bentleys are quite high

Yea they are. You sit much higher in an X350 than you do in an X308 or X300 also.

Well, looks like I know what I'm doing next weekend now....taking the front seats apart.

Woo.

Actually shouldn't be too difficult, we've already taken the drivers seat halfway apart before to change the seat memory box underneath it. Also gives us the chance to replace all the mismatched screws and missing cup washers....If I ever catch hold of the pack of retards that worked on this car in the past I shall not be held responsible for my actions....