Ravelled

The test of an adventure is that when you're in the middle of it, you say to yourself, "Oh, now I've got myself into an awful mess. I wish I were sitting quietly at home." And the sign that something's wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure.
Thornton

So... I am pleased to report that the cable expert was a bit more impressed with the second attempt of mine to present my cables to him for extending. Because of my doubts about the accuracy of my measurements I requested him to create the new cables but only to fit one of the end-fittings to each of them. I also requested that he leave an additional 200mm on the cable length to allow for trimming. In that way I thought that I could fit them into their exact positions and mark the precise point where each of the remaining end fittings should be attached. Clever hey?

This is where I discovered that the measuring had not gone as well as hoped. Both of the handbrake cables were somehow way too short! 1.3 metres of gaping space between the tail end of each handbrake cable and the back wheels. That's around four feet in the old money, oh dear, oh dear. I can almost hear my late step-father's mocking voice: "Coop, this time you've made a monumental, right royal, five-star, flag-waving, ocean-going cock-up!"

Ah well, the other two were almost perfect, a small amount to be trimmed and they'll be ready for use. I packaged everything up carefully again with the updated, accurate measurements and schlepped it off this morning to the cable maker in Randburg.

He was good enough to recreate the two new handbrake cables in full and add the remaining fittings to the others while I waited. It all ended up costing a bunch more than I had budgeted for but it's my own fault - for the sake of my sloppy measurements the two handbrake cables had to be completely remade.

At least they are done now, properly made, custom cables that should last for the life of this bus. They look perfectly good and seem to be very well made. Wherever possible the tatty old fittings have been re-used - cleaned and polished up to look like new parts.

I must extend a special thank-you to Martin Peach for his efforts, his company is called Cable Maker and you can reach him at 082 492 7794 or (011) 787-2995. For very professional manufacturing of any type of cables, window winders etc. I recommend him.


Thanks for stopping by
CooP