Curtains for the Land Rover

Well, in my attempt to take my 109 to the Overland Expo in May I had a need for some curtains. I wound up getting swimsuit material because it is stretchy and opaque. My color choice turned out to be camo. Because my sewing skills are not up to stretchy material I sourced out the actual construction to a local sewing place.
    To make a long story short he didn't have them done on time and the one that was done was wrong. Eventually they were made correctly but the 109 didn't make it to Arizona.
   My design was to just have bungee sewn inside the hem of the curtain and I could just stretch them over the side windows, much like a shower cap, I can even have the window open to get some air in.

Here's the inside of a finished side window curtain;

From the inside it looks like this on the window;

From the outside the side window looks like;

The front and back curtains are of different construction, they needed to have a pass through hem so I could then run a bungee in it and hook it to the inner raingutter. The front one is wider to reach full from side to side whist the rear only needs to cover the window in the door.
     I had a duece of a time trying to figure out how to clamp the bungee to the raingutter. At first I tried making plain 90deg hooks and attaching them to the bungee. I couldn't get the hooks to stay on the gutter, but I did learn that I could ziptie the bungee to the hook when tying it didn't work. Next I made a more complicated hook which with a "W" shape it actually held onto the gutter but wasn't quite "right" for me. Then I hit on the idea of using a binder clamp and ziptying the bungee to one of the handles. Brilliant!
    So with a bit of time and cutting and zipping I am satisfied, the curtain is taut, simples, and easy.

Here's the front from outside;

And from the inside;

The rear from the outside;

With the door open;

From the inside;

How the bungee's are attached;

Kite surfers

Last week my friend Brett G. and I drove my 109 up to Half Moon Bay to see our friend Brian H. We drove up Hwy 1 from Santa Cruz, and stopped at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse where I took a couple of pics.

After the visit on the way back we stopped at Waddell Beach and watched the kite and wind surfers, there was also a few hang gliders in the air too. The kites and such don't show up in the pics too well, but there was about 30 of them. In the last pic the point of land going out into the Pacific is Ano Neuevo, once home to a lighthouse and now an Elephant Seal preserve. The chalk cliff to the right of the 109 is called Big Slide, In the late 1800's, early 1900's a railroad was put thru here and at low tide you can somtimes see the old pilings sticking up thru the sand. The railroad effort was in the end fruitless because Big Slide kept doing it's thing and wiping out the tracks.

So it inspired me and I wrote this poem;

A burning sun slips into a golden molten pool on the far side of a wild, blue, Pacific sea.
As the skittish evening Northwest breeze pushes a silent wall of gray fog closer, ever closer to me.
A wall which hems in and frames the multitude of colourful kites sailing to and fro.
Like swarming insects above the poikilothermous creatures below.

To fly, be free, upon the water these graceful peoples be.
With taut lines the sails pull black suited humans quickly.
Carving out of Natures realm a space of temporary ecstasy.
Forgetting life's struggles of money, love and drudgery.

Quickly cooling sand once warmed by the sun entreats the oceans breakers to rest from their long journey.
Tall redwood trees beckon to the fog, one can almost hear them in voices raised by the wind.
"Come, Come water me"
Taller still the brown shale cliffs rise turning to gold in the light of days end.

Compliments

     Tuesday I was leaving a parking lot in Santa Cruz in my 109, as I sat waiting for a car in front to turn, this younger guy(late 20's-30's?) in a good looking old Scout 2 or a Blazer, pulled next to me and said "That's one seriously nice rig!" I said "Thanks".
     It really feels nice to get the smiles and thumbs up most of the time I go out. I know 95% of it is the paint job my friend Brian laid down, but the other 5% was my vision and hard work!

 Before;

After;

The Master taking a break;

Now if I can just get the motor sorted...... I think I am on the trail of a rebuilt 200tdi.