Some Assembly Required – Measure Twice, Cut Once, or Not At All!

Bear with me. The title will make sense by the time I’m done. We’ve all heard of the adage “measure twice, cut once.” This probably was established by the first caveman when he learned to use tools. In my case, I had a “fail” on the 63 E-Type FHC project. In the rear area behind the seats there are metal strips with rubber inserts that serve to keep your luggage from tearing up the upholstery. In the case of my car, the upholstery in question is called Hardura, which is aptly named, as it is a tough vinyl material with a pebble grain. Tough stuff. So as part of my upholstery efforts, I had to fit my pre-cut (by the upholstery supplier) hardura pieces into the rear of the car. Fail number one was the pieces originally sent me were appropriate for a slightly later car than mine. My car has a “two piece” design. What I got was a “one piece” design, put into play later in the year that my car was built. An honest mistake. In an abundance of caution, I made a paper template of the rear area, which I mailed to the supplier in the UK. After a suitable period of time, DHL dropped a package off at my door with the new pieces. I laid them in and they fit very well. Next up was to install the snaps that hold them in place. I found some suitable snaps from a firm called Sailrite. I also got the installation tools. I put in a few snaps on some scrap material to hone my technique. Then I reviewed the original piece from the car and starting adding snaps to my new hardura pieces. Well, at some point, I noticed that two snaps on either side of the joint between two pieces were not lined up. My OCD did not do well with this state of affairs. Fortunately, the snaps were large enough that I could shift them into alignment without the “bad holes” showing. Wow, close call but it worked out. Measure twice, cut once!

Next, I pulled off the luggage rails from the old piece. Fortunately they are stainless, not chrome. They cleaned up nicely on my buffing wheel. There are five rails. One is centered and then there are two on each side of it. I remember distinctly. I measured the opening as 38″. And quickly in my head, I calculated 1/2 of 38″ is 18″. And I duly laid out the center rail 18″ from the side. Well, this is extremely embarassing, as I am very good with math and we can all agree that 1/2 of 38 is 19! I did not discover my mistake until I was laying in the rail closet to the edge and found out it wouldn’t fit. By then, I had already popped holes to secure the previous 2 strips. There was no way I could cover up this mistake! I contacted the upholstery supplier and he is quite willing to cut me new hardura pieces. My “stupid tax” in this case will be a few hundred dollars. Measure twice, cut once!

But there are times when you really don’t want to cut at all. Especially if your fingers are involved. I have been working on a complicated project to re-create the aluminum panels for the various center and dash consoles, using new but period correct material. This has required that I make up wooden bucks to form the aluminum over. The bucks need to be stout so I am using some high dollar knot free oak from Lowes Home Improvement. And my trusty table saw, which I have had for many decades without nary an incident. Well, I guess eventually your number comes up. I was cutting a piece of oak on the table saw. I was correctly using a “push stick” to pass a smallish piece through the blade. There was a triangular shaped “off cut” that I needed to clear out of the way. I nudged it with my push stick. It rotated into the spinning blade and ejected straight back into my right index finger. Let me just say that the finger was still attached but there was copious blood. I gave my wife the veterinary surgeon the chance to sew me up but she directed me to proceed directly to the emergency room. Six stiches later it was patched up. I was basically out of commission for two weeks. One doesn’t miss their right hand until it is covered up with splints and bandages! I am happy to report it is totally healed now, if not a little reluctant to go through its full range of motion. As I stated in the title, in this case the best policy is to “not cut at all!”