The evening started with good news. The rear bumper is coming into shape. After I covered it with a coat of sealer, which is not how it is usually done, I wanted to see a more or less final look and spot every problem, and it actually helped a lot. I went over it with a final coat of filler, mostly very small places: little dips, pinholes and other small things. So seven in the evening came in fairly packed.

Felix was gathering his tools, and I finally talked him into changing the plugs. I would tell you a funny story here, but it seems Felix is already writing an episode about his Cedric, so I will not run ahead and will let him tell it himself. While he picked away at Cedric, I was finishing sanding the rear bumper.

When the task was more or less settled, I realized this was a good moment to weld the four pipes under the rear bumper. I could have waited, but there is no strength left for waiting. I want to see the final look: not an exhaust propped up on filler cans, but an exhaust welded to the car. Not the final weld, but metal sitting on metal at last.

One thing I have understood, and it tends to be extremely challenging for everyone who does custom exhaust: setting the pipes right. The first side comes more or less easy, though easy is a very relative term here. The second one is a nightmare. You not only have to set the depth, the position left and right, up and down. You have to mirror the first side exactly. Anyone who has done this in a shop knows what I mean. A single exhaust is more or less manageable, though far from simple. Twin, and in our case four barrels, is a nightmare. Simply a nightmare.

The left side took me a whole hour to weld. The right one nearly twice as long: fit it, step back, look, tack on metal, move it again. Madness. And the main thing, you can trust this to no one. Felix tried to help, but everyone's hands move their own way, like everything else about us. So we were stuck there for a long time.

It was already dark when I finished the right side. Then my wife arrived. I tell her: look how great the exhaust looks. Outside you could not see your own hand. She asks: where? I say: right here. She says: I don't see anything. Dark.

So the exhaust reveal is postponed until tomorrow.

This part is not finished, but it is set. The fine adjustment and tensioning of the metal will come through additional metal rods, which are sometimes welded on, sometimes seated on rubber. And that is the whole episode for today.