The New Radio, part Six (Installation day, interim update #1)

OK, interim installation update #1

Things were going fine...

I'd trimmed, stripped, and crimped 30 amp (yellow) rings to the battery end of the power cable, I'd threaded it carefully (read: Uttering new and interesting profanities as I scraped and crushed my fingers while hauling the bloody cable with all my might through microscopic gaps in the bodywork and interior trim) through to the boot, and then, I tried to drill holes in the boot area for the mounting bracket for the radio.

I decided, since I didn't want to drill though something electrical (cables) or flammable (filler pipe from filling cap to fuel tank - yeah, OK, it's diesel, but why take the chance?), to mount the radio on the back of the rear seats, behind the offside passenger seat; I'm not at all likely to carry passengers in this car in the time I'll be owning it (getting rid of it before the next MoT examination in September), so it makes sense to put holes in an easy-to-get-at place, after all (aids in removal when I get rid of the car, too). This, then, is where I encountered problem the first (and hopefully the last one today)...

Instead of being aluminium, which I could have drilled through dead easy, it appears that some clever bastard over at Ford decided to use an alloy of aluminium and something else, to form a hardened alloy that killed the battery on my Bosch 18 volt variable speed drill stone bloody dead. That's currently (no pun intended) charging up, as I (1) take a much needed break for the small room (it being a tad nippy outside), (2) get more coffee, and (3) type this up.

More to come, watch this space!