My interior installation has proceeded at a somewhat slower
pace recently due to other demands on my time (wah!).
Most of the little metal bits from the seat frames are painted.
I tried fake-chrome paint, and I'm rather disappointed in the
finish. First, there's an awful lot of pigment in the paint,
which is good in itself, but made putting on a smooth coat almost
impossible. Then, applying the clearcoat dulled the finish; I think
that this paint dries slowly, and that I must not have allowed
enough time for the paint to set up before painting. Really no
matter, as none of it really shows except the panel over the
backrest-adjustment machanism, and I'm not sure what color it should
be anyhow.
Those rollers in the seat track assemblies were not available
at the local hardware store, but soaking them overnight in Armor-all
softened them up nicely; they really weren't very worn. All of the
rubber bits came out OK but the handle tip on the slide mechanism,
which I think is available new.
The first leather went in. I started on the rear corners where the
wheel wells intrude. The foam-rubber was cut in such a way that
positioning was obvious, but the leather to cover it was merely square
bits to be trimmed later. Fortunately, the leather is rather flexible
and follows the compound curves well, if one works slowly enough, and
the contact adhesive isn't as demanding to work with as I had first
suspected. A couple of other panels in that area are also in, one
glue-and-screw installation and one pop-on, per side. The color is great,
by the way.
My 1st attempt at the kick panels taught me that the best approach is
to pull the dashboard. As I'm replacing it anyway, and the "crash pad",
I dove in to removing those parts and the windshield frame. There's
lots of gross stuff back there, and I'll have to decide how much to clean
up the behind-the-dash area now, and how much in a future project (I
want to drive the car this year). A big chunk of time went into labeling
each wire as I pulled them away from the guages, and corresponding #'s on
the guages. The front of the guages polished up great, but I'd like to
de-crud the backs (and innards?); any suggestions? Oh,yes; I found the
reason why the clock did not work. There were no wires running to it.
Perhaps it was not original, and added later.
There are thin rubber rings around each guage. Are these available
anywhere?
The last of the Dynamat to go into the car should be in shortly in the
area behind the dash. It should be easier to reach now. First I'll want
to clean and paint back there to get rid of the old-car smell and acheive
a good surface for the Dynamat to cling to.
I'm still stalling on starting the seats. They seem quite confusing,
and I do not want to ruin them.
Larry Wright "I can't get no-- Satis-traction"
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