Still working on the car, but I'm about to have a hiatus.
The dash and wiring are about done. What isn't is the blower switch; I forgot
to mark which wire
goes where and the factory wiring diagram just indicates "optional". I really
could use some advice
on which color-code goes to which #'ed terminal.
I have a cool flexible-wand map light on a screw-down base that's hardwired to
the car it's in; I
saved it from my Datsun 510 when I rallied a bit. Cannot find a spot on the
over-the dash flange of
the upper crash pad (the upside-down horizontal surface) where I can attach it
w/out fouling the
glovebox door. I might have to stick with the factory lamp. Ugh!
The bumpers, back from the chrome shop, are on the car now. Could not find the
correct bolts, so I
got some stainless-steel carriage bolts and buffed the heck of of them; they
look good. I don't miss
the overriders at all, I think they spoil the lines of the car (yeah, I know,
so does a dented front
end).
More difficult was the folding roll bar (more stainless steel bolts). The
outboard two of the three
brackets most at the outboard corners of the front edge of the parcel shelf;
bolts down from the top
and back from the front where the brackets wrap over. Unfortunately, the area
under the car where I
drilled the holes isn't wide open. There's a box channel across the car there,
and the only access
holes to the channel are "downstream" from where I needed them. Eventually, I
used masking tape to
secure the nuts and washers to the "open" end of a combo wrench, at a cock-eyed
angle, like it's
about to slip of the wrench. Then , holding the other end of the wrench, I
could feed it through to
the nut while my father got the bolts started---
*non-Tiger content*
My dad was in town and came over to help. He's 72, and the last time he was
around high-performance
cars was racing stocks against folks like Lee Petty back in the late 1940's.
Not only helped a lot,
but kept me calmed down after several frustrating hours under the car taping
nuts to wrenches. O.K.,
back to Tiger stuff
---; I figure it took about 45 minutes per bolt. The center bracket attaches
over the bulge in the
parcel shelf where it clears the diff; that one took about 10 minutes, tops.
The whole thing looks
pretty cool, and I hope I never need it.
Well, I had to start on the seats eventually, so I tried that over this
weekend; my dad was back in
town, so he came by. The structural part of one seat bottom went rather
quickly, but when putting
the leather on, we had trouble getting it to "seat" right, There's a section of
pleats that should
nestle down into a 'pocket' in the foam, but I couldn't get it right. So I set
it aside for a
breather (you know, a 12-oz hops-flavored soda). Then I made a discovery. Down
in my basement, a
mouse had made its way into the house, and, instead of eating our food, it had
decided to snack on
the leather seat upholstery! (SH*#<%"@:+!!!!!) Well, too late now. So I called
up Martha Wheat, and
she says that if I send it back she might be able to unstitch and replace the
damaged parts (mostly
nibbled white piping: go figure). So, I'll be a couple of weeks before the
seats are ready (HEY,
Larry! That's still faster than _you_ could do it! Yeah, that's true). While
she's at it, I'm
sending the frames and stuff, let her finish up the seats _right_.
Well gotta go now, I have a mouse to catch...
|