Sunday, May 23, 2010

Instrument Panel, Side Markers, and Turn Signals

May 23, 2010 - Lots of small things installed. Mainly but not so small is the instrument panel assembly. Whew!! What a PITA that was. All three gauges, Tachometer, Speedometer, and Fuel Gauge had to taken apart, glass cleaned, and retaining rings rust remediated (rust killer, rust encapsulator, and painted flat black). Also treated the instrument panel as well.

Headlights almost finished along with turn signals:



Installed the side markers and turn signals with new seals from Mark Whitesell in Hillsboro, OR. His eBay merchant name is 914rubber.



Left turn signal:



Right side marker:



Right turn signal:



Gauges looking pretty good, added dashboard to see how it would look. My neighbor Freddie helped to hook up all of the gauge connectors and indicator bulbs. Another PITA. I replaced the illuminating incandescent bulbs with blue LEDs from Mike Whitesell aka eBay merchant autoleds4you. He sells 8 for $20. There are 5 illumninating bulbs and 8 indicator bulbs for a total of 13.



Another view of the instrument panel and dashboard:



Check out the new rear trunk seals. The previous owner sold me these along with his other eBay auction items he had procured along the way:



I was able to win a windshield via eBay for $120 but the shipping was $200. It was packaged and shipped by UPS in Auburn, WA. They did a really nice job of packaging to ensure it was received intact, which it was. A lot better than the AutoAtlanta price of $500 plus $200 shipping. I'll try to have it installed when I have all of the seals and installation kit. More on that later.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Painting Finished - Headlights Installed

May 2, 2010 - I have finally finished painting the vehicle. Woohoo! I had to buy more paint from Sherwin Williams Automotive and was able to put another coat on the interior and two coats on the hellhole/transaxle area. She really looks great now, inside and underneath.

Here's the hellhole firewall; looking very clean:



Here's the ceiling of the transaxle area:



Here's a left view of the hellhole area:



And a right view of the hellhole area:



I went thru two bad headlight motors and two relays, luckily I had six, and it took 4 hours in total to get the right headlight and motor installed correctly but it definitely works. I had to buy another headlight assembly off eBay to get the actuator lever and couple other related parts to install the left headlight assembly but finally got it intalled. The assemblies are black from coating with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator. They were terribly rusty but with a lot of painstaking labor, I was able to restore them. You can also see the almost new chrome headlight rings that I got off eBay for $10 with shipping.



I also ordered new taillight housing seals from eBay vendor 914rubber and installed both assemblies.