Sunday, March 28, 2021

"I can always say, 'It's gonna be better tomorrow'"

 The group of grommets arrived - most of it is what I expected but I did receive two grommets that the parts book says I should be using and there's no way they'll fit where they're indicated in the parts book.  I measured before I ordered but ordered them anyway just so I could say I did so.

All of the mastic is cleaned off the front under fender area - I received the new mastic and once it warms up again, I'll be installing it and the wire harness into the dash.  That'll be where the fun starts - rewiring everything under the dash, including the new gauges and the tach...which reminds me - I have to pull that CHT wire through the car before it goes back together.

These grommets are very durable and do a great job of sealing against the wire harness.

The grommets were a real bitch to get installed but I'm making progress.  The plan is to work a little each day until it's done.  Then I'll move on to cleaning up the old seam sealer and fixing the subframe bolt thread disaster.

I might just fuck around and get something done in the coming weeks.

Saturday, March 20, 2021

"When you chase away the easy way, it will come galloping back."

Well, that was a quick three (almost four) months.  I didn't do much outside of sell off some parts I'll never use.

The engine was picked up two weeks ago to be disassembled, checked, cleaned and put back together.  I have no idea when it's coming back but I've got plenty to do so I'm not even slightly concerned about it right now.

I dug into the car today - the intent was to figure out the plumbing for the electric fuel pump - but that quickly changed to ripping out the wire harness and replacing it.  So many cracked wires from the original harness that I just couldn't fix anymore.

As I was moving wires around in the engine bay and fishing wires around under the dash, a couple of them suffered cracked insulation.  I was acutely aware of the crispy nature of the wiring in the car but today's multiple failures changed the direction of the activities.


I pulled both the front harness and the rear harness - the front one is installed and I ran out of time to finish the rear harness.  I also cannot find the giant stash of grommets that I have around here...so I'm a couple short for the installation.


The area underneath the rear fenders is in pretty good shape overall.  I did some clean up and I'll treat the bare metal where the old seam sealer cracked off.  If you look closely, you can see the OG Ruby Red underneath and the respray up near the bottom of the windows.

The goal here is to clean it up, replace the wiring and grommets and put it back together.

Perhaps in a few days, I'll 'grow a pair' and drill the holes for the seat belt anchor points.  It's high time I dust off that welder I bought and put it to work.