Ooops, I Did It Again

Post date: Dec 16, 2018 10:52:20 PM

Imagine, if you will, a fully assembled and functional car. Now envision this:

Yeah.

But let's back up to September a bit. I took the car back up to Ward's and they re-did the driver door handle, fixed the C pillar bulge, and did a few other minor touchups. Took about a month, so I thought I'd get a jump on some fancy wheels. I did get a great deal on a pile of Nitto 555 G2's, just waiting on the wheels.... Got these things ordered, hoping they show up Real Soon Now:

Shaun helped me with the driver's seat - we rebuilt the mounting bracket to lower about 1/2" and move back about 1". I plan to reshape the seat foam to reduce the bolsters, maybe lower the seat a little that way, too.

Something from Ward's - filler or primer dust - was really caustic and ate right through the paint on the dash pad where it landed. So that needed to come out to be repainted. Since the dash was coming out, might as well pull it all apart and touch up the paint on the plastic lower dash as well. And, hey, why not get a new piece of wood so I can get rid of that "hand-burnt" feature around the radio?

The entire dash area was coated in that dust, so lots of cleaning, including all the ductwork. I should have - but didn't - remove the interior A/C box. It's got a nice coating of dust on the inside too.

I also got a smaller gauge pod from Randy that he made for Montes. Drilled a few holes and now I have a much nicer looking and centered gauge cluster.

The last few bits of trim also got powder coated and installed. Now it's got a pretty mean nose:

Here it's at the tint shop getting the driver's side tint replaced since I scratched it all up installing the glass.

I had always been annoyed by the windshield's green tint. It made the dash look puke-blue-green. So, why not just get a new windshield? Turns out you can get either green tint with a blue sun band, OR completely clear from AMD. So special order the clear one, and got some blue fade tint from ebay to try to make a sun band. I primed the edge of the glass and installed the rain sensor mount then took to a shop for the 90% 3M film. They went onto the primer quite a bit which doesn't work too well. Not sure how I'll feel about it long term. They also put the sun band on straight. With the curve of the windshield it looks like, to me, a bat wing. Ugly. Really ugly. Funny thing was from the outside you couldn't see the edge of the film. But the inside? Holy cow. So I spent some quality time with a razor blade trimming it to follow the windshield's curve. So instead of a sometimes obvious ugly straight line, now there's an always obvious ugly curved line. Better? Sure. The glass guy had to use a sawzall with a putty knife blade to cut the urethane, R&R took about an hour and a half with me helping.

So, next time I replace the windshield (HA HA HA HA), see if another vendor has clear with band. Prime the edge, use tape to get a straight line, and make sure the tint guys understand to stay off the primer. Also drape a blanket over the dash since the glass guy will probably be knocking stuff all over the place. Be very clear with the shop about the shape of the sun band.

Todos:

Finalize plan for seats, procure passenger seat and get custom covers made.

Pull engine and trans to clean undercarriage, clearance pushrods

Clean/repaint trunk, install liner

Clean carpet