And just like that, May is nearly over. Like the old trope, I really thought I’d have more time. Becca has graduated from high school, registered for her first semester’s classes at Northern Kentucky University. My middlest daughter has given her Junior Drama class performance – it was amazing, by the way – and my youngest is one exam away from wrapping up her Freshman year and ascending to Form II. All of that to say: Holy crap! It’s 1412 and I wanted to be on the road by 1500 today!!
Becca and I took the car over to the shop this morning to wrap up the last few things. We needed to bolt the rear seat into place, flush the brake fluid, check the oil, check the suspension, check the exhaust, vacuum out the car – for whatever good that will do in a convertible! – and finally get those lights installed in the dash. Plus there were a handful of things that needed to be picked up from the shop to go with us.
First off, the seat was bolted back down. Probably not 100% necessary, but if we didn’t do it now, I’m sure we’d never remember.
The suspension all is good with nothing broken or wobbling anywhere. The shocks are in pretty tired shape and all the bushings could stand to be replaced. But we’re out of time for that for now,
The exhaust, however, needed a little help. It’s all been replaced at some point, but it doesn’t quite line up right, angle-wise. So it was banging around a bit and creating a little vibration from time to time. The muffler had no hangers attached.
And the tailpipe was wired into place.
I thought I had some rubber hangers around somewhere, but I’m fresh out. What I do have, however, are stainless steel zipties.
We’ll see how well that works. It’s not a long-term solution to be sure, but we’ve got to hit the road.
While the car was up in the air, we exchanged the ancient honey-colored brake fluid for some DOT4 that was manufactured during the current century. Brake performance has increased dramatically. I think there was some sort of clog in a brake line in the rear as well – we weren’t getting much fluid at all with the vacuum pump until we pumped the brakes a few times. There was a bunch of crud that came out and suddenly fluid was flowing better.
While we were fiddling around the wheels, I had Becca adjust the air pressure. I thought I had checked that before, but apparently not – they are all in the 43-45 psi range when they’re supposed to be 30 in the front and 32 in the rear! She let an appropriate amount of air out of the tires and it’s far less skittish on the road now. It’s amazing how much difference that can make.
Getting that dash fascia off again was not a task that I was looking forward to, but we were able to pull the radio back out of the dash and reach in through that hole to swap out the three bulbs that are responsible for illuminating the dash controls. We’ll now be able to see the heater controls at night! Nothing that’s necessary to autocross, drag race, or even show the car, but it will make it a nicer place to be.
The last couple steps before we make like the Autobots and roll out are cleaning and packing. We need to use a little degreaser on the engine bay to clean it up a bit and then hit the trunk lid with the polisher. Once that’s done, we’ll pack everything into the car and hit the road.