Sunday, June 14, 2009

Steering Wheel, Shifter and Tunes, plus highway miles



Dateline - June 13th - Got the shifter installed today. Took about 7 hours of work to get the special bracket made and the shifter installed. In order to install the handle, I had to drill holes in the floor and then reach up through the special transmission cross member, between the transmission and the car body, and then slip a flat washer, lock washer and nut onto the bold sticking through the floor. There are advantages to having long, thin arms! I resorted to using grease to hold all the washers in place while I spun the nuts onto the bolts. A lot of work. I don't know how many times I crawled under the car, crawled back up, then crawled under again!

I cleaned up the wiring around the center console and got rid of the old "mobile phone" cables that where still under the dash. Then I checked out the radio. My original guess was right, the fuse was blown. Radio works fine! I installed the center console and radio.

Finally, I installed the newly finished Steering wheel (2 coats of amber lacquer, 10 coats of clear and hand rubbing! Very Sweet!) After I got everything in, I decided to take her for a ride, so I took the back roads down to Woodinville, then took the highway back home. Everything worked fine and the car can really go on the freeway. It is going to be very dangerous! Must watch speed!