Post #200 - DONE!

Dateline - 10/27/2018 - I just noticed that this is Post #200 in my blog, and it just so happens that this is also, what I consider, the LAST post of the restomod!  Yup!  I put the bumpers and the nameplates on this weekend, and now, I can officially say that the car is 99.9% done!  You really can't ask for more then that on a restomod because there will always be some tuning, shakeout and slight tweaks to be made.  But, for I'm calling it done!  So there!

So, bumpers.  This turned into an all day affair on Saturday.  I ended up needing to get all new hardware, so several runs to the local hardware store were in order.  I started with the front, since that appeared to be the easiest.  The bumper is held on by two large nuts that screw onto studs in the front of the car.  There is a steel bracket that mounts to the bumper and also holds the front over rider in place.  The over rider has a rubber strip that fits between it and the bumper.  Fortunately, I had purchased that a couple of years back, so it just required cutting and fitting.  Once I got the bumper together, it was a simple process of fitting it on the car and bolting it down.  Easy!  Here are pictures of the front bumper in pieces and together.

Parts for the front bumper

Front bumper bracket and over rider installed

Next was the back bumper.  This turned out to be more of a challenge.  On this bumper the over riders bold on to the bumper with a spacer behind the bumper. Not too hard.  There are also brackets that fit on the sides of the bumper that also bolt to the car.  I put those on the car first so that they could support the bumper as I put it on. Now I put liberal amounts of masking tape on the car body to keep from scratching the paint and started fitting the bumper. 

Parts for the back bumper

The bumper mounts to the back of the car with two 2.5 in, 1/2 x 20 thread bolts that screw right into the body.  The hard part is that there needs to be spacers in between the bumper and the body to align it correctly.  The car originally had a rubber 3/4" hard rubber doughnut on each side, but I only had one from the original and these are no longer made.  So I used flat washers instead.  But the car had been hit from behind in its past so getting the correct number of washers in pace was a serious challenge.  Finally, after about an hour of fiddling, I finally got the back bolts in place. 

But the challenges didn't stop there.  I didn't know it, but the brackets that mounted on the side of the car are side specific (one was modified by the body shop as part of the rear end repair!), and of course, I put them on the wrong side.  I did have a 50/50 chance!  AND, I had completely fitted one side, which worked fine, before I found out that they were side specific.  So I had to undo the one I had just finished to swap things around!  Another hour gone!

Next it was time to install the license plate light on the bumper.  I'm not going to use this light, opting for the lights in the plate bolts that I had purchased, so this is just being used to plug the hole in the bumper.  I had found on ebay an good light housing and internals, and the lens from the one on the car was in good shape, so I put the two together got one good light.  I mounted that with a piece of rubber channel gasket between it and the bumper, and it looks like factory!

Finally, I put the Jaguar and V8 / 350 badges on the car.  I had these mounted before I had the paint redone, but I'm glad I took them off because I had them centered on the sides and it didn't look very good, so this time I favored the outside edge of the trunk, which looks a lot better.  It's subtle, but makes a difference.

Sunday was overcast and rainy, but I did get a clear moment to put the car in the driveway and take some pictures.  Here they are:

There is always something!

Dateline - 09/01/2018 - Working a few odds and ends on the Jag this weekend.  First, I worked on installing the rear window seal lock bead and chrome.  As I've said before, I really hate working with rubber seals.  What a PITA!  As it is, I got the lock bead in place and half the window chrome before my hands got too tired to work on it anymore!

Second, I wanted to get to the Jay Leno benchmark of "Done," which is a working horn.  I had already installed the horn relay when I detailed the engine bay (https://leapingv8s.blogspot.com/2015/12/christmas-2015.html), but I never installed the actual horns.  So I was rooting around under the car, trying to figure out where the horn was installed before but I couldn't figure it out, so I decided to hang it off of the bottom suspension cross brace.  I also wanted to make a bracket to brace the transmission fluid cooling lines to the radiator because they are just hanging out there and vibrating while the engine is running.  So, I did both with the same job.  Came out pretty nice too!

Next was wiring the horn.  Since I didn't modify any of the electrical system for the horn, I figured this would work right out of the gate.  It didn't.  The Jaguar has an interesting electrical system (surprise!) in that the ignition needs to be on for the horn to work.  I didn't realize this until I did some research and looked at the Lucas horn relay and the Jaguar wiring system. So, after an hour of tracing, reading on-line and looking at schematics, I figured it out and got the horn to work.  Well...it worked from under the hood, but not from the horn switch in the steering.  So, I pulled the horn switch out and realized that the brass rod that is supposed to run from the center conductor inside the lower part of the steering column that makes contact with the switch is missing!  MISSING!  I have no idea where this rod is!  I looked in every box, every cubby, every place I could think of and nothing!

Center Conductor in fixed part of Steering Column

Missing connector from center conductor to horn button.

Fortunately, I was able to create a conductor our of 12 gauge wire with a crimp splice that slides over the main conductor at one end and connects to a socket on the switch on the other.  It will work fine, but I can't believe I lost this part!

So, to make sure that I really did lose the piece, I decided to clean my entire garage!  Yup.  I cleaned the garage that had not been cleaned in NINE YEARS! I opened very cabinet, cupboard, drawer, box, package, crate, sleeve and plastic bag!  I sorted.  I packed, I moved and I organized. 

After 16 hours of cleaning I filled up two 33 gallon garbage bags full of junk to go to the dump and now know where everything is at in my garage.  Everything, that is, except that damned horn connector!

Bumpers are in!

Dateline - 08/23/2018 - I got the bumpers back from the chromer!  They came in two boxes.  One had the front bumper and the four overriders, and the other had just the back bumper.  When I saw the box that had the front bumper was in, I was thinking, "I'm going to end up sending that back, I know it!"

Crush box with front bumper in it

But after opening it up, everything was fine.  They sure did a lot of packing of these though.  They were wrapped in plastic, white butcher paper then heavy padding wrapped in packing tape!  The back bumper had a wood brace placed between the arms to make sure that they did not get bent in shipping.  Very impressed with the packing.

So, after getting the bumpers out of the significant wrapping, I test fitted them on the car.  Back bumper was fine, but when I put the front bumper on, I thought they had re-welded the mounting brackets in the wrong place!  They did not align with the mounting bolts.  So, now I'm thinking, "I have to send that front bumper back. That's a real pisser!"  But then I thought about it for a moment and realized I better research this before I get too upset.  So I pulled out my trusty SNG Barratt catalog (great reference) and saw that there are brackets that are mounted on the bumper.  I did some digging in my parts boxes and sure enough, there were two brackets that I had already sandblasted and painted and had ready to go, I had just forgot about them!  That's what happens when you pull something off a car and then have to remember how it goes back together, nine years later!

Here are the bumpers:

Bumpers and over riders.  Back bumper is closest.

I'm not going to install the bumpers until I can get the car back to paint for that final buffing, polish and glaze.  Hopefully next week.

Wow!  I really have just about everything done!  

So Close!

Dateline - 08/10/2018 - Spent the weekend putting the car back together.  As in my last post, I only had a few things to do, but they took a lot of time.  I started Saturday off by going to the Department of Licensing and getting the car registered under the old plate (see https://leapingv8s.blogspot.com/2018/05/good-news-and-bad-news.html).  So, now my car is officially a Collector car!  $45 to register.  Not bad.

Next I picked up where I left off on the trunk.  I needed to install the backup lights, the chrome strip that runs under the the trunk lip between the backup lights and the license plat with its LED lights.  This all took about an hour to do.

I started working on installing the latch for the trunk, but realized I needed to tap some threads and I didn't have a tap the right size, so I put that off until Sunday.

Next I started working on the back right door.  This door proved to be a total PITA.  Nothing was going right and I struggled with it.  It took about three hours of just fiddling and I finally got it all together and realized that the window was binding.  I had to take everything apart again to find out that the door lock rod that runs from the inside door handle to the door latch was getting hooked by the window regulator.  I just needed to bend it back into the correct location, but again, what a pain to put everything back together again!  I just hate doors!

There was one good thing that came of all the work on the door.  I had a problem with the back door latch.  Once I opened the door, the latch would not move back into place and I had to manually reset it before I could close the door.  I thought it was the door latch and was going to buy a new one.  But as I was fiddling with the door, I unscrewed on the latch bolts and the latch snapped back into place.  I realized that there are two lengths of special screws used for the door latch.  A short one that used for the latch, and a slightly longer one that is used for the inside door handle.  I used the wrong one (too long) and it was catching on the mechanism inside the door latch.  Easy fix!

As I posted last week, I ordered LED lights to replace all the running and direction lights on the car.  When I installed the lights and tried them, I found out that I don't have any turn signals or hazard lights.  This has to do with the old flasher relays that are in the car (one for turn signals, one for hazards).  How these things work is they have a bi-metal strip in them that heats up as current is pulled through it. The heat causes the bi-metal to bend and break the circuit (and make the sound you hear with a turn signal).  When the metal cools, it pops back into place and turns the signals back on.  This works great as long as there is enough current being pulled to cause the metal to heat up.  Unfortunately, LED lights pull almost no current, so the flashers don't work.

There are three ways to fix this: 1) Leave some original bulbs in the car (some people opt to leave the front bulbs original and the back bulbs LED), 2) buy a LED specific flasher unit, and/or 3) buy load resistors that you can put in parallel with the LED bulbs to put enough load to heat the the flasher unit.

Since my flashers relays are in the dash, and I could not even think of taking the dash apart again, I opted for the load resistors.  I bought four of them and installed two in the back (one on each turn signal) and the turn signals work great.  However the hazard lights are not working. If I put a regular bulb in the front, the hazard does work, so I need to install the two remaining load resistors in the front turn signals.  I didn't get to that this weekend though.

On Sunday, I started work on the left front door.  This door went somewhat easier as far as putting all the window pieces together.  It was still a very fiddly job and you really have to do things in the correct order, but after several hours, I got everything together, just to find out that I broke a wire off the power window switch that activated the back left window!  So I had to take everything apart again (is this a theme!) and resolder the wire.  Finally, I got the door together!  And there was much rejoicing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yciX2meIkXI)!

When I was going through all my chrome pieces, I realized that there was a bunch of chrome that went around the windows inside the car.  I left that off before, but decided to put it on.  This took about an hour of fiddling, but I does look a lot more finished now.

Finally, I ended the day working on the trunk.  I got a tap for the holes in the body that the latch mounts too,  mounted the latch, adjusted everything, and now the trunk closes and locks.  But I didn't like the grinding noise it made when I opened and closed it.  I originally thought it was the result of all the work I did rebuilding the trunk hings (see https://leapingv8s.blogspot.com/2014/12/its-december-and-its-time-to-work-on.html), and it turned out that it was, but not because of the hinges, but because the bolts I used to put it back together where rubbing against the inside of the trunk sides!!!  Now, If I was brave, I could have taken the trunk lid off, removed the hinges, ground the bolts down, then remount everything.  But I'm not brave, so several strong hits with a hammer on the trunk sides, and the lid moves like it should.

So, not much left now.  I'm still waiting for my window molding lock tool to come in.  Once I get that, I can installed the window lock and the chrome that goes around the windshields.  I've got a new Jaguar lettering for the trunk on order since I destroyed the one I had pulling it off for paint. So I need to install that and the "V8" and "350" badges.  I should also have my bumpers soon, so will need to install those.  Then it's time to get the front end aligned and start driving it.  I still have a few fiddly things to finish, but its very, very close to "done"!

Putting It All Back Together Again...Again!

Dateline - 08/04/2018 - Now that the car is back from paint, it's time to put it all back together again.  I started in the front with the grills, headlights and side markers.  Then I moved to the right back and installed the right tank cover, tail light and side marker.

I was going to start on the window chrome pieces, but there is a "locking strip" the is supposed to be inserted into the window seal that presses the rubber tight against the window and the body.  I didn't install this originally, but I thought better of it this time and wanted to install it.  After working on it for about an hour, I thought to myself, "There must be a tool for this."  Sure enough, I found out that there is a tool for this and ordered it on Amazon.  Should be here next week!  Then I started on the doors.

The doors are such a pain.  They really are.  Tight spaces.  Sharp edges,  just not fun.  Starting on the front door, I had to install:

• Rear view mirror
• Door Lock
• Door handle
• Vinyl water barrier
• Outer Window scraper and chrome trim
• Outer Window chrome edging
• 1/2 of the B-Pillar Chrome (half is on the trailing edge of the front door, the other half is on the leading edge of the back door)
• The window
• The 1/4 light (e.g. "Vent window") and frame
• Power window motor and regulator
• Widow stop (lowest down position)
• Door panel
• Arm rest
• Window Switch
• Arm rest pad
• Door threshold

All sounds easy, but of course, it wasn't.  The first challenge was doing things in the correct order, which I didn't.  The second challenge was the vinyl water barrier.  What a PITA.  All together, it took me about two hours to get the door together.

Then I started on the back right door.  Things to be installed on that door are:

• Install rear 1/4 light glass into frame.
• Install 1/4 light
• Door Handle, 
• Water barrier
• B-Pillar chrome
• Window scraper and chrome
• Window
• Power window motor and regulator
• Window frame top (comes out so that you can pull the window out)
• Re-install door seal that I had to take off to get the 1/4 light and window out.
• Window outside chrome
• Chrome piece below the 1/4 light
• Window stop
• Door panel
• Arm rest
• Window Switch
• Arm rest pad
• Door wind lacing
• Door threshold

This door went slightly easier but I got about 2/3 of the way done when I got to 7:00 pm and decided to call it quits for the day and finished it on Sunday after my bike ride.

On Sunday, I finished the door, installed the rain gutter trim, then moved to the back left of the car, installing the left fuel tank cover, tail light and side maker.  I then started working on the trunk lid by installing the trunk knob, chrome "wings" on either side of the knob, and the trunk seal.  At that point, it was getting hot in the garage and I was burning out, so I spend about 1/2 cleaning my workbench, and called it a day.

Since I have all the side markers and lights off, I decided to go ahead and buy LED bulbs for all the running, direction, brake and backup lights.  Not cheap, but they should look good on the car.

So, what is left?

• Backup light frames
• Trunk chrome strip that runs between the backup lights
• Trunk emblems (need to buy new ones)
• License plate and frame (need to get the car registered with the old plate - See https://leapingv8s.blogspot.com/2018/05/good-news-and-bad-news.html)
• Left front door
• Left back door
• Left rain gutter trim
• Front windscreen seal lock
• Front windscreen chrome
• Back windscreen seal lock
• Back windscreen chrome
• Front bumper - still need to get back from chromer
• Back bumper - still need to get back from chromer

The list is getting smaller and smaller!

The Car is Back from Paint!

Dateline - 07/31/2018 - July ended with another hot day in the Pacific North West, and with my car returning from paint.  They were still polishing out the paint when I got to the paint shop at 3:30 and said that they would not be done until 5:30!  We talked it out and they said they can finish the buff-out by 4:00 ish, but I would need to bring the car back for a final polish and seal. We went with that plan and by about 4:15 they had finished and had it loaded and back to the house by 4:45.

At the paint shop getting polished

On tow truck leaving from paint

Arrival at the house

In driveway

Back view

Rear - right view

Moved the car into the sun for left side

Front left side

And front side - Oooo!  Shiny!

And...its favorite spot in the garage!

Also, the chromer contacted me to let me know that the bumpers are done.  Now I just need to get them shipped back.  Waiting on a quote for that.

I will start putting it back together this weekend.  Now that I have the door panels off and the windows out, I am going to spend a little more time fixing some items that I didn't take care of before, like putting a plastic vapor barrier in the doors, which the original had, but I didn't put back in.  I also have a few wire connectors to the front headlights that I'd like re-do.

I can't believe this car is almost done.  I hope to get some drives in August and September.  Let's see how it goes!

Back to Paint

Dateline - 07/07/2018 - The car went back to paint on Friday!  The paint shop expects to have it for two weeks.  Once it's back, I can put it back together and drive it!  In the mean time, I need to register the vehicle with it's new-old license plate, and find out the status of the bumpers.  Hopefully they will bee coming soon!

Here are a couple of pictures:

Back of car just before leaving for paint

Right Side

Left side

Front

Very blurry picture of car at paint.

Need New Paint

Dateline - 06/09/2018 - I finally managed to hook up with the paint shop this last week and drove the car down to the shop.  The paint guy was very impressed with the car.  He really liked what I did with the interior.  He said it looks modern but classic.  He was also impressed with the custom upholstery and carbon fiber work. 

So the news on the paint is that they are going to need to repaint the entire car!  Makes since.  That way they don't have to match any colors.  He did say that he saw some shrinkage (not sure what that means) and quite a few chips from putting the panels back on, so a repaint will make it look nice and fresh.  But it does mean is that I needed to strip the car of all the chrome, door handles, side windows, door panels, etc., and tow the car to paint and back. 

To be prepared this weekend I spent a day taking everything off the car except the front and back windows and the gas caps. I took my time and bagged all the hardware individually so it should go back together much easier then it did last time when I spent hours looking for the correct hardware or odds-and-ends parts.  I also found a few things that I need change while the parts are out of the car, so this will be a good time to take care of those items.

Front stripped

Back stripped

All the parts off the car

So, I need to call the paint guy next week to find out when they can fit me in.  He said he needs a couple of weeks to finish up a Nova project they are working on right now, then they can do my car.

If all the timing works out, this will mean that I may get the car back about the time the bumpers come back from the chromer.  Could mean I can finish it all up at one time.  That would be cool!

Good News and Bad News

Dateline - 05/19/2018 - I have some good news and some bad news.  The good news is that I have finally sent my bumpers off to be re-chromed this weekend.  My friends Roland, Joe and I went to the Monroe Auto Swap meet this weekend and I ran into a chrome shop that has a local rep.  He came to my house on Sunday after the meet and took a look at my bumpers and quoted me a price.  Probably not the cheapest, but I had a good feeling that they will do a great job, and I didn't have to ship them someplace.  He took them with him.

Now for the bad news, best chance of getting the bumpers back will be early July, so it looks like I am going to miss the Greenwood Auto Show this year, yet again!  It was starting to get untenable anyway because I still need to get the paint straightened out and I keep playing phone tag with the paint shop.  I don't think he could have the paint done for the show either, so there you are!  I do want to get the car going for driving this summer though, so I'm going to keep pressing.

On another front, Roland told me about a very interesting classic/vintage car rule in Washington.  Once your car is over 25 years old, you can get collector car plates as long as you are not going to use the car commercial use.  The nice thing about collector plates is that you only pay for them once, and you never have to renew the tabs!  That's really cool!

But the fun doesn't stop there!  The standard collector car plates are, well, a little funky.

New Collector Vehicle License Plate

These are the plates I've seen on most cars.  But Roland told me of rule that, if you get an original plate that has a year tab that is the same as your vehicles model year, you can use that plate to register your car!  Not only that, but you are not required to have a front license plate either!

Well, guess what they sell at the Monroe Auto Swap, old license plates!  So, for $50, I got a 1971 rear license plate in really good shape, to put on the car!  Now I need to take it down to the Depart of Licensing and get my title changed to this plate and I'm good to go!  I may have to pay for one more registration, but after that, I'll be done.  Plus, the old plate, that looks like this, but with a different number:

1971 Washington License Plate

Will look pretty good on the car.  I particularly like the unique year tab with the yellow and black.

Roland had a really good idea about the license plate frame, I should see if I can find a frame from Lew Florence, which was a dealership in Seattle of British cars in the 70's.  Or, I could research were the car was originally sold (I believe it was to a doctor in Seattle) and see if I can get a frame from that dealer.  Both would be pretty neat to have.

Got the Car Out of the Garage!

Dateline - 05/05/2018 - Didn't spend a lot of time on the car this weekend.  I needed to take care of my unruly yards.  But, I did finish the center console, and backed the car into the driveway for some pictures.  See below:

In the driveway - front view

Rear 3/4 view

Rear view

Back with center console

So, most of the interior is done now.  Just a few items to clean up.  I now need to get the car to paint and get the front end aligned.  The rest will probably wait until the winter.

Looking Hard for Things To Do!

Dateline - 04/28/2018 - Well, I'm not done, but I'm REALLY close! 

This weekend I focused on the last items in the car.  First, I took out the cyclops center brake light and painted it the same cranberry color that the back speaker grills are painted.  Makes it look uniform in the back.

I also painted and installed the front speaker grills and speakers.  I got an enamel mixed that matched the color of the door vinyl so it looks very uniform.

One of the jobs that was outstanding in the front of the car was to finish the center storage box and install the armrest.  I created a new insert out of fiberglass the prior weekend, so this weekend I trimmed and finished in using carbon look vinyl, installed it into the center console with the USB adapter for the radio inside of it, and installed the armrest with all the original hardware. 

I also spent a great deal of time on the back center console.  I figured out how I would install the carbon fiber piece, which required glassing a piece of brass stock onto the back of the panel so that I could run some screws from the inside of the storage box into the panel.  The bottom part of of the panel is held in using brass brackets riveted to the bottom edge of the panel that run back and down to fit over the center cross brace of the console itself.

I've been having a hard time getting the finish I want on the carbon fiber piece. I've sprayed and sanded several times now and can't get the smooth finish I want, so I've sanded back all the lacquer and I'm going to put one more coat of resin over it to try to smooth out the few imperfections.  So I have a few more days of work on that before I'm finished.

While I was working on the car, I remembered that I forgot to put the left side passenger door stop into the B-pillar before I installed the upholstery.  So I had to remove the upholstery, which required removing the front and back door thresholds, the fuzzy edging on both sides of the B-Pillar, the shoulder mount for the seat front belt, the trim piece that fits on the upper part of the B-Pillar and a couple of screws.  After installing the door stop, I put everything back in.  Took about an hour.

Finally, during the week I sourced four Series III side fender badges from EBay and installed them on the door panels.  This was a relatively easy, if fiddly job requiring drilling holes in the carbon fiber panels and installing the badges. It really made a difference though, and I'm glad I got the matching ones since looking in the car, you would have really noticed the difference if I had kept the Series 1 badges.

So, from my list I have left to complete:

In the back of the car:

• Lacquer and rub out the center console panel
• Mount the center console

Front Interior

• Finish center indicator light bezel
• Mount dimmer switch knobe
• Calibrate Speedometer

Trunk:

• Buy carpet kit an install
• Make left and right upholstery panels

Exterior:

• Fix mismatch paint
• Install bumpers
• Install front license plate

Mechanical:

• Front end alignment
• Headlight alignment

I'm going to see if I can get the car into the paint shop this week to find out what it will take to fix the paint.

Looking For Things To Work On!

Dateline - 04/21/2018 - I am now officially looking for things to do on the car.  I've gotten to that point! 

This weekend I:

• Applied the carbon fiber over the fiberglass on the center console and sanded it back down to ready it for lacquer overcoat.
• Mounted the cyclops brake light
• Added a catch on the lower glove box so that it doesn't just drop open.  I needed something that would allow me to open the box completely because the fuses are behind it.  A simple catch made of bass stock, riveted into the side of the of the glove box worked like a champ.
• Painted the centers of the hubcaps and installed them.
• Painted the front speaker frames and grills

One item that took more work was the front center console insert.  When you lift the center console armrest, there is a very thin plastic insert that goes in to create the center glove box.  The original is in pretty bad shape, and with the addition of the new hand brake, I would have to modify the tray to fit.

So, instead of trying to fix and modify he original, I decided to make a new one out of fiberglass.  I created the buck from pink foam (of course) and then laid up two glass layers, one 10 lb and one six lb.  I had to chip away the foam, but when I was done, it was a perfect fit!  Just need to trim, sand and finish in the carbon fiber vinyl that I used for the other glove boxes and I'm good.

So, what's left...

In the back of the car:

• Lacquer and rub out center console panel
• Install center console panel
• Mount the center console
• Source and mount wing badges for door panels

Front Interior:

• Finish center console insert
• Install armrest
• Finish the center indicator light bezel
• Mount dimmer switch knob
• Calibrate Speedometer

Trunk:

• Make left and right upholstery panels
• Buy carpet kit and install

Exterior

• Fix mismatch paint
• Install bumpers
• Install front license plate

Mechanical:

• Front end alignment
• Headlight alignment

Not much left!

So Close I Can Taste It!

Dateline - 04/14/2018 - I can't believe it!  I'm almost "done"!  I put "done" in quotes because, well, you are never really done until you sell the car or die!  But I'm really, really close!

Since the last time I posted, I've completed both door panels and installed, which required completing most of the steps I had outstanding in my last post.  The only thing I need is to source the Leaper front wing badges that I use on the front door panels.  Here are pictures of the interior all together.

Interior with everything but center console carbon piece

Interior wide angle

Back seats with upholstered center filler

I also carved the center console carbon fiber piece from pink foam and did a layup of two layers of 6 lb fiberglass, which will be the underlay/support for the carbon.  Pictures of the layup process:

Foam buck covered in Saran wrap and two pieces of 6 lb fiberglass

After layup of fiberglass and covered in Saran wrap

Piece removed from buck.  Will put back on buck for placement of carbon fiber

Layup of end piece which is done separately.  Two layers of 6 lb fiberglass

I completed wiring the rear reading light switch and the USB charger.  This was a bit challenging, like most thing have been because, if I had known what I was going to do in the beginning, I would have done things differently.  First, the switches are not the same as the ones I used in the front of the car.  Those are not made anymore!  So I used something similar, but they are wired differently.  They have two LED lights, one that you can wire separately, and one that goes on when the switch is turned on.  I wanted the LEDs that you can wire separately to be connected to the running lights so that they would come on with the dash lights.  However, I didn't run any wire from the dash to do that.  Thinking about it for a bit, I realized I could easily splice a wire in the truck that runs to the outside running lights.  So, that is what I did and now the switches light when I turn on the dash lights.  I can't dim them like the front, but they are in the back and I'm not that worried about it.

The second challenge was the USB charger.  My original thought was to take the hot wire off the right had reading light switch to power to USB.  The problem is that the power for the reading lights is coming off a fuse block in the truck that is hot all the time.  This means the USB will be hot all the time.  I didn't want that because it's lit and would run the battery down.  I scratched my head for some time to figure out how to fix this issue (again, knowing five years ago that I was going to install this USB switch would have helped!)  Then I realized that the AUX switch that I wired into the dash ran to the trunk, and that AUX switch actually supplied a ground, not a hot.  When I put it in originally, I figured I would use it to run things in the trunk, like arming a NOS system and that I could use the fuse block in the trunk for power. So, all I needed to do was run the AUX wire in the truck back up to the USB charger and plug it into the ground side.  Voila!  Works like a champ.  The USB charger doesn't work unless I turn on the AUX switch up front.  A good compromise. And, if I do need to charge something overnight, I don't need to leave the car power on!  Here are pictures of the light switches:

Center switches with dash lights on.

Center switches with dash lights and reading lights on.

Center switches with dash lights and USB enabled

I tried to install my center brake light bar that I purchased years ago.  The mount that the light is in doesn't stand up tall enough to reach from the back parcel shelf to the bottom of the window, so I created some ABS plastic extension on the 3D printer.  I had done this three years ago, but once I tried to install them, I realized I couldn't because the back window is in the way now!  So, I got back on the computer and designed a new extension that has the screw mounting going in at an angle instead of straight down.  It's nice to have a 3D printer!  I ran out of time to install the light, but I'll get to that this week.

So, what is left?  Hmmmm.  I have to think about this.  To truly be done, I have to do the following:

In the back of the car:

• Mount the brake light
• Finish the carbon fiber layup and mount the center console panel
• Final mount of the center console
• Final mount of the center console arm rest
• Source and mount wing badges on door panels

Front interior:

• Fix the plastic center console insert and install
• Install the center console arm rest
• Install the glove box vanity mirror
• Install a glove box door catch
• Install a lower glove box latch system
• Finish the center indicator light bezel
• Mount the dimmer switch knob.
• Calibrate Speedometer

Trunk

• Make left and right upholstery panels
• Buy carpet kit and install

Exterior

• Fix mismatched paint
• Install bumpers
• Install front license plate
• Repaint hubcap center caps

Mechanical:

• Have front wheels alighted
• Have headlights aligned.

That's all I can think of!  Wow! The list is super small now!  Oh what a feeling!