Finally! Dropped in a new battery, reached across the driver's door and turn the key ... fired right up! Now that's what I'm talking about! Still a few items to fit and finish but she is almost road worthy. A few electrical gremlins to track down but very excited. Took her on a test drive through the neighborhood, had a blast! Did I mention she sounds great!??!

It's been a couple of weeks since I've updated my journal, lots has been done. The interior is complete, had the seats redone and finished the interior panel install. I refinished the Nardi steering wheel I picked up off of Ebay. Happy with the results, very happy that it bolted right in to the existing boss the previous wheel used ... definite bonus! The dash was a Moss replacement, not the dash cap but it replaces the entire face of the dash. That has been a very disappointing project. Not happy how it turned out at all but will drive with it for now and think of options. Of course that means I'll probably just live with it till I tear it all apart next time. The padding material on the dash is so think, almost a 1/3 of an inch in the instrument panel making it all but impossible to get the switches to fit. That coupled with the directions that look like they were done by a 5th grader, a very frustrating project. You would think that with the money they cost they could spend just a wee bit of time on quality control and decent directions. I need a new battery, seems this one has completely bought the farm as it sat for the last few years. The little juice that was in there did point out I need to chase some wires and verify how they are plugged in. Shouldn't be too difficult, just time consuming. I'm excited about the prospect of driving the car ... you will see the grin on my face across the entire state when that happens.

Cheers

Geoff

I guess I should keep it all in perspective, the car has only been back for 2 weeks from the paint shop and my time has been limited to a couple of hours in the evening during the week and weekends. I would like to be much further along than I am, all in due time.

I had a friend come over on Friday and we got the body seal attached to the windshield and got it attached to the car. What a process! Very satisfied with the final results. I did manage to get the review mirror attached to the driver's door so it's beginning to look more like a car. While we were working the DHL truck arrived with a large package, the seat/interior kit had arrived. We were all ready to dig in but I didn't have all the pieces I needed so we wrapped for the day.

Saturday and Sunday I worked on the car and got the carpet installed, looks great ... very pleased with the results. I started on the interior panels Sunday morning and spent the better part of the day refitting panels to fit properly. What a major pain in the arse. Then I found that the door panels were cut properly to fit the window winder ... damn. At this point it had been a long frustrating day so I spent some time cleaning up and called it a day.

Now I just sit with my good friend Johnny Walker Black and contemplate life.

Cheers

Geoff

OK, just a quick update. Had a good session yesterday with the car and am going out there in a few minutes to continue piecing things back together. I managed to actually secure the Midget script on the boot lid ... I've got fairly small hands but OUCH!!! Little bits going into little places. Door handles are polished up and back on, door locks are new and in place. They work ... sort of. The latching mechanism inside the door is very stiff. I may need to pull it and lube it well. That said, I'm not sure how secure it would be anyway since I'm only planning on using a tonneau cover. The headlights are in place, one of the trim rings is banged up beyond hope, doesn't show in any pics but that will be replaced. I've given up on the front turn signals, I've sourced a pair of clear signals off of EBay that have dual bulbs (amber/clear) and I'll plug them in when they arrive. I've been really lucky that as bad as the car looked, it was a sound little bugger with decent wiring. I'll be putting in new rubber and seals around the doors and windows next ... hopefully they'll be in my next update!

It's been almost a week and I've had some time to start getting pieces back onto the car. Small items like door handles/locks are started, the grill (new) is in place and looks great, tail lights have been polished and mounted. I've ordered new gaskets for the tail lights and will install those once they arrive. License plate holder (rear) has been painted and mounted. Unfortunately the license plate frame I purchased to insure lighting on the plate was a piece of junk. Plate is currently mounted temporarily until a new frame/light can be sourced.

Why is lighting important, you may notice that the reverse lights and factory license plate light have been removed with the rear bumper to create a cleaner look. I don't plan on driving in reverse long distances at night, but I do have plans to address that ... more to follow on that front.

I took a look at my front turn signals and they were pretty much junk, seems I remember that from when I took the car apart. I've ordered some dual bulb clear lenses for the front, hopefully they will be included in the next update!

Thanks!

Geoff