New mirrors!

I am super excited because I just found some of the bullet fender mirrors for my car! I got them from a friend for a great price, and they are ready to go on. I don't know if I'm going to wait until the paint job or not.....

These are the mirrors.......

....and here is what they will look like.

Some door rust and new door seals

My car was going to be parked outside for a few weeks because my family was doing a kitchen remodel and my garage side was being used for storage. I decided that it was time to install the door seals that I had sitting in a box in the garage that had come with the car.

 Here you can see the top of the door, with no seal in the channel. There are scraps of the old seal on the ground, I had to scrape it out with a screwdriver. You can also see the rust treatment on the door sill (the purple gunk). This stuff stops the rust and converts it back into metal again. This rust had been hiding under the scuff guard. So far, it is the only rust I have found on the car.

Here is another better rust treatment picture.

I ended up replacing the door seals on both sides, and the rear hatch seal in the back. I saved the various hood seals for later on because my original ones were in terrific shape. I also saved the glass seals (for the front and back windows) for when the car gets painted and they are pulled out.

Mini update - shift boot and handbrake boot!

Just a mini post here, when installing the new carpet I ripped the original parking brake boot. It was old, tattered, and faded from sunlight. I found a new one online and today it came.

Here is the boot fresh out of the packaging.

And here is a picture of me in the car. You can see the shift boot and knob, as well as the whole interior. Photo credit to Alister.

New carpet!

Let me start off by saying this was by far the biggest thing I have done to the car yet. It really turned the car from a old junker into a true classic.

 I started out by ripping all the old carpet out. This was pretty easy on the passenger side because there was almost none there to start.

 The rear deck carpet was basic house carpet, so that came out easily too. The driver side followed similarly.

 Here is a view from the rear showing the bare floor pans. My dad and I decided that we should give the floors a coat of rust-inhibiting paint to prevent any future problems. We then followed that with some basic black paint for a finished look.

 Here are the removed seats, scraps of carpet, center console, and other junk I found in the car.

 A picture in the middle of the progress showed how exploded the car was.

 Here is the installed rear deck carpeting. This was the only carpet that came cut to shape. We secured it down with velcro patches so the hidden spare tire would be easily accessible.

 After many hours, we finally cut the carpet to shape and had successfully hot glued it all in. We were going to use carpet adhesive, but because it had to be applied all at once, we decided against it. Hot glue proved to work rather well.

 During this time, I did some trim touch up with a black sharpie and used some plastic trim restorer compound to give the center console a good sheen.

Here is a view of the rear from the front. There is a trim piece that goes over the tail light assemblies, but I was cleaning it up at the time of the picture.

During this install, I decided to run some speaker wires to the rear deck. I had plans at the time to put in some speakers in boxes on the deck behind the seats. Pictures of that later.

Another afternoon project - valve cover paint

I had another spare afternoon and a need to get something done. My engine valve cover was looking faded and boring, so I decided to give it a coat of heat resistant grill paint. Regular paint would melt off because the engine gets so hot while driving. I decided to use grill paint because it was obviously heat resistant, and it had a nice matte finish to it.

I cleaned the whole valve cover with engine grime remover (powerful stuff!) and dried it off. I then gave it a few coats of paint and let it dry/harden. After that, I took a screw driver and scraped off the paint on the letters and striping, just to give it a cool look. It turned out pretty well.

I also took a few pictures of under the valve cover to document the condition of the engine. Unfortunately, it was a bit grimy and the engine should most likely be rebuilt within the next few years. I had planned on doing that at some point anyways, just not during my senior project as it would be too much work.

Dent documentation

I took a few pictures of the major dents just to lay out what needed to be done. There are multiple small dents on the car, but those will be fixed with bondo. I have to actually pull out these dents, either with a hammer or with a professional company (if I'm smart).

 There is a large dent behind the driver-side door....

....and a smaller one in the driver-side rear fender.This one almost isn't noticeable, except when compared to the other side.

Bumper problems!!!

I got my fiberglass bumpers in the mail and the rear one doesn't line up at all! After talking to the seller and sending him some pictures, he concluded that he had a problem with his fiberglass bumper mold and said he would send me another rear one. I'm angry that this happened, but also relieved that he will send me another one for free. Now to wait.....

Here you can see the gap between the car and the bumper, where it should be flush.

Same gap on the other side.....

Here's the bumpers laid out on my hood just to give a full size view of them.