Details, Details.

I was on a roll this week.

I started with the Dynamat last Sunday; it’s a simple cut, peel and stick task, but time consuming–it took me most of the day. As it turned out, I had just about the perfect amount in the box I ordered. As you can see in the photo, the exposed side is silver with a black pattern: the perfect camouflage for tools. Set one down and it disappears in a cloak of invisibility. I spent a lot of time later in the week feeling around for tools that were in plain sight.

I finally pulled the new carpet from the box and laid it out. The carpet is molded to fit the flooring, but not cut to size. That’s probably a good thing in the long run, but it means that the carpeting will be more of a chore than expected–lots of trimming and fitting, not to mention finding and cutting holes for things like seat bolts and the gas pedal.

Over the course of the week, I reinstalled the steering column (deja vu!) and got the mounting bracket for the clock pod back in place, which required scrounging around for six good, original speed nuts (found seven) and a trip to the hardware store for correct sized screws. Removing that pod is the first step in a lot of dashboard repairs, so it gets removed a lot. Over time, the fragile speed nuts get stripped or the original screws are lost, leaving a hodgepodge of fasteners and a sloppy-looking dash.

Yesterday, I spent some quality time on my back under the steering column. The swing-away mechanism got adjusted and I hooked up the wires for the turn signals. Some of the bullet connectors were pulled off, so there was some splicing to do. I also ran a ground wire to the column and hooked the shifter to the transmission. Finally, I put in the brake booster back on and bench bled the master cylinder.

Under the hood, I got the master cylinder installed on the booster and replaced the booster’s check valve (old one broke off during removal: ug). With all that in, I swapped out the valve train bolts and installed the valve cover on the driver’s side. Over on the passenger side, I removed the hose I was using to bypass the heater core and hooked the heater up properly. (Now I just need to remember to add more coolant to the system when I get the engine fired up again.)

At the end of the day, I hooked a trickle charger up to the battery. I would hate to get it all done only to find that the battery charge was too low to get the car started again.

I still have carpet, seats, the clockpod proper and a valve cover to get installed (not to mention tasks like bleeding the brakes) but it’s looking like this week will be the tail end of this project.