10/13/07 - well, today I start a new page since I went looking for trouble and found it.

I decided to pull out the front seat to adjust, clean and lube the adjuster on the seat. While I had it out I figured I would pull the carpet and see how bad the sound barrier was under there and probably replace it with some FatMat. Welllllll, the sound barrier is 35 years old and of course it needed to be replaced so, I started pulling it out when I realized that the back seat would need to have sound barrier applied under there too so I might as well pull out the entire interior ( short the dash ). I pulled the seat out and noticed a slight water stain from a leak probably long ago. Followed the trail down to under the rear seat and just brushed the sound barrier aside as it was now only attached to some nice feathery RUST!!!

Oh well, the car is 35 years old I had to expect it right?

Two patches under the rear seat. Almost the same spot on both sides. I know it is a common spot but I hoped not to have to deal with this yet. But since I am, I aim to fix it right. I was working with a body shop locally to get them to put the car on their frame jig to make sure it was not twisted so I figured let me call them and see if they would weld in some new patches for me and I would prime, paint and apply the sound barrier and be done with it. But these guys who where going to go through all of the hell to put my car on a frame jig for $50 wanted to charge me $375 for two 8" square patches. UMMM, NO! For that much money I will buy myself a new welder and patch it myself. Plus now I will have the welder for next time. I really hope its not soon.

10/14/07 - I removed most of the old tar based sound deadener and its extremely sticky glue today. Almost 2 cans of WD40 later, all of the stick is gone. Now I have to give it a good cleaning with mineral spirits to break the WD40 down and I will be ready to repair the floor and prime away.

Meanwhile, I decided the carpet was to be replaced. Now the question is, do I replace the same color that is a closer match to the exterior? Or, do I go with a darker blue that will match the re-done upholstery? If I go lighter, then I know I will want to change the seats back. If I go darker then I have to dye the dash pad. Well, I have to change the package shelf anyway as it looks to be the original with some vinyl over it to make it look slightly better. There is no longer any insulation under it either. So, Wendy and I will have to spend some time and figure out which way to go. But, but but, it is all apart in my garage and I really want to get out there and drive it............

Enough whining for now. I will post pictures of the carnage as I get the chance.

Well, its been a week now, I pulled the rest of the sound deadener crap out, got rid of the sticky residue and wirebrushed the entire floor. Then coated it with a metal sealer, rust remover / treatment. All of the black bits below are now hard as a rock.

11/03/07 -- not much time in the past week or two so I just removed the AC house wire that was used for the rear speakers and installed good 12ga speaker wire in the OEM wire loom from the dash back and mapped out my stereo upgrades. Looks like custom kick panels in the front using 6 3/4 components with the tweets in the dash will be the way to go. I will just have to lower the stock bracket a bit to give a better deflection angle off of the windshield. The OEM location would hit me right in the face in the drivers seat and make it a rather uncomfortable position to sit in. The rears will need better speakers but I like the original locations so I will keep the 6x9 even though the sound of round speakers is much more pleasing to me. I will make a custom cabinet for the subwoofer after I get some better measurements I will do some mock ups prior to installing. Stay tuned for some pics of how this goes.

I also picked up a new heater core since there was a slight hint of anti freeze last week when I got in it. I found a small drip at the bottom of the AC box so I'm sure there is a leak. I really hope it is not just something that was loose. This is going to be way too much work for a stupid loose connection. As long as I have the dash apart, I will FatMat the firewall in this area and lose some of the stock sound material.

Pics of this work so far would be boring so I won't be doing that.

More to come.

12/03/07 - I can't believe its December. In the last month I have not spent all that much time working on the car but I have done some.

I replaced the heater core. This was fun as always.

Removed the factory insulation on the firewall that was SOAKED with anti freeze. I don't think this was the first heater core to be replaced.

While I was in there I found a leaky vacuum line so that was replaced as well.

I replaced the old sealed beam headlights with H4 Halo's and ran the new wire into the cabin and wired a small 1/4" switch in an out of view area under the dash to turn on the Halo Neons.

I finished the floor cleaning and repairs. Four small holes welded up in the front foot wells the size of a large grain of sand and two large repairs in the typical place under the rear seat. After welding, grinding and re-seam-sealing the floor, I covered it with FatMat and ordered my new carpet. Now while I wait for the carpet to get here I can pull the rear interior quarter panels and Fatmat these areas as well. I will also remove the rear deck and rid myself of the cheesy speaker covers and mount the speakers under the deck the way they are meant to be.

12/22/07 -- I put the interior back together today. AND!!!!!!! I took her out for about an hour. The car is so dirty from all of the work lately but I just had to get behind the wheel for a while. But before I did that I had to pull the sail panels out in order to install the package tray, so while I was under there I removed the old sound deadening material and used fatmat in there too. The new package tray is an exact match in color for this interior. But, the speakers are still going to have grills. I looked for a package tray with the integral speaker cloth but none matched the interior. So I was going to have to do some custom work no matter what. I may take the new tray out after it is marked for the speaker locations and see if I can add some custom grill fabric but I think it will probably be grills. I am really tired of pulling this interior apart.

Next I hope to finish up the wiring for the Halo's and start working on the stereo. I ordered a complete "body bolt" replacement kit and it has all of the correct fasteners for the entire exterior. There are a lot of mismatched bolts on her now.

The passenger side inner fender well has been replaced but because of where I had the car in the garage I didn't get to the drivers side yet so that will be coming soon as well. When I pull that one out I have to remove the fender and re-align it. Man is that thing off. The top was pulled in by about 1/4 inch and it was hitting the hood at the top. The grill needs to be re-aligned as well. There is a 1/2 inch gap between the top of the grill and the hood when closed. Not good enough for me.

Enough for now, I will replace the carpet on the bottom of the doors and fatmat inside today or tomorrow and I may get a chance to finish up some more during the post Christmas vacation but time will tell.

A few more pictures of the interior then off to page 3 for the next adventure.

I put black speaker box carpet in all of the holes in the back of the seat to finish it nicely from the trunk side. It worked out well if I do say so myself.