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9/12/00 Who said you can never go home? Well, I was too "sick" to work yesterday, so I decided to hit the project. There was so little to do to have it road worthy that I just couldn't wait until this weekend. I stopped for a leasurely breakfast, then headed to work. All that was left was wiring the front lights, mount the seat belts, and install the rest of the hood latch. Well, the lights weren't as easy as first appearance. The front parking/turn lamps are of poor quality, and as soon as I applied power I blew a fuse. Good thing I had spares on site. I had trouble installing the bulb, and it turned out that the wire was grounded to the socket. That's why there are fuses. Another 30 minutes to correct, but done and working. I had to remove the connectors from the headlight wires, so I didn't have to cut and splice the wires. This went well and easy, and about time. Good clean install, too. I found that I need to buy lamps for the light under the headlight, so I don't know if they work yet. Getting the grounding right took some time. Although it seemed that there was only one ground point on the front harness this was not so. So for a while I had some wierd lighting. Finally figured that out, another hour. Good thing I grounded the radiator 'cause now it's the ground point for both sides of the front harness. All lights work ,and well. Next step, hood latch. Since I didn't get everything right, I needed to engineer some more fiberglass. One thing had me puzzled with these little, tiny hooks used to hold the front end in place. They're sure little, tiny brackets, and won't they pull right out? Henry specifies an option to lengthen the brackets, and I assumed this was so they wouldn't pull out. Once I drilled the holes, I then found out the secret. He had metal plates imbedded into the glass. I feel better now on that one. Next step, mount the seat belts. Seems easy enough. Wrong! I found out that they need to go behind the X brace, which means I need to remove the X brace. Well, now there's no roof, and the X brace holds the sides of the car together. This should be good. Oh, well, off it comes. There was tension, but I could remove, and more importantly, REPLACE the brace. Ok, what's left. God, look at this thing! It's got so much dirt in it, I have to vacuum it out. Another hour. What about the creaky roof? Another OOPS. I forgot to bolt it tight. Screwed that down, now lets hit the open road!!!! Cleaned up, locked up and headed for the gate. Last problem before the road trip was getting Sierra into the car, and comfortable. She will still need time to find the perfect dog cruising spot, but we'll work it out.
Ok, let's head downtown. Good first trip, no freeway. This thing gets the looks! Either people do a double take, or don't even see it (the non car people). I'm gonna love driving this.
Well, this weekend the Rodster heads home. It's far from "finished" but I feel comfortable to drive it the 30 miles home. I'm really looking forward to this. This has been a really fun project, and I'm going to miss the time I've spent on it. Like I said I'm not finished, but all the other stuff can happen at home. I'll have more time since I don't have to drive 30 miles to get to it. I'll have working windows soon, and rocker panels in place. All the interior trim is still loose, and there are still speakers to remount, a headliner to install, and probably 1000's of other minor details.
Stop by again, since I have a few more pictures to post. They will be here next week. Well, gotta get cruising. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you had as much fun with the project as I did. Have a great rest of the summer, I know I will!! |
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