So with the new door panels essentially being bare metal on bare metal, they are a great source for a new interior noise, specifically when any sort of bass from the speakers causes vibration. So I added some sound dampening mat to the back side of them. This cut down on the buzzing noises from the doors a lot.
And it appears I forgot to take any pics while doing that.
I'm bad at build threads.
So Seth fixed the driver side power window. And it broke again about 3 days after I got the car home. I proceeded to ignore it for many months.
Today I got bored enough to look at it again. And found out I'm an idiot who didn't know what I was looking at last time I messed with it.
I thought the cables were binding up and not allowing the window to go straight down. So I went to the first cables I saw at the bottom of the door. This did nothing but I was out of ideas.
So I went back today and looked at Seth's post. I knew he had added a rivet with a zip tie to hold a cable back. But it had snapped and was never seen again.
I found this picture trying to figure out where that used to be.
To the left of it is the door handle. Meaning I was no where near the right hole at any time. Oops.
Sticking my hand up behind that hole I found the cable running along the top of the door. And soon realized what was happening.
That cup around the bolt that holds the glass in place was catching on that cable. Not allowing the window to go more than about 1/3 the way down. Sticking a hooked pick through that hole the rivet used to be, hooking the cable and pulling it towards me allowed that cup to clear and thus the window to go all the way down.
More fumbling around inside the door and I found what was left of the plastic retainer thats supposed to hold that cable. I stuck it back in the hole and the window works. I then added zipties for good measure.
Put the door panel back on and now we get to see this, Golfball with the driver side window down. Something nobody has seen since about 3 days after the car left Texas.
In reply to Daylan C (Forum Supporter) :
now you can go through the drive-thrus at 70mph sideways, just like bobzilla
Hey, working windows are something we all take for granted
In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :
You have obviously never owned a Lotus or anything Italian
I have, and express delight whenever they go back up.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
I own old dodges. They like to just fall when they feel like it. Also got enough time around old fiats to understand.
I've had a leak at the lower radiator hose since I put it back together after doing the timing belt. I came to the conclusion that it was the clamp's fault. So I decided to try these clamps on the radiator. Lower hose isn't leaking anymore, if only because I don't have too large of a clamp overtightened on a plastic radiator anymore.
Did brakes. New cheapo street pads and rotors, braided hoses, and new dot 4 fluid.
Be willing to bet it stops like a whole new car.
In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :
Pretty sure the old rotors were warped, so if anything not having the car feel like it's trying to self destruct any time you get near the brake pedal is nice.
In reply to Daylan C (Forum Supporter) :
That's a huge plus. Was the brake fluid chocolate milk?
In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :
It looked pretty ok actually. No idea how old it was though.
So I've had this thing an entire year now. I somehow haven't ruined it. Some would say I even made it slightly better. Yay.
Around here, not ruining a car within a year is a significant accomplishment. Be proud of that.
Updates.
We have a real seat now.
17" wide Track Dog Rally Sport on their low mount rails with the back brace going to the harness bar.
The taller bolsters with the stock steering wheel (for now) mean the easiest way to get in is going in head first and holding myself up with a hand on the tunnel while I slide under the wheel. I was almost certainly going to break the console doing that, so I left it out. Which means I didn't have a cup holder anymore.
So I copied Matt Farah's old Fox Mustang and stuck a G Wagen cup holder to the dash.
Went down to Tennessee sunday to have a friend weld in backing plates for the 5 point harness and seat belt.
There's a hole in the tunnel used for a wiring grommet that is directly inline with the seat belt bolt on the outside. So we put one of the backing plates there. The one for the submarine belt went in place of the cover plate over the chassis rail. The wiring was moved down to the floor.
Then he put Ford panel bond over the welds and surrounding area. And then a coat of farm implement white spray paint over everything as soon as the panel bond hardened.
I wanted to keep a 3 point belt in the car for street driving and the factory NB seat belt buckle is mounted to the seat rail. I found out early NA buckles work with the NB clasp, so that's what is bolted into the car now.
And then I packed the car the next morning and drove to Iowa. More on why I did that later.
In reply to Daylan C (Forum Supporter) :
Scenery. I'm guessing scenery.
Well I live in Iowa now. A recruiter reached out to me about a CNC gig in Waverly, Iowa. 2 phone interviews and a plane ride for an in person interview later, I start Monday and just finished lugging the crap I deemed worth keeping into my new apartment.
In reply to Daylan C (Forum Supporter) :
Congrats on the new adventure!
Congrats, hope it works good for you.
So NCM Gridlife was this past weekend. I had planned on going since it was announced because, duh, gridlife 30 minutes from home.
Too bad NCM is practically 12 hours from "home" now....
Guess I'll go anyway because Mazdeuce, Bobzilla, and Spacecadet are really good at talking you into doing the stupid thing you already really wanted to do.
Drive out was pretty uneventful. Weekend was great. Return trip pretty decent other than the car shredding another belt on I80 at 2am.
Good news is I keep a spare alternator belt and tools in the car now. So I had to back going in 20 minutes.
Really need to figure out what it's actual problem is though because this is getting old.
In reply to Daylan C (Forum Supporter) :
Is the belt shredding? Tossing it off?
In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :
The alternator belt was gone and the AC/PS belt was untouched, so I can only assume it broke. Couldn't find it to inspect it. There looked to be rubber on the alternator pulley as if the belt had been slipping on that pulley a lot.
In reply to Daylan C (Forum Supporter) :
Make sure everything moved free, check alignment and also look for damaged pullies
Swapped on track pads for me and the cars first track thing this weekend. High Performance Driving Introduction at NCM.
So far all I know is they squeak when cold and bit lot harder than I'm used to when I was bedding them in. But it's one of the last pieces of the puzzle to finally start doing track stuff with this silly little car.
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