Oh, that car…

Yeah, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted any progress here.  I helped make a film, played a lot of concerts in the US, and Europe, and wrote a lot of music that was performed in Carnegie Hall, in Chicago’s Harris Theater and Symphony Hall, as well as some Opera and other craziness.  And I had a son.  Everything has been going very well.

But with all that going on, the car has taken a back seat.  That’s just the way it goes.  I have been poking away at it whenever I have a free moment, which is pretty seldom.

To that end, here’s what I’ve gotten done.  I built and installed the stainless steel hoses for the oil cooler.  These took me a really long time to figure out, because I didn’t know that you needed to seat the hose all the way into the sleeve.  This allows the hose to expand enough to get the pressed-in part to go in far enough to catch the threads.  I held the hose in my left hand and used a rubber mallet to seat the sleeve on the hose.  It worked like magic, and now my hoses are done.

I routed the feed line through the radiator core, and the return line up through the headlight area.  I used a 180 degree fitting on the feed line on the cooler, so that the hose runs above the cooler.  On the return side, I used a 90 degree fitting to run straight up into the headlights.

I covered the steel hose with rubber hose where it comes in contact with any painted surfaces.  Obviously this is to prevent chafing on the paint.  I used the Turner kit to bolt the AN fittings to the Euro Oil Filter housing.  Another great piece from Turner.  I got my fittings from BAT in Florida.  They had the ultra cool “titanium” colored fittings which I like way more than the red and blue standard fittings available elsewhere.  These are a little more subdued.

Using the factory locations for the oil cooler, I had to make a small bracket to raise one point so that the cooler sat level in the car.  Very simple, and it does the trick well.

You can also see the M42 radiator that I’m using.  I’m using this because it has an integrated overflow tank.  I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble with overheating, as I’m running the SPAL fan infront of it.  We shall see.  But in any event, I used some random hose from the auto parts store for the top hose, and a slightly modified M20 hose for the bottom hose.  I had to build risers for the radiator to get it to the right height for the top bracket to work.  I made them out of square tube stock with large rubber bushings.

I installed the driver’s seat to see how the factory sliders with Recaro brackets work.  The answer is exactly as I thought it would be… too high.  If you’re 5′ 10″ or shorter, this setup will work very very well for you.  If you are any taller, you need to take a different route.  Here’s a bunch of photos of the seat.  Recaro Sport Topline with custom upholstery and stitching.  You can see the vintage seat slider in these pics.  This is just for a test fit to get the height dialed in.

Another thing that I have found is that the new trim pieces don’t have the same finish as the old ones.  The rear center console is brand new, and the front center console is not new.  The two finishes are very different in feel and luster.  The worst thing is that I bought a brand new front section, and it doesn’t match either.  It has the old style finish.  It kinda stinks, but not the end of the world.

One thing I’m not so stoked on is the coolant return hose to the overflow tank.  The spider hose has a union fitting coming out of it, which is a different size than the fitting on the radiator.  I found some hose laying around that was the right size, but not quite long enough.  None of the hose I found worked the way I wanted, but I need to move past this point, so I concocted this silly thing…  It will work fine for now, but will be fixed later I’m sure.  You can also see the new Power Steering reservoir I installed.

There is a wire that has three wires in it that was cut.  I thought it was the brake wear sensor, but as far as I know, the brake wear sensor only has two wires in it.  So I have to think about what it is.  My brain is too caught up in diapers to know right away.

I snapped some photos of the back of the brake calipers because they looked particularly sexy.

So I snapped a couple photos of the car, so that I had something new to look at while away from the car.