Work has been progressing, but as most of you know, you pick at one thing and eventually you have dug yourself into a deep hole! I removed the dash pad because there was a faded area. I had the color matched and dyed it back to its original color. While that was out, I figured I might as well take care of the leaking heater core (a difficult but not impossible job with ATCII). Then the 8 track didn't work, and the gauge needles had faded, and, and, and...
So... the heater core is replaced, the evaporator was tested, the box is back together and installed. All of the vacuum lines were checked and are back where they belong. The A/C system has a new expansion valve and O-rings. I replaced the 8-Track's drive belt, painted the gauge needles, cleaned everything, and used a chrome pen to restore the vents, instrument faceplate, etc. A door lock actuator was bad, so that was replaced with an NOS piece. The right side remote mirror was pitted, so I found an NOS manual mirror and swapped the mirror and cables into the housing. All of the power window switches are new. A few things need attention before I can put the interior back together but, once that's done, everything will work and I'll move on to the exterior.
This has been a fun project at times and not so fun at times (I'm looking at YOU, ATC II!!!!!). It's nice that each issue can be done in a short amount of time... and none of it is really difficult. The car should be done this summer. The car shows in Los Angeles have (mostly) been cancelled, so I'm not in a big hurry. I'm just enjoying learning new things and trying to figure out why some of the plastic items held up well, and others snap into pieces if you just look at them!
Aaron
