About Me

New Hartford, Connecticut, United States
Name: Todd Russo Location: New Hartford, CT, USA

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Door sill carpet strips


This week I started to put the door sill carpet strips in place today. It was not that hard, just another slow tedious procedure.

They will look good and finally complete the carpet installation.
 

But, as usual, problems popped their ugly head up. I am in need of another rare part, the metal door sill strip. The one I have is good and has been cleaned up and painted.
 

 
But the other one is rusted and snapped in half.


I laid the driver’s side padding strip followed by the carpet itself in place.
 

And, placed the strip on top to show where it fits.
 

I also have to find these three pieces for the handbrake assembly, #29, 30 and 31 on the diagram. They help the interior bolts secure the assembly to the body on the underside of the car. Mine were lost in the disassembly process.
 

Basically, not much was accomplished this week. I guess we will take this post as a plea to someone to see if they have these parts. Every now and then I come to a hurdle like this. I hope getting over it is easy this time.

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Rear window rubber seal strip


This was my last week on the teaching assignment, so once again I only had a few minutes to work on Old Biddy. I finally decided to set the rubber strip into the rear window rubber seal. It has been bugging me every time I looked at it.
 

To do this, I needed just a nail set tool and lots and lots of patience. First roll the top part in, then the bottom at about six inch increments.
 
 
It took about an hour and a half of slowly manipulating the strip into place. And after trimming the corners, it is finally done!

My best friends for this project were the nail set tool and razor blade. Only eight inches of scrap strip...means I did a good job!
 

One of the main reasons that I have not done a lot of work on the car lately is that I have been busy on other projects. I have been a bass guitar player for 34 years. I decided to get a new practice bass so that my “good” bass (that I use in my band) does not get beat up too much. I bought a black Squier Mustang bass but was not happy with the color nor the electronics in it.
 

So I painted it a vintage turquoise that matches the color known as Tee Nee Trailer turquoise, the color of the boat trailer I restored last year (see my post for June 24, 2012). I also changed the electronics in it so that it sounds more “vintage”. It took twice as much time as I wanted but the results are great!
 

This coming week I have to finish putting in the two side carpet strips on the interior and then a couple of odds and ends. After that I have to start disassembling some parts to get it ready to go to Chris's.

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Driver's seat repair and installation


Had yet another very busy week and a blizzard that dropped two feet of snow on us. Poor Old Biddy kept staring at me to do something on her. So I finally installed the driver’s seat.

The makeshift adjuster that came with the seats was not put together correctly. The original one broke, so I had to find a screw that fit the hole then a locking bolt that fit it.
 

Once I screwed the locking bolt in place. The adjuster went over the top. This is the same size as the original pin that was there.
 

 
Now that the seat is in place, it can be securely slid forwards and backwards…and stay in that position!
 

One more really busy week left at work. After I trudge through it, I will once again have some spare time to work on the car. I am really looking forward to it.

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

Saturday, February 2, 2013

C pillar pad installation and more

This past week has been very hectic. Had only a few moments to work on the car. I decided to pop the c pillar pads in place.
Lining the clips up on the car itself took up way too much time. To simplify the process, I made a paper template as a pattern to line the clips up.

After about an hour in an excruciating test of patience, I finally lined all the clips up. Then, they were tapped into place. Here is the passenger (right) side…..

….and the driver’s (left) side. The vinyl needs a bit of touching up on the top of the pad. Not a big deal..

Also, the passenger front seat clips were torqued down so the seat could be tipped forward.

The driver’s side needs a bit of “tweaking” to get it to fit. I will be able to do that this week and a couple other little things. The assignment I have lasts three more weeks. After that I should have a bit more time.
Thanks for visiting.
Toddy