Big successes lately. After the travesty with the window dropping off the tracks, I regrouped and got everything back together. I even got up the nerve to replace all the rest of the door seals – inner, outer and lower on both sides. That went really well, except the inner driver’s side seal. I put the new one on and the door wouldn’t close anymore! It seems it’s a touch misaligned. That’s sad, because it closes so well – one more little nuance of these hand-made fiberglass body shells is that the tolerances were way less than perfect. I put the old seal back on, which was compressed and a little torn in one corner at the roofline, which allows the door to close properly. The tear isn’t going to be a problem now thanks to the new outer seals.
Part of replacing the door seals was removing and repainting the windshield header panel and a-pillar trim. I didn’t get into a delorean to mess around with paint, so I pulled the panels off and brought them to a body shop in town. 70 bucks got them stripped and repainted, good as new. They look great!
I also re-sealed the rubber isolating strips under the hood and sealed in the new outer window wipes with some black silicone, rebuilt another cv joint, got new wiper blades and started rebuilding my shift linkage. I put a new pivot bolt and nut in with new bushings and collars, which reduced the clanking noise and increased shift accuracy dramatically. I still have a few more bolts to do, but that will be a job for another day.
The biggest news, however, was a trip up to Clint’s race shop in Sacramento yesterday. We spent 8 hours cutting out my old, nonfunctional A/C system and replacing every inch of it – hoses, compressor, o-rings, accumulator, fittings, switches, lube and refrigerant. And yes, literally cutting – the hoses run from the compressor in the engine bay to the condenser at the front by the radiator. They’re installed onto the frame before the body was attached. This means the options are either to detach and lift the body off to remove and run new hoses, or cut the old ones in half and run new style hoses with a splice in the middle. We chose option 2… it wasn’t a particularly hard job, but it took a lot of effort. At the end of the day though, the A/C was running perfectly – and blowing 29 degree air! It’s like driving a whole different car when I’m not sweating my ass off and struggling to get any airflow through the tiny windows.
The efforts continue!