The onset of winter and other responsibilities have been slowing me up the last few weeks, but that didn’t stop me from getting a bunch more work done.
I got my door locks working – I have power locks for the first time since i got the car! The weight difference between the old solenoids and the new linear actuators is incredible. The old solenoids were 27.75 oz and the new actuators are only 5.5 oz. Since the solenoids are way at the farthest point from the fulcrum of the door, that weight difference made a huge impact on the doors’ opening ability – they stay up a lot better now. And the power functionality is great.
I was planning on putting my new external door locks in as well, but due to some confusion over the key code, they were made wrong and I am waiting for the replacements to arrive.
Next, I installed my new convex side mirror glass and new caps on the rear arm rest sections. Both make a big difference – the normal mirrors made it impossible to see anything behind the car, so this was a great improvement to safety, particularly on the highway. The arm rest caps made a big cosmetic difference too, as the leather was all worn out on the very edge.
Also swapped the pushbutton switch I made for the integrated garage door opener with a spare power window switch that the arrows wore off of. this give it a much more stock and invisible look.
In other news; Clint and I showed at a cruise night in Davis, which was a lot of fun – people there were blown away to see our cars parked next to each other.
I’ve also started working with another guy on the forum on a new custom part for the car. Stay tuned for info on that; I’m going to drop off our plans and specs at the machine shop next week to get a prototype put together.
That’s all for now… I’ve started buying the parts for the winter’s big jobs – a major transmission overhaul and a complete replacement of the entire brake system.
As always, pictures are in the gallery.