OK, sorry about that, didn’t get to it and went on vacation for a week!

Anyway, much has happened since the last time I actually posted all those pictures originally. One of the most significant is that I am now the father of twin 15 month old toddlers!!! Needless to say that has had a pretty major impact on the time I can spend on the car. But I have to take the time where I can get it, this has already taken much longer than planned and I don’t want to be too old to enjoy the car when it is done!!!
Alright….picking up from where I left off……..

I reassembled a lot of the stuff I’d had plated, including the shifter linkage, hood latches, etc

Then I got on with installing the radiator, more front end sheet metal installation, and doing the radiator yoke blackout.
I got a 4 core 26" rad (man it's heavy) to fit in my 22" core. Since the car was already painted I was not gonna fit the now-available replacement panel to convert the yoke, and after a lot of consideration I decided to drill a couple of extra holes as the best method. Sounds simple.....but it is a TIGHT fit, I since found out that the drivers side is also slightly different on a 26" car. I wanted to get the rad centred in the factory position, and also be at the correct height, level etc, However, I also needed to space it back just a fraction more on the passenger side to allow some air to pass through the shrouded section, but without it looking obvious. I'm happy with the result, it's perfectly level, correctly centred, and close enough in height and spacing to look correct. Another 'simple' job that was anything but!





I then did the yoke blackout, after referring to the factory diagrams and a few photos I've collected over the years from previous posts. . Rather than mask off the whole car/garage, I taped off the front end and enclosed it using tarpaulins and the garage door to create a mini-booth!! Using the vac as an extractor, I went ‘inside’ and sprayed it up - it turned out pretty well!!





Another mod was to the kickdown linkage and associated brackets. With my taller intake the standard linkage won’t work. There are aftermarket options but I kinda like the cleaner factory type look, and of course it didn’t cost me anything (except time!). I extended two linkage rods using some spare bolts) and the bracket. One of the rods wouldn’t normally need extending but mine was originally from a 2 bbl These are before and after shots. Later on I did another round of plating, so got them plated too





I put the new washer bottle in, cleaned and reused the original hose, and refurbed the rest – the foot pump was disassembled and put back together, new firewall grommet used, and the washer jets replated and reused. Also had to drill out a couple of holes in the hood to let the jets through - I’m using a fibreglass hood top as I couldn’t locate a metal hood over here in the UK. It looks pretty good but the blower intake vents in the hood were moulded in. I painted them all matt black to help the illusion and made the required two holes (actually I put one in the wrong slot first – so three holes !!)



Next up was the whole dash. This has turned out to be an entire ‘mini-project’!

First I needed to repair the switch panel. I’m guessing that at some time it had been replaced, the bezel around the convertible top switch was broken, plus there was no switch label for that switch. I stripped down the whole panel, switches and all, cleaned up all the electrics, fitted a replacement dimmer switch that I have had for years, and built up the broken section with epoxy, then covered with a silver disc to match the other switches – I made this from an old credit card!!! I love it when an off-the-wall solution works!



I re-inked all the markings on the switches, then I had a go at making a new switch decal.....pic of original next to my new one!! (the one on the car was not correct, didn't have the 'Top Lift' writing, plus it was worn and nasty!). I found a few fuzzy pictures of originals, scanned in my one, recreated it, and added the missing writing. You wouldn’t know it’s not original!



Next was refitting the glovebox – I had a new cardboard one but I’d been looking for a place to put a load of electrical stuff and this seemed like a good one. I mocked up a completely modified glovebox which would accommodate my MSD ignition, rev limiter, electronics boxes for all the new gauges and my tach adaptor. I decided the best electrical approach was to fit an auxiliary fusebox here too, and after a LOT of searching found a marine one which was exactly what I needed. After some internal mods to the busbar, and the addition of a relay triggered by the ignition feed, I now have 12 extra fused electrical feeds – some permanent 12V feeds, and some ignition-switched. These power all the stuff in the glovebox, plus the line lock, and I have some spares for future additions. Finally, this panel also served as a junction box for the main battery feed (now that it is rear mounted).

I’d decided that I could sacrifice the glovebox function if necessary, but thought I’d give it a go to see if I could still retain a little storage there too. Fitting all that stuff was a TIGHT fit and took numerous trial fittings, but I did succeed in keeping a tray in there which I could keep a few small things in. Another result I’m very happy with, and that took some time to do!



Next I refurbed some more of the dash panels. The heater switch panel actually has a painted finish (meaning it had deteriorated so needed a repaint). I used a bumper paint to adhere to the plastic. It’s not textured like the original but it looks good enough. I also disassembled all the switch and heater control gear, and repainted all the lettering and the surround (white letters, silver surround). What a transformation. Lastly I added my line lock switch, enlarging a hole that was already there on my panel.





At the same time I disassembled all the dash wiring connectors and cleaned up all the terminals – soaking them in phosphoric acid is a good way to get to the female connectors, so I did this on all of them. I also cleaned up the wires and the insulation tape – mostly I’ve been replacing this but on the dash it wasn’t too bad so mostly I just cleaned it up. I added any new wiring at the same time.
Another thing I did here was to modify the mechanical 5V voltage regulator for the dash with solid state components – much more stable and less heat too.

Also needed to rebuild the lighting panel for the dash lights. Aside from the usual dim lighting, the coloured filters used had dulled over time but mainly one was burnt and needed replacing. So I decided to do them all. Got hold of some lighting gel of EXACTLY the right colour thanks to a friend and stamped out the right bits. The panel needed stripping and repainting anyway, so did that at the same time.



I also needed to clean and tart up the bezels etc, this proved difficult since some of them were quite ‘chalky’ in appearance. I don’t really like the shiny finish you get with Armorall or other silicone based protectants (plus it’s not good for the plastic) so after mucho research I got hold of some 303 and I like it. I also painted on the silver bezel highlights – not chrome like the original but looks 90% as good for 1% of the price!
The plastic lenses got polished and I repainted the needles in the original colour. I didn’t really need to reface the gauges to be honest (so I didn’t!). However the high beam idiot light was always rubbish, the filter was too small and not very obvious, so I made a new one in traditional blue and the same size as the other dash lights.



The dash pad also needed fixing up. On the underside I cut away the plastic ‘flash’, got rid of the surface rust, and then attacked some of the metal frame rust – not severe but needed a go. On the top side there were some minor bubbles in the vinyl where it had lifted slightly. I’ve heard of injecting some glue in there, but when I got some needles that could do it they were pretty big! I thought it might leave some visible holes. After having a think and cleaning up the vinyl I drilled some holes from the underside of the pad, injected them with glue and clamped them to the right profile until they dried (a bit of brake line was the key ingredient!). I reckon I could do it even better if I did it again but it looks in pretty decent shape I would say.

Before


During


After




After all that work on the dash I was finally ready to reassemble and finish it. Everything went back in, along with the new ‘glovebox’ and all the wiring associated with the modifications – man there was a lot of it!!






I fitted the dash pad in place



And finally with help of my visiting Dad lifted it into place on the car!!! One of those moments of reward for all the hard work. I connected up various wires and cables




Another thing I’ve done is remake the headlight harness. I wanted to use relays to power the headlights just to make sure I got full voltage to them – Mopars are notorious for low voltage even when new and if you look at the maths the amount of light output you get falls off dramatically with even a small voltage drop. So this is worth doing even with the standard lights. However, it made sense to upgrade to halogen anyway. I decided to modify the original wiring – I like the idea of having four headlights on instead of two during normal operation (standard you get all four lights on full beam only), so I sourced up four units and designed up and made a harness to accommodate these. I used good existing parts of the original harness in places (although the original had been completely butchered by a previous owner, so I did not have much to work with!), and added wire and upgraded the gauge where necessary, and also took a power feed from the starter relay. The good thing is that the original harness carries the alternator feed to that relay, so since I don’t need that anymore with my rear battery, I deliberately made the new harness resemble the old – a fat red wire exits the loom and connects in the same place as the original, even though it has a different function. I also made an aluminium bracket to accommodate the relays, soldered and crimped all the connections, then wrapped it all up in tape and it does very nicely, while again resembling the original setup.

The original harness stripped down with a few wires removed…..


The ally bracket I made for the relays (mounts using an existing hole in body)


The finished new harness!!!



About this time I got a load more parts plated – great bang for the buck. The photo was the easiest way to figure out if I got back everything I sent out!!!



Anyway here are two good examples of jobs that should 5 minutes but end up taking five hours – or more!!
First the bulkhead connector – place seal in, offer up to hole, install nuts, sorted, right?
Nope, no matter what I did it would not seal at the top. I had the hammer and dolly out on the bulkhead (which meant I then had to touch up the paint later), I had to grind off some welds inside the car, and although that all improved things, eventually had to make a tapered spacer to push the seal further out at the top. I think this was all because the cowl was replaced and there was a patch panel from the donor right above the connector hole. It must have distorted the opening slightly. You wouldn’t know to look, but it wasn’t right and it did not seal – I had visions of it leaking like a sieve. So finally I got it done, but it took so much time.



Second example – the glovebox catch. Two screws, 2 minutes, right? Again – no! No matter how I adjusted it, the glovebox would not latch shut properly. I couldn’t figure out why. Then I figured out that the aluminium glovebox I made was thicker than the cardboard original, so had spaced the door up a little. So I decided to modify the catch. All was going well until I went too far and it broke off!! Now I had no catch…grrr. So I had to make an adjustable jig to fit and try and get the right dimensions for a modified catch, then when that was done had to make a new catch! This required heating a spare metal rod at its ends and hammering them flat etc etc. Eventually it was done and fitted – much better than before, still not perfect but it shuts and latches and the lid is suitably aligned – that was good enough for now.
So two jobs that should have taken a tea break and it took a full days work at least. No wonder it takes so long


I also reassembled the steering column, which ironically was an example of one of those rare jobs which went very smoothly!! Everything went back where it should, the new lock went in fine, and I removed (finally!) the annoying key buzzer for good!
Once I got a grommet (thanks to another friend) I was able to refit the column, an actual 5 minute job (that took 5 minutes), and then I could sit on a footstool behind the wheel and make V8 noises while ‘driving’ the car ops: ops:…no of course I did not do that.

Here is the column after 30 years of use


Disassembled


Parts refurbed – e.g. the column bracket


Reassembled




And finally…..reinstalled


Anyway, then all I had to do was connect up the column electrical plugs to have a mostly-functioning electrical system! Because I relocated the battery and isolated the starter cable, plus am not using the bulkhead connector to feed the main power through anymore as it is a weak point, the whole system is a bit different to before. It meant power cables from the rear which I had to connect into the main power splice in the car. Easiest/best place to do this with my setup (complete with added fusebox as described) was at the ammeter. The ammeter won’t work anymore anyway due to my rear battery layout (and is another weak point anyway) so I just connected the ammeter leads to my new powerfeeds with a small busbar I made.


So after all that you can imagine I connected the steering column wiring and connected the battery with a little trepidation. Would there be sparks, smoking wires or blown fuses?? Anyway, I opened the door and the underdash light came on!! Flicked the headlight switch and the lights worked….yeeeeh, seemed like another important milestone, finally the car had its lifeblood restored. I grounded the starter relay and turned the ignition switch – the test light worked – we have ignition!!

I’ve also refitted many small parts like the latches, door locks, etc, plus some of the window mechanism, I have to say that every time I refit a latch (door, boot, bonnet) I have some kind of baffling alignment problem…I’ve had to move on on one or two of those to come back another time.

Did some more wiring, this time the final!! harness which is the engine harness.
Here it is to start with


Following my established path I wanted something that resembled stock but is actually quite customised. I wanted to try and run the MSD wires through the factory bulkhead connector, and also incorporate into the harness my Unilite distributor wiring/plug. So after much thought I freed up three slots in the original connector and set about it (I no longer use the original alternator feed, don’t need the electric washer wire, and one slot was spare anyway).
Here you can see the before and after on the bulkhead connector


And here you can see the Unilite plug in the harness and also the MSD wires to the coil exiting


and the other side of the bulkhead with the new wires


Also the other end of the harness where the alternator field wires and the temp sender exit


Under the dash where the MSD wires plug to the new harness (along with my tacho feed)


I mocked up the coil on the engine to check the wire lengths I needed, then decided that since the MSD coil is supposed to be mounted upright, I might as well make a bracket to do that


Then finished off my ‘new’ harness and wrapped it. Here it is….doesn’t look anything special really……exactly!!


I also wanted to be able to bypass the MSD in case it ever failed, and eventually figured out a good way to do that via a jumper loom in the Unilite connector – that’s one bit that can wait , the main thing is I’ve built the harness as it needs to work with that.

Anyway, that will do for now, that is almost up to date – trouble is if I try to get it 100% current it keeps changing, better to post something!!