Sorry, I didn't see the new(?) section. Been away too long I guess.

Anywho...I lied, there'* still some more Nuke-idge that had to be done -




Rear seats and carpet out now. I was chasing the three wires to the electric fuel pump where they tuck up under the seats and out the shell of the car above the driveshaft tunnel.

Ok, now the car is completely nuked, with more of the interior inside the house rather than inside the car. It'* been a productive morning as well. I was tracing down nearly every circuit on the car from the fuse block to the actual components being operated.

So far, I've got ignition, charging from the alternator, a working starter, coolant fan, exterior lights, brake lights, and backup lights. That just leaves the fuel pump, heater/blower circuit, and the instruments. And, fortunately, I didn't find anything living inside the shell of the car. ( I probably looked a little silly poking open the heater core door with the longest screwdriver I have...ready to kill anything that came crawling out of it.)

So, coffee break is over, time to go back to work. I really want to get the mechanical and electrical work done this weekend. With a working fuel pump, I can empty out the rest of the tank, drop it, clean it, and install a low pressure pump. Then I can get the new carpet in and hopefully have the headliner show up by the end of the week to get the rest of the interior finished.

The sooner I get this 3500lb paper-weight moving again, the sooner I can get to work on the Bonneville.

Since I'm just babbling along, I might as well post another update...

Big day today, first of the parts going back in. The dash was pretty badly cracked and had to be stich & glued together before reassembling it. (Not unexpected, 20 years in the Florida sun made the plastic a bit brittle)

Headliner is on backorder, but the rest of the headliner parts arrived today from Classic Industries. New Walbro fuel pump got here too. All that'* left is a box from Jegs with more AN fittings for the fuel lines. (While I have the pump out, I am going to replace the lines and go with AN fittings from the tank all the way to the carb. Also changing the system to use a regulator with a return line to the tank.)

Kim is happy...parts are leaving the living room and migrating back to the garage.

Not nearly so organized...in fact, I spent about an hour of this evening looking for stuff all over the house ("Now where the heck did I put those seat belt thingies..I just saw them a minute ago...")

But, Kim want the Christmas tree up this weekend, so the Camaro guts currently occupying the living room have to be gone!

Tonight was carpet night... Went pretty well, upholstery isn't my thing and this is the first replacement carpet I've done.

Here'* the carpet just layed out inside the shell of the car. I just cut out the holes for the shifter mount & cables. (I figured I'd just start in the center and work out from there.)





Five hours later and the center console was done! And my hands are killing me from cutting through the carpet. The parts where it'* just carpet are easy to cut, the places where there'* extra padding are what killed my hands. But the worst is over now and I can call it quits for the night. Tomorrow I need to roll the car out of the garage and do the passenger side seat and kick plates.

My uncle'* got an '82 Vette and the 4th gear in it slips like crazy (first year of the 700R4 I believe). Pretty sure he tore it out and replaced all of the clutches, though.

Rolled it out of the garage this morning, and finished the interior.

interior looks great, the only thing that stands out is the rusty brackets. maybe a lil paint and it will look like it just came off the assembly line. nice job!

^first thing i noticed too. maybe just some black spray paint or something would make it less noticable.

Yeah, they need some work. Next round I'll take them apart, wire brush them down, then either paint them or figure something out. There'* also some trim pieces that I have to track down (plastic covers that hide the ends of the seat bolts, plus a few other odds and ends.

But, there is currently bigger fish to fry...

Sunday was spent trying to get the car running. It would only idle for a few seconds at at time and the floats/inlet valves were stuck. I wasn't making any headway, so I made a run to Pep-Boys and came home with a new Holley 0-1850S carb. Got home, transfered the electric choke an linkage pins to the new carb, installed it on the old gasket (knew I was forgetting something) and lit the motor up. It puked a bunch of carbon chips out the exhaust, the settled down to a smooth idle.

Since I hadn't run the return line yet back to the tank. I had this comical arrangement of running the regulator'* return out a rubber hose over the fender and into a 5-gallon jerry can. Since I only put 5 gallons in the tank in the first place, it worked out...every time I saw the fuel run dry in the filter, I pulled the pump fuse, dump the jerry can of gas back into the fuel tank, rig it back up on the return and turn the pump back on. Worked out pretty well, I could refill the tank while the motor idled off the fuel in the bowls. Let it run for about 20 minutes while checking for leaks.

The bad news parts of the day: The heater core is shot. It puked coolant all over the new carpet. It was clean coolant, so it didn't stain the carpet. New heater core is expected in tomorrow morning. I also found out my timing light bit the dust...so I couldn't set the timing on the motor.

Today'* mission... Finish the fuel return line, bypass the heater core, and treat the carb to a 1" phenolic spacer and new gaskets. That'* where I wrapped it up tonight.