Another full day, with some minor victories and frustrating failures. The Haynes manual finally arrived, which has helped enormously in taking stuff apart. Pictures follow.
The good:
1) Having replaced the flasher unit with the Narva model (thanks
@egads !), I now have a full complement of working indicators, and even the seatbelt warning lights are working correctly. Wins.
2) Having taken out most of the dash, I decided to keep going to get the seats and front carpet section out. On the up-side, this has reminded me how damn solid these cars are! So much sound deadening.
3) I've made a pseudo-permanent repair to the reverse detent selector. The part that had clearly failed some time ago is the flimsy plastic reverse detent pull rod. I extemporised a repair using some fine wire, but if it stretches/loosens over time, I'll be in the same position. It seems that nobody makes these plastic pull rods any more :(
The bad:
1) I have no brake lights. At all. I do have rear lights and rear indicators, so at least some of the wiring back there must be sound! Any thoughts before I dive in? The Haynes is frustratingly tight-lipped on the topic...
2) Someone has driven over something too big and done some seriously nasty things to the front under-bumper spoiler. It looks like a royal pain in the arse to re-seat all of those clip/bolt things - am I missing something obvious?
3) There is no engine tray, so all the belts and bottom end are exposed to whatever is pinging up off the road. Anybody have a spare for sale?
The ugly:
1) I primed and sprayed the rusty areas under the windscreen mount. It's not the prettiest job and the colour match isn't perfect, but it will keep the area rust free which is more important to me right now. I've never been fussy over cosmetics.
2) Even in the context of 1), the degrading door-top vinyl looks utterly gross. Does anyone have any tips on how to remove this stuff (pic below)?
3) The dash top is cracked as all balls. As I've gotten most of the cabin out, it's not a bad time to replace it I guess. One more for the shopping list.
In for a penny...
And speaking of pennies: the change so far totals almost 1% of the car's purchase price! The bad side - some is no longer legal tender.
The door-top vinyl decal is in horrible shape. How do you get this stuff off without destroying the paint?
Reverse detent pull rod repair - cross fingers!
That oil stain in the passenger footwell is not coming out...
And finally, you can laugh at my terrible respray over rust repair!