The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster
Wow, 4+ months since the last update, didn't realize it had been that long. I will admit there are times when I don't want to deal with taking pictures and write ups. By nature I am thorough and documenting all these details while making them into coherent posts can get tedious.
In any event, I have been making some decent progress on a few fronts. I will say that the wiring is 95% complete and almost ready to go back in the car. There are a few more connections to make which involve putting things in to the car to figure out the wire lengths and taking them back out to terminate them. Just have to git 'er done. The dash part is all wrapped though and ready though so I am glad to have cleared that hurdle.
Just want to mention that the EFI wiring is mostly separate from the 'regular' car wiring. On another car I went through a lot of trouble trying to integrate both into one harness and it was a mistake. It became unwieldy and made it hard to get at stuff. There's a few things that cross over but I feel like it's just as clean with two smaller harnesses. All unnecessary or excess wires have been removed from both branches. There's probably enough left over to never have to buy wire again.
Since the car has been sitting for a while, I started cleaning things up a bit. This project does dip into the restoration department so I've been dealing with trying to make things look presentable. The decklid was really dirty and I was tired of looking at it so I washed it off and buffed the paint. Original paint is awesome when it cleans up, there's just something about it that is hard to duplicate with modern paint.
I'm calling the package tray block off panel done. Spent some time trimming it down so it fits really nicely. I also decided to fasten it down with 3M double sided tape instead of drilling a bunch of holes for rivets. I may use a few in the corners of each panel but tape should be much easier to deal with overall. The rear firewall/package tray rule says it needs seal off the passenger compartment from the trunk but does not specify how the panel is to be fastened.
Several years ago after the roll bar was put in I ordered a new package tray from Legendary. Trying to modify and install it with the rear window in place proved to be the wrong move. I mis-measured everything and the rear bar cutouts were all messed up. I kept it though and I'm glad I did because I used it as a template to make one myself.
This one fits much better. It needs a second coat of flat black paint and I need to figure out how to trim it but I'm pretty happy with it. Sharp-eyed readers will notice the new window trim clips. The old window gasket glue residue was also cleaned off the flange to reveal more nice original paint underneath.
Same with the front. Check out how clean, like brand new!
And oh yeah, I put the headliner in. I was dreading it since it was a complete disaster last time but since the windows are out it went 1,000 times better this time. Couple not-so-perfect spots but they won't be too noticeable with the windows and trim installed. I'll always see it because I know where the flaws are but whatever, I'm not redoing it. Really glad to have this checked off the list.
Not bad if I don't say so myself.
It looks like there are wrinkles but they are really minimal and will be covered by trim.
Thanks for reading. More to come.
Wow, 4+ months since the last update, didn't realize it had been that long. I will admit there are times when I don't want to deal with taking pictures and write ups. By nature I am thorough and documenting all these details while making them into coherent posts can get tedious.
In any event, I have been making some decent progress on a few fronts. I will say that the wiring is 95% complete and almost ready to go back in the car. There are a few more connections to make which involve putting things in to the car to figure out the wire lengths and taking them back out to terminate them. Just have to git 'er done. The dash part is all wrapped though and ready though so I am glad to have cleared that hurdle.
Just want to mention that the EFI wiring is mostly separate from the 'regular' car wiring. On another car I went through a lot of trouble trying to integrate both into one harness and it was a mistake. It became unwieldy and made it hard to get at stuff. There's a few things that cross over but I feel like it's just as clean with two smaller harnesses. All unnecessary or excess wires have been removed from both branches. There's probably enough left over to never have to buy wire again.
Since the car has been sitting for a while, I started cleaning things up a bit. This project does dip into the restoration department so I've been dealing with trying to make things look presentable. The decklid was really dirty and I was tired of looking at it so I washed it off and buffed the paint. Original paint is awesome when it cleans up, there's just something about it that is hard to duplicate with modern paint.
I'm calling the package tray block off panel done. Spent some time trimming it down so it fits really nicely. I also decided to fasten it down with 3M double sided tape instead of drilling a bunch of holes for rivets. I may use a few in the corners of each panel but tape should be much easier to deal with overall. The rear firewall/package tray rule says it needs seal off the passenger compartment from the trunk but does not specify how the panel is to be fastened.
Several years ago after the roll bar was put in I ordered a new package tray from Legendary. Trying to modify and install it with the rear window in place proved to be the wrong move. I mis-measured everything and the rear bar cutouts were all messed up. I kept it though and I'm glad I did because I used it as a template to make one myself.
This one fits much better. It needs a second coat of flat black paint and I need to figure out how to trim it but I'm pretty happy with it. Sharp-eyed readers will notice the new window trim clips. The old window gasket glue residue was also cleaned off the flange to reveal more nice original paint underneath.
Same with the front. Check out how clean, like brand new!
And oh yeah, I put the headliner in. I was dreading it since it was a complete disaster last time but since the windows are out it went 1,000 times better this time. Couple not-so-perfect spots but they won't be too noticeable with the windows and trim installed. I'll always see it because I know where the flaws are but whatever, I'm not redoing it. Really glad to have this checked off the list.
Not bad if I don't say so myself.
It looks like there are wrinkles but they are really minimal and will be covered by trim.
Thanks for reading. More to come.