Well, we seem to have come almost full circle. Here's the car back at the Greers Ferry Car Show. It's not finished by any means, but it's presentable. Now I have a ton of finish work to do. Dome lights, air conditioner install, interior and paint.
Well, here we go again. Now I get to do all the detail stuff. I have dome lights in, front and rear, that light when the door nearest to them opens. I got all four doors off a 1987 Ford Tempo or something and took the power window motors and switches and the power door locks and switches. All for $50.00 and some cuts on my hands getting it all out. Here's the switches and wires, labeled for where they all go, hanging in the shop.
I took the window crank mechanisms out of the doors and lo and behold the gears on the 51-year-old window cranks match the gears on the power window motors. They are going together with a minimum of fanfare. I haven't tackled the door locks other than to make sure all the motors work.
I was able to get the front door motors mated with the cranks and put in the doors pretty easy actually. I used the original mounting bolts even. The rear doors were a little different. I finally wound up mounting the whole unit in the door by cutting the old crank in half, the new power
bracket in half, welding them together and drilling mounting holes wherever it made sense. Well, it wasn't that easy, but that's how it turned out. Everything is behind the door panels so there's not much to see.
I'll mount the rear door window controls on the panel beside the rear seat. That way I only have to run two wires into the door. There is just no graceful way of getting these wires in there. I give up on the power locks. We never lock our doors around here anyway.
I noticed that the Mustang arm rests that I was going to use in front and back would make no sense in the back because the seat is so far back behind the door you would have to be a chimpanzee to rest your arm there. So...I'm only putting them in the front. And as I'm
struggling to figure out how to mount them through the 1/4 inch plywood I'm using for a door panel (yes, I'll put a covering on it later) I discover that the old mounting bracket that takes a 1/4" bolt is right where it lines up with the Mustang arm rest. Glory be. Makes a pretty slick looking deal.
Dr. Tom (our local vet) and I decided to wood-grain our dashboards and window trims. He has an old Packard that is coming along at about the same speed as my Dodge. Anyway, after weeks of work (having to do some of it over again) here it is, back in the car. Looks pretty good to me.
I took the car to our local body shop to be painted. Owned by the president of the car club,
fellow car guy, etc. Thought it would be a good idea. The car sat there for eight months
while he ran every body's work in ahead of me. Think it was because he was going to cut
me a deal??? Not a chance. Finally got the car out, was charged full price. You try to
give your business to the local guys until they prove they don't deserve it. That said,
they did a good job and I'm sure I'll forget about the car being there that long some day.
Here's some pics in my new shop while I'm putting the trim back on.
