Spent all day Sunday (1p-6:30p) cleaning out the Dodge with the intent to get it ready to go to the drive-line shop Memorial Day weekend (I usually take a vacation day to make a 4-day weekend whenever I can, so that's the only time I can arrange it, as my work hours & theirs are the same).
1st thing I did was clear off a shelf on the rack in the basement to put everything, then I brought in all of the trim/moulding pieces from the back seat & stacked them up. Then I got into the trunk & did the same thing. Once all the various & sundry parts were in the house, I got a hand broom & proceeded to clean out the trunk. It was a big P.I.A. because I had no idea what I might have lost in there & I had to sort/sift through piles of dirt/rust/sealant/underbody coating, looking for parts. (I found two door panel body clips which are almost impossible to replace, & a couple of bolts, btw!) After sorting came the sweeping & binning of the debris. Next, I took out the back seat (both seat back & lower). At that point I thought I should probably clean out the front of the car 1st, as sweeping all the dust from there would end up in the back seat area anyway, so I moved the front bench seat into the back & proceeded to sort/sift through piles of dirt/rust/sealant/underbody coating again. Found several more small but important pieces & swept the rest to the back.
At this point I thought, why not actually mount the front seat again? It hasn't been attached for years & now is as good a time as any, so I got out the WD40 & sprayed the attaching bolts down. Once I started that, I got carried away & sprayed down anything that might need to be removed eventually! Also did the steering wheel mount, as I'd need it to steer the car when towed & it was rusty as hell. Finally got that worked through, so I cleaned the mold off the steering wheel itself (well most of it - ran out of disposable shop towels).
Once I had all that done, I was looking at the seat & wondering what it looked like under the ancient seat cover someone had installed decades ago. It was half-rotted away, torn up in several spots & just generally "disgusting", so I got out my side cutters & an exacto knife & removed as much of it as I could. While the cloth part of the seat was still a bit degraded, the white vinyl looked great (needs to be cleaned) & had these really cool "atomic-age" embossings on it! I took some pics but have no place to upload them, so I guess you'll just have to imagine! (Seriously, I just spent 20 minutes looking for pics online & there aren't any!) (Ok, found something - it's not exactly right, but it'll give you an idea.
I got all that done & cleaned up my tools/etc, but before I went back in the house for the night, I had to sit. Got in the driver's seat, realized it was too far forward & gave the lever a try. Took a couple tries, but I actually got it to work! Seat back, feet near the pedals, hands on the steering wheel, I could almost imagine driving it, it was a really good feeling.
It's weird how my moods go - I tend to stay down for so long each time, that I hardly remember feeling any other way. It makes me wonder, though, if I'm misdiagnosed with major depression & whether I might be bipolar?
p.s. Oh yeah, and I found out that the floorboards, as rusty as they are, are no where near as bad as I was expecting. And nowhere near as bad as many of the projects I've seen other guys on the discussion board repair/restore. I have hope, if I can ever get all the mouse nests out of the silly thing.
6:53 p.m. - 2017-05-08
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