04.08.08
More (Random) Disassembly
I started today by removing the last wheel and placing the car up on the jack stand that I bought yesterday. Next, I removed the two doors by popping the gas struts off their ball sockets and then unscrewing the hinges from both the doors and the T-top. There was a clanking sound from inside the car’s T-top and I suspect that some hardware fell off inside when the hinges were removed. The doors lifted off quite easily.
Next up was the hatchback. I popped the gas struts off their ball joints and removed the hinge hardware. Again, this came off quite easily.
I removed the hood next. This simply required me to slide the hinge rod to one side, pop that side of the hood out, and then slide the rod to the other side. It came off easily.
Next, I removed the headlight buckets. Working in the front wheel wells, I unscrewed the buckets from their brackets and slipped the buckets out of the car body. Then, I went under the hood and unwrapped about a mile of electrical tape that was insulating the headlight torque tube. The tape also held a torque spring against the torque tube. This spring, apparently, helps the headlight motor do its job. The electrical tape probably keeps the accessory battery from shorting out on the torque tube. I unfastened the headlight bracket/torque tube weldments from the center portion of the torque tube by driving out two roll pins from each end of the center tube. I also unscrewed the two bearing retainer plates from the ends of the torque tubes. Then, the weldments just pulled out of the center portion of the tube.
The headlight motor assembly came out without a hitch as did the limit switches and their mounting plate. Next, I removed the horn, the brake fluid reservoir and the windshield washer reservoir. Finally, I unscrewed the tray for the accessory battery. There was a rats nest of wires left in the front and I pulled these thru the firewall and into the area under the dashboard. Finally, I removed the hood latch and snaked the latch’s Bowden cable back under the dashboard.
I removed some aluminum trim strips from the door edges. These strips help hold the floor carpet in place at the bottoms of the doors. One was badly scratched where I had to grind out a screw and it will have to be polished.
The trunk lid came off next by undoing its hinges. The trunk latch was removed. I also removed the latch from the hatchback. Then, I unscrewed the mounting plate for the Bowden cables in the driver’s rear door post and removed the two cables.
The tail lights came out easily. I was surprised to see that there was only a single bulb in the assembly. I can’t tell if this is for The turn signal indicators, the brake lights, marker lights or all three?
I removed both bumpers next. They came out easily as did their mounting plates and the vertical mounting plates that tie the battery trays into the car’s fiberglass structure. All of this was badly rusted and will need to be bead blasted and powder coated.
Most of what appear to be marker lights on the car’s body are actually el-cheapo-reflectors. These will have to be replaced. There are two on the rear of the car (red — don’t re-install), two on the rear sides (make them red marker lights) and two on the front fenders (yellow – make these red marker lights. I wonder if i can find some nice LED marker lights to replace them?
I also pulled out all of the wires going from the front of the car to the rear. There were the two large cables for the front battery pack, a large cable for the accessory battery and a piece of flex tubing that contained the remaining wires.
Finally, I ran the four wheels over to Discount Tire (along with the orphan rim that had been installed on the right front drum) and they dismounted the tires (and threw out the orphan wheel) all for free!!!!!!!!! Guess where I’m going to buy the new tires? They said that there are no Load Range C tires for this particular rim. I was considering using a heavier tire to accoodate the extra weight of the batteries. Unfortunately, I’d have to buy new rims to go with a Load Range C tire and I don’t want to do this. I’d like to keep the original “turbine-style” rims. I ran the rims over to the media stripper and he recommended that I have him strip the rims, have one of his business partners polish them and then have them clear coated with a clear powder coat. Interesting idea. He’s going to get back to me with prices.
