The
radio, and part of the Climatizer (the car heater
control). The Climatizer housing cracked in two at some point
in the past, and was then held together by
one screw. Apparently, that was not enough, and when the screw
let go, the left half fell down. You can see
the rest of it hanging by its control wires. The knob on the
left would turn on the fan for the defroster,
and the right knob turns on the fan for the car heater blower.
The car heater core sits underneath the passenger's
seat in front. It has an air deflector that
directs the air toward the front of the car, but I imagine
the driver doesn't feel much of that. So, I am planning
to make a new air deflector that directs more
of the warm air toward the driver's side.
The right end of the dashboard, with the glove box. The only place
on the dash that still has most of its fake
wood-grain finish visible. The lock works fine, but
it is difficult to get the door open, since pushing
on the lock ends up just holding the door shut. I think
that by adding some new rubber bumpers to the glove
box door, that should make it release more easily. Now,
to get the door open, one has to push on the lock button
while pulling on the edge of the door. The cute
little button on the left, there, is non-functional.
The door on the right kick-pad is opened to let fresh
air in. The metal lever is raised to open the cowl vent
door on the outside.
The rust-through hole
on the driver's side, near the radio antenna opening.
The sill plates are still in pretty good shape. I
think they can be saved with a little elbow grease and
polish, but the attaching screws are all rusted out.
Some of them are really gone, and most of them are so
badly rusted that they no longer have a Phillips screw
slot left. I will have to drill them out, or grind the
screw heads off. You can also see the tarpaper-like
tack strip there on the edge of the door opening where
the windlace was tacked on.
A view of the ceiling, with the soundproofing
insulation peeling off. The material I found to replace
it is called "RAAMmat BXT".
Sounds weird, but works great. It has aluminized
surfaces, so it insulates against heat as well as sound.
They have their own website, www.raamaudio.com. I checked
numerous similar products, but none looked to be as good
as this one. Some shielded against heat, but not sound,
and others were designed to insulate against sound but
not heat. RAAMmat apparently is good for both.
You can see the wiring snaking around
the rear of the ceiling toward where the courtesy light
was removed. Unfortunately, as I have mentioned previously,
the insulation is hard and brittle, and crumbles at
a touch, so it all has to be replaced. It's going to
be a big job, but cannot be avoided. The dome light, or courtesy
light, has two wires to it. One from the driver's side
of the car passes through a pushbutton switch on the driver's
door jamb that turns the light on when that door opens.
The wires on the passenger's side go through a similar
switch on the passenger's door jamb, and also has a
wire that goes through a switch on the pillar between
the front and rear doors, so that the light can be turned
on when all the doors are closed.
