Day 7: Don't do Rugs!


Day 7

Luke Kirchner

Don't do Rugs!

Don't worry... I meant to say rugs. Today we installed the carpet inside the car! Although there has been carpet sitting in the car for a while, it was not strapped down or trimmed, so that was first on the agenda for today. We started by trimming down the major excess on the edges before we went back in to do the fine cutting that would go under the trim and side kick-boards. Fortunately, this process was very easy. With that in mind, cutting each piece of carpet was tedious because if you cut off too much, there is no going back!

Carpet cut to mold around the pillars

One visually pleasing step was to install the door wind-draft stopper - the strip of plastic that stops the wind from coming in the closed door. I wrapped all 4 frames with these straps, which actually required quite a bit of effort to fully seat. In fact, this entire day was very aesthetically pleasing because we finally get to see the interior come together. The next few days will follow this trend as we will start to see more major components of the car like the fender and side trim get put on, which will make the car look reallllly good. 


Final carpet installation! Small bumps will be covered with the seats

The rug installation took around 4 hours to get fully in, along with the sound deadener underneath. We then wanted to start looking at the brake lines, the thing keeping us from putting the front fenders on the car. These are the metal lines that bring the brake fluid to all four brakes. We focused on the front two brakes first so we could put the fenders on later this week. We looked at the old and rusting brake lines taken from the parts car to see which ones corresponded with the new ones we bought. 
 
New and old brake lines

One area of concern was that the bends might not be the same on the new ones. Thankfully the aftermarket company did a great job bending the new ones and they actually just dropped right in the engine bay! All these lines connect to the master cylinder, which we installed last week. We refrained from doing the final tightening until we could connect the lines to the brakes, which we hope to complete tomorrow. 

Trim panel that will hide the rug

Overall, it was a great day! Although pretty hot outside, we did finish a lot of the interior work. Next is more of the exterior parts that will really make the car look great! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 5: With a Little Help From My Friends

Image
Day 5 Luke Kirchner With a Little Help From My Friends I woke up today to see the man, the myth, the legend....the destroyer..... Joel! My cousin Joel came over today to help work on finishing the gauge wiring and to try and start the engine once again. As usual, things got whacky real fast.  Our first task was to finish wiring the engine bay with our harness. Weaving through pillars and small holes, we managed to connect every little piece - from the horns to the headlights to the alternator. Everything was now attached to something! This meant we could focus our attention back on the gauge cluster to see what we needed to work on. Putting on the final screws, we could hardly hold our excitement to finally turn that key and start this car with everything wired up. I actually almost saw a smile slip from Joel's face. It was getting serious.  Once we made sure all the connectors were attached and all the screws were in, we decided to try and crank the engine to get fuel to the carbu
Read more

Day 9: Fender Bender

Image
Day 9 Luke Kirchner Fender Bender Don't worry.... we actually didn't bang up a fender... but we did put them on! We woke up bright and early this morning, excited to work on starting and finishing all four doors. Almost immediately we noticed that our felt ordered from a catalog was not enough and that the glass would rub on the sides. After a couple of frantic phone calls to get those parts ordered, we decided to just put the doors on hold and work on the front of the car.   Looking like a hot rod! First, however, we had to start with the hood. The tough part about putting on the hood was not the weight, but the sheer size. Luckily, there were alignment holes that we could use so we knew the correct position for the hood. With the help of my mom, my dad and I bolted down the hood. We noticed that it looked slightly off-center, but we were going to wait to see how the gaps were when the fenders were put on. Now we can finally keep the engine bay clean from all the pollen! Splas
Read more

Day 1.......?

Image
Day 1 Luke Kirchner Day 1........? Alright, here we are! The first day of my A-Term, "Finishing the Falcon". In reality, though, we have been doing intensive work over spring break for the last 5 or so days. Let me tell you, in those 5 days we have done more than we have managed to do in the last 8 years.  The moment the engine came to life! For starters, we got the engine running! Now we knew the engine ran well after it was built and put on a dyno, but this was the first time it had ever run in the finished chassis of the car. The engine is a ford 289 block that has been turned into a 347 stroker and let me tell you.... it's loud. Within minutes the homeowners association was already protesting in our front driveway. But who cares? It sounds heavenly! Today (Monday), we decided to turn down the loudness and crank the voltage. It was time to work on the wiring harness. This is essentially the series of wires that goes from the battery, all the way to the taillights, and
Read more