With the carpet laying square and the console and shifter back in place and bolted down, the carpet isn't going anywhere and so it can be cut to size and tucked under all the edge pieces.
With the carpet carefully trimmed back, the sill plates can be re-installed.
Up front, the carpet was tucked behind the kick panel.
Now THAT's a fine result - What a beauty!
Finally, it's time to power it up to test and check the electrical systems the many, many, connections I made in building this car.
Whenever I power up a car for the first time - especially after such an extensive re-fit - I never just throw in the battery and hope for the best, but I use a trick my Dad taught me, nearly 35 years ago, which is to use a battery charger, instead of a battery, for power. With the charger set to 2 AMPS, this ensures I get a bit of time to find any issues before wiring starts to smoke and fused start to burn up - or worse!
And upon connecting the leads, things began to light up, including the O2 sensor gauge:
As well as headlights, markers, I could also hear the new Vintage AC fan kick in and see the Volt meter in the new gauges showed 9 Volts (due to the obvious drainage off the low AMP supply).
Of course this is reality, so not everything worked right off. I noted that I didn't have interior dash lights, the fuel gauge was pinned to the full mark and the wiper motor arm binds the wiper linkage when I tested it. This is part of the shake down process of any new build and will give me something to do tomorrow ;)
Other items tackled today included a new front spoiler (looks great!) -
As well as an overhaul of the shifter indicator plate assembly:
The windshield and back glass are being re-installed next week, so in preparation for that I need to get the chrome surround into shape. This included sorting out pieces that need a bit of hammer and dolly work - against the ones that just need to be polished.
So I threw on a new Sisal wheel and went to work removing scratches....
.......and polishing them to a high shine!
