I dropped off the flywheel on Friday and am chomping at the bit to get it back. The machinist seemed a bit "casual" and I was a little hesitant to leave it there. I hate to be demanding of people and businesses but I have to learn to be firm in how I express my expectations.
I can bleed the clutch master cylinder and piddle around doing a few other things but the flywheel is a major stumbling block.
Stepping away from the car for a moment....
This project has included a few other sort of unrelated changes that made sense to do while the car was "opened up". I don't like stretching a project out any longer than I have to but sometimes it just makes sense to make needed changes when they are so convenient.
For many years, I have wanted to change the carpet. The kit I put in the car in 2002 was short on all 4 sides. It was still in good condition, just short. I shopped around and found that most if not all carpet was made by Auto Custom Carpets. Because of that, I shopped by price and found that Rock Auto had it cheaper than anyone even accounting for shipping.
The Tremec transmissions from Silver Sport are modified to fit these cars and are supposed to end up with the shifter in the stock location that the 4 speed cars used. I knew that I was going to need a different console plate for the manual transmission since this car has always been an automatic. My other '70 Charger
Jigsaw was built as a column shifted automatic and since I intend to convert it to a floor shift, I was going to need some parts to get there. It came with a bare console so I was going to need the courtesy lights, side trim and top plates. I decided to pull the top plates from this red car and set them aside for
Jigsaw.
The 4 speed console plates are harder to find and overpriced so I decided to modify one that was for A/T cars. A FBBO member sold me a set of plates and I set about to modify the one for the shifter.
It was a sort of simple deal with a little measuring and cutting, JB Weld and some finish work. Everything is going to be a matte black when I'm done for a subdued look.
The console door that came with the other pieces was sandblasted along with the other parts but on closer inspection, I can't use it. It came with broken pegs that the hinge attaches to and it was missing the thin aluminum plate that the woodgrain decal attaches to.