fiat spider

Well, after looking around on eBay for replacement glass for the clock, I decided to head out to home depot to do-it-myself. $15 plus shipping plus a week wait is too much, I need it now and I can do it myself for cheaper. Try $2.75. Bought a small square of Lexan XR-20, a bitchin material that is not glass, but super clear and very pretty. It's also nearly indestrucible, has a low refractive index and is UV filtered. In the store, I was confused because I thought that all the sheets were 1) scratched and 2) tinted green. Turns out that green tint is a protective film that peels off. Duh. Also picked up a new bit for my dremel, to get the job done. It was pretty hard to cut the stuff with the Dremel, I had to make a practice cut or two and screwed up the first one, but it turned out alirght in the end. I made a rough circle with the router-type drill bit and then rounded it out with the sander. It looks a *lot* better than the yellow plastic one that was there before. Oh yeah, it took me an hour or so with 3 different screw drivers (tiny, small, medium) to successfully get the face off without damaging it to bad. I also managed to coat the face with the same flat black paint I used on the rest of them. I think the result isn't too shabby. You can see in the pic that the Lexan has less reflection than the glass lenses.

The dash cap had been sitting all night, so I went down and checked it out. Tight as could be, an excellent fit. I cleaned off the excess expoxy and sanded the edges just a tad to make it less abrasive when installing. Later, I re-assembled the gauge cluster, re-installed the dash and put it all back together. Minus the center panel, it looks like crap and needs more work. Apparently it was originally chromed plastic and someone painted it black. The black paint has messed up the chrome and it started to peel and bubble. I tried to peel it off but with no luck. This part may need to be replaced completely.

Getting the wiring back together was the hardest part, with the speedo taking the cake. There is just enough slack for it to attach to the back when it's installed, so the extra inch or so needed when installing is just not there. I don't know how I got it out. But I managed to fiddle around till I got it back in. It looks *so much better* than it did!

Tracy joined me in the garage while I worked tonight. She has a bunch of boxes of her stuff that she was going thru and sorting out for the move. As we were finishing up, I noticed she had uncovered something in the corner. Holey shit, it's a set of spare lenses...replacements for the broken tail light!! WTF? All this time I thought I had dreamt that the previous owner gave me extra lenses. I've been looking for replacement lenses for 2 years, nobody has them, or they cost too much when they do. All this time they were buried under Tracy's old clothes. WOW! Happy Birthday to me again!