Lessons Learned

At this point I'm working toward the goal of making the car road worthy.  In most areas of the country that boils down to a relatively short list of items that must be present and working to pass inspection. 

One category of those things are working headlights, tail lights, stop lights, corner lights, turn signals, flashers, reverse lights, horn, and wipers - in other words a working electrical system.

While the wiring and connections are still (relatively) easy to get to I thought I'd tackle those items.

Of course, in typical fashion, when I started, not a single lamp was burning.  After a full day of sanding and cleaning contacts, checking and replacing bulbs, soldering loose splices, tidying up damaged wiring, replacing a rheostat, checking and rechecking voltage and resistance readings, trying to interpret incomprehensible wiring diagrams, etc.  I finally got all the lights going. 

There are still a few non-inspection items to resolve such as; interior lights (requires a new door contact switch), foot brake warning light (missing specialty warning display bulb, buzzer or modified connections to bypass a buzzer, and adjustment of the switch trip mechanism), antenna and radio connections, and accessory fog light installation.  I also need to replace the headlamps as one has a burned out low beam.

Here's where the lessons learned come in:

• turn signals (flashers) don't work without a flasher unit
• if a circuit is mislabeled, it won't ever do what you think it should
• circuits with stuck switches may appear to be always on, but when you repair the switch unexpected things may happen
• don't connect your cooling fans to the high beam circuit unless you plan to always drive with your high beams on
• standard auxiliary lights on a Sonett only come on with the high beams (not sure how useful that is - I think I may change that arrangement)
• some people will do creative things to avoid fixing electrical problems
• some people who don't know better will unwittingly create a lot of electrical problems

(By the way, the horn, blower, washer fluid, and wiper circuits were already working; but like all the lights, they can't really be installed until the main body panels go back on.)

Which is a good segue into the next group of inspection items: a cabin sealed from the engine bay and exterior, and the presence of bumpers and mirrors.  For that, I need to finish the fiberglass repairs.  I will also need quite a few different assorted grommets, weatherstripping, and sealant products (which require placing several parts orders).

I uncovered the rear body of the car to take stock of the necessary repairs there (not pretty - more on that next post). 

I also installed new weatherstripping that will fit between the fiberglass body and the chassis.

This weatherstripping was a critical point of failure in the past and led to a lot of damage to the structural steel chassis.  Damaged/missing weatherstripping and poor fiberglass repairs left large gaps open in the wheel wells so that in wet weather water was thrown up by the tires into the interior where it pooled and rusted.

The new weatherstripping has a little bit longer profile to provide a better seal against the fiberglass body.  I will also be prepping the body carefully to ensure a smooth surface exists for the weatherstripping to seal against.