Inside, the car has this wonderful Deluxe Parchment interior. I think it's just great and I don't want to change a thing. I'm a little worried about stories I've heard about the seatbacks collapsing in rear end accidents. That worries me far more than, say, the exploding gas tank hysteria we've currently been suffering through. If it still bothers me when I'm ready to drive it, I'll just have to think of a solution then.
People have been asking about the bench seat, because it is a seldom-seen option. It's
made to look like two buckets with an armrest in the middle, but it's actually one long
seat. The individual seatbacks can be tipped forward one at a time to let people into the
back.
When it was time to take this out, I worked very hard to remove all eight rubber plugs in the floor so I could get to the bolts under the car, only to discover I only needed to take off two on each end. Where the bucket seats are each held in by four bolts, this bench seat is held in by four bolts total.
I discovered a few other interesting things, after I got the seat out. For one thing, the front half of the carpet was secured to the floor with three screws, one in each seat riser, and one in the tranny hump. Those were long gone on old Bloo. Also, the carpet had holes pre-cut for the seat track bolts. It had four holes on each side even though my bench seat only needed two holes on each side. I guess it makes sense that they weren't cutting holes by hand in the carpets as they went down the assembly line.
So I pulled the sill plates, kick panels, carpet, carpet underlayment, and low and behold, I found my way down to a bare floor, still painted the original body color.
It looks nastier than it is. Most of the red stuff is underlayment stuck to the floor.
There is a big dent in the driver's side floorboard that may have been made by someone
putting a jack under there at one time. I'm guessing, because I can't find any other
damage under the car, just a dent. Also, right where the front of the floorboard meets the
firewall, it looks like the floorpanel didn't fit right, and there's a ton of body
sealer glopped onto the seam there. It's all painted the original color, so I think it's a
factory job. It's probably nothing noticible with the carpet in.
January 15, 2k
I was laying on my back, taking out the driver's side fresh air vent and trying to take a picture of my work when I thought, hey, someone might like this view...
This is what the roof console looks like from there.
Those are map-lights/dome lights.
August 22, 2000
After much begging for help (by me), my husband finally tried to get involved. I gave him a project he could do entirely by himself, one that I wasn't better suited to do, because I don't have a clue about what needs to be done any more than he does. He's rebuilding the heaterbox.
So he cleared off a spot on his bench and proceeded to take the thing apart. It was in pretty sad shape; the vent door wouldn't open, the flap inside barely moved, and the foam was all nasty and coming apart. To refurbish it I bought a new heater core (the old one didn't leak, but I don't want to do all this work just to have it finally rust through in six months) and a set of new foam for the box.
You can see how rusty and nasty it is. He's spent two evenings already cleaning it up and scraping off the old foam. A little penetrating oil got the doors working again. As soon as he starts gluing on the new foam pieces I'll have more pictures.
October 17, 2k
Well, he snuck by me and finished it before I could get more pictures. There were quite a few foam pieces hidden in there. I was surprised. We also installed a new plastic plenum (where the hoses that will go up to the defroster vents attach) to replace the old cardboard original. Looks good. Now I just have to install it.
