Mirror Image

I had the painters wetsand my car last week to remove some texture on the surface of the clearcoat. I didn't want to spend the money last year after having it painted, and it looked good already. I also figured I might damage the paint during reassembly anyway. But in the end, it does look better after having been wetsanded.



There are some downsides to waiting, namely the clear is fully cured and is more time-consuming to sand (by hand). Also, you can't get too close to door handles, gaskets, and trim with the sandpaper since you couldn't polish with the pad that close to the edges. If I had to do it again, I'd just have had it done when the paint was fresh...

Tach Attack

I had previously purchased some blue LEDs to replace the small instrument cluster light bulbs. They went in easily enough (didn't have to remove the steering wheel or unhook the wires behind the cluster, just the screws holding the assembly to the dash, and the speedo cable), but my aftermarket SunPro tach didn't look right using an incandescent 194 bulb.





I tried a blue 194 bulb, which helped a bit (a green one would look right using stock blue instrument bulbs believe it or not). In the photo you can see a blue LED replacement bulb I bought on eBay for the tach (in the middle). I bought 2 which was good because the first was DOA (if it doesn't work, remember polarity matters, and they install in one direction--so swap it around in the socket).

This photo shows the whole dash lit up with the LEDs including for the tach...






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Junk in the Trunk: Part III

I finally got around to trying my hand at putting in a trunk carpet. I saw Mustangs Unlimited offered a Ford Blue trunk carpet kit, but when the carpet arrived it was Medium Blue, which was labeled on the box. I called Distinctive Industries, who makes most of these kits, and they sent me the samples at left for all the blue carpet they offer. Ford Blue is the carpet behind the small samples, and none matched well.

I test fitted one or two pieces of the trunk kit -- before sending the kit back -- and clearly the larger 22 gallon fuel tank and rear seat divider in metal that I had installed would cause a pre-made kit to not fit well, even if I found the right color. So I made my own trunk carpet kit.



I bought a large roll (3.5 yards) of Ford Blue carpet from ACC for about $120, and a $12 sheet of Eucaboard (made from water-resitant eucalyptus). I had a $10 can of good spray glue. (The pre-made kit is $250 shipped.) Fortunately I had some large cardboard sheets on hand from a recent furniture purchase for cutting out some templates for test fitting. The pic at left looks like a bunch of scrap, but it is many of the pieces I had cut out for installation into the trunk.



Here's a photo showing the Eucaboard underneath. I went around some of the edges with some spare Dynamat Extreme to keep it in place and quiet it down. The hole is for the spare wheel, which I currently am not carrying.



Some of the carpet pieces are currently at the local upholstery place having the edges bound in blue vinyl for $65... In the photo not everything is glued down, and the edges are rough. (Here's a Before photo of the trunk.)