Closer... closer....

Every day gets us a little closer to complete. But there are still some obstacles slowing things down. The transmission still refuses to get finished. It's practically all done. But I can't get it together because of one little gear (the speedometer drive) that I managed to bend by an indelicate first attempt at assembly. Over the three days of 'the speedo gear' drama I've seriously considered whether we really needed a speedometer. But good sense, and a fear of the law, keeps rising to the top.

Here's a shot of the gear shafts, back together and ready to insert back in the box. They've since gone into the box.

And here's the %*&!# little speedometer drive shaft that got bent.

While waiting on some of the parts over the weekend I made a good bit of progress on the interior. One of the first things I wanted to check out were the seat belts. Safety matters! I figured I could do some minor disassembly, clean up the belts, oil the mechanism, and make them at least closer to like new. There was a small misadventure along the way. Opening up one of the covers, a suddenly unconstrained spring became a pile of seat belt spring spaghetti in my face!

I was laughing even while cursing this. But amazingly, after a breather I managed to get it coiled back up, and reconstrained under the side cover, and the seat belt does work better than before. So I was happy I didn't ruin it.

I was also able to make great progress on the carpet, and in fact there are only a couple more front footwell pieces to be glued in. Then the main floor mats just get set in. The rear is basically done (the side panels will go in after the seat belts, ready any time). Katie said it even began to smell new. (Overcoming the old smell is no small miracle). It sure looks nice

Finally, with the help of our good friend Ray, we got the engine off the stand on onto a dolly last night. So it only awaits its completed transmission before they can be rolled under the car (jacked up about 2 feet), bolted into place, wired, oiled, fueled, and started! It could potentially be only days away (except for that $%$*%&!$ little speedo drive!)