Captain Obvious

I wouldn't call it totally unnecessary. Without it, you could have trouble keeping the spindle pin centered in the knuckle while you tightened the nuts. You would likely completely bottom out one nut before the second nut got tight. If that happens, you might not have enough threads engaged on the second nut because the spindle pin got pulled all the way to the other side. In other words... Ten threads sticking out one side, and only one or two threads engaged on the other? Once everything is cinched down tight and centered, the pin is not a big deal But getting to that point, it might be a bigger deal?

Haha!! So you were thinking you could use tighter staples as a country facelift? Nice!!

Dang! Seriously? What the heck are you doing to yourself??

Gotcha about the epoxy resin. I didn't catch that before and thought you were planning to use polyester. And I found the foam commercial I was talking about. It's Loctite Titefoam. What caught my eye was the consistency and finer texture of the bubbles. It didn't have the large voids that form with some of the brands I've used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB603veuD68

Couple thoughts: I saw a commercial the other day where the product in question was expanding foam. They were touting their foam as being better than the "bargain brand" because it had a finer texture and smaller, more consistent bubbles. Don't remember who it was, but there was something in the pitch about "gap control" and ended the commercial with a shot of the pitchman's teeth (with no gap between the two front teeth). If that's not enough description to find the stuff, let me know and I'll see if I can dig up who it was. It was one of the big name brands. Also, I've heard people concerned that the fiberglass resin would eat the original foam. I've done no investigation into the concern, but you ought to make sure that's not the case before you slather large portions of your dash foam with the resin. And third... I was in Horror Fright the other day and was looking at their "vacuum storage bags" which are these large bags where you put stuff to be packed away in a closet for long term storage and then suck out the air with your shop-vac. I was thinking to myself that there might be some application where you could substitute one of those bags for a vacuum table or resin form bags for something like.... recovering a dash maybe?

That's an externally oiled cam, right? Your spray bar in good shape?

Matt, Your car looks beautiful. Welcome to the party! I just posted a couple new pics in that bumper thread. I usually make it to Carlisle, so if you are going, make sure we can get together while we're there.

Seeing this thread come up elsewhere reminded me... I've made some progress and have pics. I got a pair of donor bumper shocks from gwri8 which I drilled and drained. Thanks again Greg!! After remounting the front bumper on the drilled shocks, I collapsed the shocks and pushed the bumper in as far as it would go. Then I fashioned myself some homemade bumper ends. The bumper ends are temporary solutions that I still need to improve on, but from a distance, they look fine. They passed Canadian visual inspection. Here's a couple shots of the results. It doesn't lose it's "280-ness", but I think the lines are better than original. I'm not sure if I'm going to change the rear. The front was certainly the biggest bank for the buck.

Woof. I don't know what to do about that either. Especially in situ. Do you think that happened in the accident that resulted in the liberation of the engine?

Well good luck with the dash work. I'm going to have to do something about mine in the not too distant future too. Hoping you come up with something extraordinary.

There's no magic. Don't worry... The problems will be back.

That 30,101 was reserve not met. No-sale. This is at least the third time it's been listed, and one of the previous times it was listed, it hit 58K and was no-sale due to reserve not met.

I've not done any dash refinishing work, but looking at my failing dash, it appears to me that the expanded foam underneath is suspect too. Using your forensic analysis skills, what do you think was the progression of events leading to the dash failure? Do you think it's possible to permanently fix a dash without addressing the underlying foam?

Excellent! Glad it was that simple.

There is sometimes very little to be gained by simply looking at electrical stuff, but... Can you take a couple pics of the parts in question anyway? The relays? The alternator?

That's awesome. Sounds like a room of angry hornets to me.

No leaks? Looking at the route of the storm, you might find out for sure tonight if you go on your regular neighborhood tour!! Just like when we tested your windshield. Stay safe!!

Congrats on getting it to fire up! I can only imagine how big of a smile you were wearing!

I think I've got a copy of that around here somewhere. Everyone always talks about it and I've never read it. Maybe I should someday...

You do nice work. Now you've also got to do something about your console lid. Your shiny console now makes the lid look chalky. "You created a neatness."

Well I guess I know less about diesels than I thought I did... Why can't they use manifold vacuum on a diesel? They do generate manifold vacuum, right? I guess if it's a turbo (which sometimes may generate positive manifold pressure) there might be a problem, but is there still an issue on a N/A diesel?

Gotcha! You purposely "preloaded" an appropriate offset into the plates before you lowered the car onto them, So simple... But not obvious!

He was in a lead role in some of my most favoritest films ever. Ever ever. Thanks for the laughs, and RIP Dr. Fronkinshteen.

I haven't read the TSB for the 78 reroute, but I thought the ported boot was a "car won't idle correctly" thing, not a fire safety thing. If the AAR gunks up with condensation from impurity carrying blow-by gasses it might stick get sticky and not operate properly resulting in improper idling conditions. The 78 style reroute of the hoses allows the AAR to pull from further upstream than the PCV line so the air that it pulls from should be cleaner. Both the 78 style and the earlier routing should have the spark arrester in the PCV hosing (which IS a fire thing). I think the "AAR fire" thing was Blue's theory that (however improbable) a gunked up AAR could potentially cause an engine fire if that flammable gunk were paired with an electrical fault inside the AAR resulting in an ignition source. ZedHead, Do you know if that TSB posted anywhere? Would be an interesting read.

I always thought that spring was to prevent kinking. Why not just put on a ported boot and plug the hole. That's what I did. The OCD simply won't let you have that unused nipple sticking up in plain view?