• Hello Guest, welcome to the initial stages of our new platform!
    You can find some additional information about where we are in the process of migrating the board and setting up our new software here

    Thank you for being a part of our community!

Cbevis 262 Bertone

Exhaust is such a love/hate experience. Looking good. Hope you make quick work of sorting the clutch out.
 
I got the clutch squared away! Turns out I was using the wrong size Master. 4.5" of pedal draw into a 5/8" bore is NOT enough to effectively push a 1" bore slave, lol.

Anyway, I had the Bertone out several times, trusting it more and more every time. Then I decided to get a little squirrely in an intersection turning left.....felt good.....real good.

10 seconds later a massive cloud of white smoke billows out from under the hood. I pull over and find this:


I hate that goddamned flex fan!!! Granted...this is my own damn fault. You drive a car for seven years, hamstringed with an autotragic transmission and torque converter that doesn't really like to get up past 3300 RPM...the last thing you expect is a stupid flex fan to pull the radiator out of it's mounting brackets and right into the blades.

So...finally time for an upgrade to the cooling system....



Had to do a little cutting of the front clip to get the damn thing in there right....

But all said and done, i think it fits pretty good!
 
course...the fan is blowing the wrong way and I need a temp sensor, not a temp sender for the grounding switch. One of these days, I'd like to install a controller, but for now...simple on off would be preferable. I had the car up to operating temp, fan clicked on, but never turned off. I don't mind a cool running car, but 160 degrees is a little excessive. And with that fan pushing out the front end like that, never turning off....I do worry about the push/pull battle between forward motion vs the fan....

Reversing the polarity doesn't bother me...except for the directional curving of the fan blades...anyone want to chime in on that?
 
Hello!

It's been a while. Two back surgeries, bought a new house, moved the wife's business...excuses.

The only thing I really have to update are things I may have already posted in a different thread. But I can't find those threads so...figured i'd update my actual progress thread instead.

I got really tired of black 'corinthian leather' and uncomfortable seats. So the first thing I did was ditch the old captain's chairs in the front for a pair of brown leather seats from an Audi Q7. Not gunna pretend...my welding skills are awful (as we've already established on the exhaust update). But, new seats means new mounting brackets...
NCCsDn2h.jpg


but function > form when it's inaccessible anyway. New brackets are in and the seats bolted right up without much fuss. I was even able to repurpose the power for the old heated seats to make the power seat functions work.
6mbma83h.jpg


I think they look much better than the old seats...and they're much more comfortable.
kO14KdCh.jpg

OtylT5Vh.jpg


Seats led to redoing the rest of the old black leather (and new carpet). I'd never done interior upholstery before so, this was new to me. I had an extra set of interior pieces from the '78 parts car I had, so I started with a piece that no one would really notice if it were screwed up. The headliner side pieces.
cu4ePNSh.jpg

21Cd7nvh.jpg


The material wasn't eXaCtLy what I had in mind, but....it was close enough. Thanks, Michael's! It looked well enough to try the next piece anyway. The panels under the rear side windows.
fgMZYoGh.jpg


Doing these was a little trickier than I expected...that divot for the arm rest was not playing nice. Eventually, I replaced those buttons with antiqued brass too...much better with the brown.
yOYT7oEh.jpg


Next up, door cards. Mine were total garbage, and I also have the later model doors with electric windows, so the donor car wasn't going to work (they weren't in the best of shape either). Tagboard to the rescue.
hdRSPnZh.jpg

zlB8dudh.jpg

7rQ9yGUh.jpg

Apsjgybh.jpg


Thankfully, upholstering these things was easier than the backseat cards. Michaels ftw on providing new foam backing too. Also, for posterity, the bottom 1/3 of the door card is painted with sealant to prevent future water damage.
hOVekeIh.jpg


Nothing fancy for the door handles...just a nice interior paint. Three years later, it's holding up really well! (antiqued brass buttons didn't make it into the door cards. I liked them better without...)
kRhuM7ph.jpg


The only bummer is how tightening the door handle pulls a crease into the fabric. I was eventually able to straighten it out using a heat gun (very lightly, and at a decent distance, lol)
eeJYjkIh.jpg


After that, it was just the last few pieces Head liner windshield piece, rear bench, rear headliner piece, etc...
AmXFAFAh.jpg

Bl9oSYBh.jpg


And installing it all back into the car...
IsFXXRNh.jpg

d14Zitdh.jpg

mYvVMEGh.jpg


The actual headliner was a no-go.
A. I ran out of fabric
B. uninstalling it was really hard
C. making a new one would have required sewing skills I do not possess (i'm working on it). The headliner is actually held up with back rods sewn into the fabric, and I wasn't about to botch that job. Besides, when you're sitting in the car, you don't even notice the headliner. For instance....I've owned this car for well over a decade and it took until this project to even realize that the fabric was perforated...

Needless to say, that puts it pretty low on my wants list
 
The back seat isn't going back in, and yall will be happy to know that I shipped off ALL of the leather to Gottenburg for another restoration project!

Wish I could remember who ended up with it....i'd like to hear if/how it turned out...
 
Man, what a PITA...I never want to do trailing arm bushings again. I don't remember struggling this hard on any of the other ones I've ever done. I think it had to do with the part...the Uro branded aftermarket is almost a full 1mm larger in diameter on the fat end...

New bushing...
20230118_181631.jpg

Old bushing...

20230121_142646.jpg

What's worse is these new bushings aren't labeled as to their orientation either...
20230122_101404.jpg

I'd say not to bother with the Uro aftermarket brand....but I doubt very few of you would anyway. Most of yall would prefer the poly kits or Kaplan's inserts. Besides, the fact is they eventually went in. It was just tougher than I was expecting. I went through two bolts on my TAB tool...

20230121_140842.jpg
20230121_140826.jpg

I also did something about the bushings on my torque rods... heresy, i know....but here we are...
20230115_124430.jpg

I'm looking for a different kind of handling in this car. I've had this car for 13 years, and used to drive it in a 'spirited' manner. Never raced...but never shied away from the twisties either. But now? I'm older....the ol' butt dyno isn't as finely calibrated as it used to be. I don't need to feel every grain of sand on the road or handle like a roller coaster. I just want a nice grand touring experience....

We'll see...
 
Back
Top