Roof Rack Redo

The roof rack that I built from used wood and some cheap brackets was starting to look a little worn. Aside from sitting a few inches too high for most tastes, the indoor-use polyurethane coating that the wood came with wasn't holding up to the wind and rain. So, I disassembled it.

After replacing two of the slats with spares, I sanded and coated the wood with Helmsman Spar Urethane to keep the UV rays at bay.

I didn't sand all the way down to remove all of the weathering. I suppose I'm trying to keep in the well-worn patina theme in which the 1600 comfortably sits.

I also came up with a hardware solution to drop the roof rack a few inches that required griding down the aluminum brackets.

So, after several coats with sanding in between, it all went back together.

Also, I replaced the set screw (bolt) in the shifter with a small, headless set screw.

Now all I need to do is install air conditioning and build a console so I can tidy up all of those wires!

Temperature Stabilized

I think that I finally have the temperature stabilized where I want it.

After installing a lower temperature thermostat (I can't remember the opening temperature) and manually turning the electric fan on and off, I have the temp gauge needle in the safe zone. I just need to wire up the temperature switch on the radiator. I'll still keep a manual switch on the dash, but the radiator temperature switch should work just fine.

I still need to modify the cluster for an input button for the electronic speedometer.