Electrical and Interior Restoration - Part 1

Matt continued to drive the car but as I foreshadowed earlier there were some pretty serious underlying issues present when he bought the car.  The car had a few quirks like a shift light that would come on with the turn signal, and headlights that would turn off when you used the windshield wipers!  The car eventually quit running completely,  forcing the long overdue electrical restoration.  Matt once again brought it in for a complete re-wire along with a full sweep of autometer gauges.  Like usual though the project got a little bigger as we tore into the car. 

It was truely incredible how the car had been wired over the years,  the were so many extra wires under the dash it's amazing the original harness didn't melt down! Here are a few pictures from the beginning

The entire electrical system was gutted from the car, every wire.  In doing so I pulled up the carpet and uncovered more trouble.  The previous owner had installed sound deadening, however it was installed over the original jute mat! The result likely had little effect on the sound deadening but did good at trapping moisture on the pans.  Everything was removed to look at the damage.

The rust was relatively minor but several spots needed attention.  Particularly the drivers foot well.  While not initially planned, the decision was made to fix the problem areas, and clean up the floor boards and interior before progressing with the electrical. The rust areas were cut out and replaced with new metal,  areas with milder surface rust were cleaned up and painted.  The previous owner had cut the shifter opening several times for different transmission installations, this was cleaned up as well so a boot could be installed and seal the opening. With all the rust fixed, the floors were given a heavy coat of rust preventative pant and then covered in sound deadening.