Nas Escobar's 94 Cutlass Supreme build thread!

[Nas Escobar]

Now here's a major thing... the top seals. As I stated before, the seals were so shot that what was keeping the MAJORITY of water out of the car was added pieces of universal weatherstripping and duct tape. Even so, the car would still leak, to the point where there was a puddle in the back of the car. With the puddle cleaned up, I started an experiment with the seals. I had made my own seal for the passenger window (the worst of the leaks were there) from a seal that came from a Chrysler Sebring. With the experiment done (it had rained and snowed a couple times after placing the first one in), I noticed that the seals have done a pretty good job of keeping water out SO FAR. The only place drops water got in was where I had placed filler to join the original and new seals together. That was expected as it wasn't closed tight. Now, with all 4 seals being from a Chrysler Sebring, all that is left to do is long term testing. I can confirm that the set of seals that are located furthest back on the top of a Chrysler Sebring from the years 1996 through 2006 WILL FIT the 4 seal bracket for the 1991-1995 Olds Cutlass Supreme convertibles. These seals are the closest thing we will get to finding good seals now that the original ones are out of production. The seals originally seal up the rear quarter window on a Chrysler Sebring convertible, where we CSC people have the triangle. The Sebring has one piece of glass where that goes, it would be the equivalent of our quarter window that goes up and down.

 

Some things to note if you wan to copy my idea...

• The Sebring seals are longer, and the CSC seals are shorter, so they have to be cut to size (which is a good thing).
  
• In order to get the seals into the brackets, they have to be compressed (or pinched) to get the base of the seal to be exposed and make it easier to place in. They can't be simply pushed in like the stock ones.
  
• The original header bow seal must be kept, and cut where the window seals start.
  
• The Sebring header bow seal is different from the CSC, mainly due to 3-5 inches in length, the fact that the seal goes on the windshield frame, not the top frame, and a screw that holds the seal into the Chrysler. I have yet to figure out if it will work with our cars for full sealing. If the bow seal is shot, there is still no hope (as of yet).
  
• The window seals for a Sebring won't work. The base are different widths.
  

 

Okay, now without further ado... pics!

 

This is how the top looks without the seals

 

 

[Nas Escobar]

This is how the roof looks with the seals and the finished product!!

 

Rear seals first!

 

Driver's

 

IF anyone's wondering, the window does seal up nicely with these Chrysler seals.

 

 

 

Passenger's side

 

 

Now here's the passenger's side front window seal and the finished product.

 

As they say, measure twice, cut once; so I left them uncut first, then measured them up so there would be no gaps.

 

 

Finished product.

 

The small bracket is the hardest to keep in place. I might have to silicone it in or something if it keeps popping off.

 

 

Not 100% tight, but thats' what adjustments are for.

 

Now to wait and let it rain....

 

 

Now the driver's side.

 

 

This is how it looks now with the top down.

 

 

This is what I meant earlier in my posts. Only the header bow is original on the top frame now.

 

[l67ss]

Kudos on a nice bit of detective work. Not only would the mopar seals be more readily available, theyre likely a lil better quality than stock

This is how the roof looks with the seals and the finished product!!

 

Rear seals first!

 

Driver's

 

IF anyone's wondering, the window does seal up nicely with these Chrysler seals.

 

 

 

Passenger's side

 

 

Now here's the passenger's side front window seal and the finished product.

 

As they say, measure twice, cut once; so I left them uncut first, then measured them up so there would be no gaps.

 

 

Finished product.

 

The small bracket is the hardest to keep in place. I might have to silicone it in or something if it keeps popping off.

 

 

Not 100% tight, but thats' what adjustments are for.

 

Now to wait and let it rain....

 

 

Now the driver's side.

 

 

This is how it looks now with the top down.

 

 

This is what I meant earlier in my posts. Only the header bow is original on the top frame now.

 

[Nas Escobar]

Kudos on a nice bit of detective work. Not only would the mopar seals be more readily available, theyre likely a lil better quality than stock

 

The problem with the CSC stock seals is that they're too thin. Notice how thick the Mopar ones are. It's raining today, and so far, I noticed only a drop gets in the seal every now and then, compared to the large bits of water that used to come in. I do believe I have a leak somewhere else as water comes in and puddles up where the rear seat would be.

[94 olds vert]

That is way to many pictures to be quoting.

 

Those 'mopar' seals do look better than stock. I never would of guessed they would have worked, that is good to know. Nice work, this car is really coming along.

[Nas Escobar]

That is way to many pictures to be quoting.

 

Those 'mopar' seals do look better than stock. I never would of guessed they would have worked, that is good to know. Nice work, this car is really coming along.

 

If I would have known that was gonna happen, I would have split the pics up from the posts. I only posted so much so people get an idea of how it would look on the car, considering the "where can I get seals" question comes up a lot. Plus, I would hate to see a car go to the yard because they can't find seals for it.

 

Now one thing I should mention is that my top is jacked up, so I'm still getting water leaks, mostly near the back window area, so I do still have leaks, but not as much as before. I have to do some more modification to the seals as well, but that's because there's something off with my frame, it's kinda crooked on the driver's side. This of course is my own personal thing and not the fault of the seal. The original seals had to be modified to accommodate the offness of the frame, but compared to before, the leaks have improved a lot.

[Nas Escobar]

It's been about a month since I updated this thread and well... sadly not much has been done to it. I did the LIM gaskets on this engine trying to see if that is the location of my vacuum leak and subsequent idling issues and I ran out of daylight, so that's on hold until I can get a non frosty day again. I still have a leak somewhere in the car, and I need to figure out where and why. I managed to score some parts for it that will be going on, but not right now.

 

So not much has been done. Plus with my daily also giving me problems, I've had to set aside some time to work on that car.

 

This is the only thing I've managed to do on this car so far. I'll let the pictures speak.

 

This is one of my "A pillar" panels. Notice the poor condition of them.

 

 

 

I got fed up so this happened...

 

IDK what that yellow stuff is, but it doesn't seem original. The fabric (if it can be called that) pulled away very easily. It took me 20 minutes to get it all off.

 

So then came the harder part... getting all that gunk out.

 

 

I tried washing that away with dishwashing soap thinking it would cut through all the gunk, but it wasn't strong enough. I had to go to Walmart and get goop off and sand the panels off. I didn't take a picture of it because the panels started looking white, but after a night's worth of work on the panels, this is my finished product.

 

 

I've also changed the color of the fabric from that weird "charcoal" but really looks like navy blue type fabric to a much more elegant black color. I'll eventually end up "murdering out" the car.

[Nas Escobar]

Well, winter struck really hard in DC this year. Between that and plans diverting from their original course, my Cutlass has become a rolling project car. This is mostly thanks to my Camaro having LIM gasket issues. It was never meant to be this way, but such is life.

 

With that said, I haven't progressed much with the interior panels as I had hoped but I have done some things to the Cutlass.

 

First thing first, I had a wheel bearing swapped (didn't do it myself since I didn't know how).

 

Old bearing. Sounded like a Boeing 747 driving at 45.

 

 

New bearing before installation.

 

I've also done the LIM gaskets on the LQ1. I didn't take pictures because we've all seen a 60 degree engine opened up before so it was nothing special. The MAF was swapped out, along with the O2 sensor and now the car runs really good.

 

Now all that needs to be done is the PRNDL switch, trans fluid change, trans filter change, and the coolant sensor swapped (it's triggered the SES and it's giving the PCM a reading of -38F). These will be done in due time, at the moment the car barely goes anywhere past 10 miles round trip.

 

I've also progressed some on the rear panels. I've gotten the factory vinyl off and the fiberglass boards are ready for cleaning and sanding.

 

Passanger's side

 

Driver's side. The driver's side had it's lip broken off where it meets with the trim that goes by the driver's door, so I gotta reglue that back together.

 

 

The arm rests. They too will be covered in black vinyl.

 

 

2 weeks later, I got a great deal on a set of brand new 6 1/2 Alpine Type R's. Since the convertible didn't get door speakers until 1995, I had to improvise.

 

Door skin, still untouched.

 

 

Alpine supplied speaker bracket placed on the door using the screw that holds what I think is the window guide in.

 

 

Turned out this didn't help hold the speaker in right where it needed to be as the speaker wouldn't sit flush with the bracket, so I had to drill holes into the door skin. I didn't get a pic of that but I do have the pic of the speaker installed and ready to thump.

 

 

Door panel cut up a bit. At the time of the picture, I wasn't done, it was a work in progress.

 

 

Now it's on to the driver's side.

 

 

Speaker on

 

Plastic put back on. Interesting enough, this plastic is only on the driver's door but not the passanger's door.

 

 

Both door panels were cut up so the speaker wasn't muffled and a speaker grille was put in place. I will get pictures of that next time I'm out with the car.

[Steve]

Nice write up. Thanks

[rich_e777]

Wanna trade? Hahaha

 

I think the best colors for the vert are the Black one and the White one... The red one could be a couple shades darker and the teal one is just..... yeah

Metallic Aqua always stands out in the crowd, was 2 seconds from logging off to take a, deal with natures call. Will pop back in later to read more and I didn't want to forget about the thread.

[Nas Escobar]

Nice write up. Thanks

 

If you're talking about the Chrysler weatherstripping, you may have to modify it by adding some urethane so it won't keep leaking. I have frame issues though so it may be a personal problem. It's just a heads up. Other than that it really helps.

[Nas Escobar]

Well I guess it's time for me to bring this back from the dead. IDK if many even care anymore lol. No I won't post as many pics as before, but not much happened in 2014 to begin with. Things haven't been the best for me in that time frame but I'm slowly getting back into this project. After this line, this is what I got accomplished in 2014.

 

My horn button stopped working on my original wheel. So I decided to swap the wheel out.

 

 

and here's a comparo between the stock wheel and the new one.

 

 

I also did a LIMG job on the engine and while it was apart, I decided to paint the valve covers. It was looking pretty depressing. I forgot to take a "before" picture, but here's a picture that shows the valve cover. This picture was for other purposes, I was testing the feasibility of swapping the inside turn signal and retrofitting a glass bulb there. That's for an upcoming project that was inspired by Miko K.

 

 

And here's the obligatory prep pic. I used aircraft stripper to peel the 20 year old paint off. The LQ1 comes with the front valve cover painted but not the back one nor the plenum. That created for a nasty situation when the stuff got gunked on.

 

 

Ready to prime

 

Primed. I took a pic with both valve covers drying

 

I painted the valve covers and intake plenum with Duplicolor Cast Iron enamel. I didn't like how the aluminum color looked when I used that on the Camaro and the cast iron is close to the gray that was used by the factory in 1994. I was skeptical of the color at first, but once altogether it really look good. Nothing fancy, but I was going for something that would look factory.

 

 

The valve cover that gets covered by the plenum but somehow ends up dirty anyways. That was my reason to paint it. i hated seeing grime on it when the manifold came out. Barely visible but it's there.

 

 

Intake plenum on but not assembled. I have the car running now. I swapped out a coil on it that was causing a misfire when cold and it's a nice smooth driver. Just need to finish the interior (which is coming up)

 

[tsilney]

Well I guess it's time for me to bring this back from the dead. IDK if many even care anymore lol. No I won't post as many pics as before, but not much happened in 2014 to begin with. Things haven't been the best for me in that time frame but I'm slowly getting back into this project. After this line, this is what I got accomplished in 2014.

 

My horn button stopped working on my original wheel. So I decided to swap the wheel out.

 

 

and here's a comparo between the stock wheel and the new one.

 

 

I also did a LIMG job on the engine and while it was apart, I decided to paint the valve covers. It was looking pretty depressing. I forgot to take a "before" picture, but here's a picture that shows the valve cover. This picture was for other purposes, I was testing the feasibility of swapping the inside turn signal and retrofitting a glass bulb there. That's for an upcoming project that was inspired by Miko K.

 

 

And here's the obligatory prep pic. I used aircraft stripper to peel the 20 year old paint off. The LQ1 comes with the front valve cover painted but not the back one nor the plenum. That created for a nasty situation when the stuff got gunked on.

 

 

Ready to prime

 

Primed. I took a pic with both valve covers drying

 

I painted the valve covers and intake plenum with Duplicolor Cast Iron enamel. I didn't like how the aluminum color looked when I used that on the Camaro and the cast iron is close to the gray that was used by the factory in 1994. I was skeptical of the color at first, but once altogether it really look good. Nothing fancy, but I was going for something that would look factory.

 

 

The valve cover that gets covered by the plenum but somehow ends up dirty anyways. That was my reason to paint it. i hated seeing grime on it when the manifold came out. Barely visible but it's there.

 

 

Intake plenum on but not assembled. I have the car running now. I swapped out a coil on it that was causing a misfire when cold and it's a nice smooth driver. Just need to finish the interior (which is coming up)

 

Looks good! Except for the blue painters tape..lol..

[Nas Escobar]

Looks good! Except for the blue painters tape..lol..

 

That was because I took those pictures when I was putting the car back together after the LIMG job. I took the tape off after I started the car. I had left it on just if in case I had to take it out again.

[rich_e777]

Now that I've seen that steering wheel it gives the instrument panel a less obstructed view and being of the paranoid type I worry more that the airbag will go off unexpectedly more than I worry about a front end collision. I like it. I used a wire brush attachment on a drill on my UIM and valve covers and they are still shiny, I wanted to do the same for the LIM but I had burned my drill out when I had it off.

 

Ive used the dupli-color matching paint for some interior parts and it eventually start to chip but if you use a Valspar clear coat it makes it last longer. My rear deck speakers were painted at least a year ago maybe more and haven't had any deterioration and they sat in summer time sunlight. But some trim around my cluster wasn't clear coated and started chipping, it lasted several years though and was more of a "tester" piece that ended up looking good. I hope to redo a lot of my interior as well and also looking to go black but mix in the metallic aqua as a secondary color.

[Galaxie500XL]

I used the same paint on the valve covers of my LQ1. Yours looks a bit nicer, though.

 

[Nas Escobar]

Now that I've seen that steering wheel it gives the instrument panel a less obstructed view and being of the paranoid type I worry more that the airbag will go off unexpectedly more than I worry about a front end collision. I like it. I used a wire brush attachment on a drill on my UIM and valve covers and they are still shiny, I wanted to do the same for the LIM but I had burned my drill out when I had it off.

 

Ive used the dupli-color matching paint for some interior parts and it eventually start to chip but if you use a Valspar clear coat it makes it last longer. My rear deck speakers were painted at least a year ago maybe more and haven't had any deterioration and they sat in summer time sunlight. But some trim around my cluster wasn't clear coated and started chipping, it lasted several years though and was more of a "tester" piece that ended up looking good. I hope to redo a lot of my interior as well and also looking to go black but mix in the metallic aqua as a secondary color.

 

As long as your brakes work and you're not driving aggressive, you shouldn't have a front end collision. Most people that hit with their front weren't paying attention to begin with.

 

My only complaint about those rattle cans is that they will almost always chip. I chipped my paint on my valve covers when I was changing my thermostat. It's not noticeable but I know it's there and it bugs me. However, if the paint lasts 5 years I'll be happy.

 

I used the same paint on the valve covers of my LQ1. Yours looks a bit nicer, though.

 

Yours doesn't look bad at all. I am glad I painted my plenum though. Did you prime yours before laying down the actual color? I notice the paint looks different when you prime the pieces first. It has a lighter color to it. I did 3 coats of prime on mine and 5 coats of color.

[Nas Escobar]

Since my last post, I have mostly been cleaning the car up and fixing odd ends and bits on the car.

 

However, I did make a big move in my plan from 2013 to fully murder out the car (or make it truly triple black).

 

I managed to (finally) get the lower dash out the car. I pressure washed the lower dash and took some adhesive promoter (basically a primer for plastic), sprayed it on, then this...

 

Before

 

 

After

 

 

 

Here's a charcoal trim piece jammed into the vent to show the difference between the color since my phone has trouble with colors

 

The side trim that goes by the dash. Since it's 2, I did a before and after with each one.

 

The painted one close up. To clarify, I did this with vinyl dye, not actual paint as a lot of people do.

 

And I painted the trim for the headlights. I had painted one of them before last year but never got to painting the other one. Now they are both black instead of faded gray.

 

 

And yes, my trunk lid needs to be painted, but not sure how to go about with that. I'm serisously contemplating hitting it with some air craft remover and spray painting the thing but I'm not sure if it will have that same shine that the rest of the body has.

[Nas Escobar]

Because people have a habit of quoting my posts with the pics still in there, I'll be double posting from now on.

 

Other things I've done within the past month...

 

I re did the Chrysler Sebring seals.

 

Still leaks on this side (not sure why there is that big big gap where the B pillar is, but I assume the frame is bent or something.

 

However, this side barely has leak issues. The only leak is where the retards that changed my windshield messed up my weatherstripping.

 

 

Another pic of how it looks. You can tell something is definitely off here...

 

 

 

I also took off the door stop moldings. I figured the body cladding at the bottom served the same purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

I also fixed the monoleaf pad.

 

Before... I wonder how long it's been like this.

 

After...

 

[primergray]

Looking good! I shudder to think of what was involved with pulling the lower dash, I spent some time yesterday trying to figure out how to pull the damn ashtray/lighter tray so I could add some extra charger ports/USB ports...but I'm fat, old, and lazy...and it was dark...so I gave up.

[vipmiller803]

Looks really good. Definitely looks like it is underway.

 

A few comments:

Nice monoleaf pads. If you want an extra ~half inch of height in the back, put in moog pads.

 

The cluster lights look awesome. If the color is off in the pictures, though, I can see how a different color bulb is in order. I never touched my dash lights (although I need to because one bulb is out), but I did replace bulbs in my HVAC control unit and the bulbs in there were incandescent with a blue sleeve right on the bulb, making it a green final color. When I put white LEDs in there, I put the sleeves on and they were very blue, so I took them off and they are white now. The thing with the blue tint right on the gauge is that it would need a dark (yet powerful) yellow to get a nice white color. Might be a good idea to get an assortment of LEDs to try on a small section, since incandescent were not yellow enough. Maybe somewhere in the 2000K's? Maybe even put different colored lights in a row to get a spectrum to pick from instead of relying on memory.

 

Good work on the top seals. Since it still leaks a little, I will ask: What does the top itself look like when wet? If water does not bead off it, maybe you can try a treatment for it like raggtop or 303. These products just seal the canvas itself (in fact, you should not let them hit rubber), but they might let water run off the top a lot better (instead of soaking in), possibly correcting the leak.

[Nas Escobar]

Looking good! I shudder to think of what was involved with pulling the lower dash, I spent some time yesterday trying to figure out how to pull the damn ashtray/lighter tray so I could add some extra charger ports/USB ports...but I'm fat, old, and lazy...and it was dark...so I gave up.

 

Getting stuck on it for a year before realizing that the steering wheel has to come out for it to clear the steering column and the fact that there are 2 screws in the general area of the steering column that hold the dash in. Other than that it's a medium sized job, took me 2 hours to take it out, and 2 1/2 hours to put it back in. The air ducts also hold the dash in.

 

Looks really good. Definitely looks like it is underway.

 

A few comments:

Nice monoleaf pads. If you want an extra ~half inch of height in the back, put in moog pads.

 

Thank you very much!

 

I was going to get the moog pucks but members on here were telling me that the moog piece eventually cracks the monoleaf. Not sure how true that is, but that's why I didn't go with it. I don't want to chase down a monoleaf. Hell, I really want to change the lateral links to gen 2 links and I find that hard in itself.

 

The cluster lights look awesome. If the color is off in the pictures, though, I can see how a different color bulb is in order. I never touched my dash lights (although I need to because one bulb is out), but I did replace bulbs in my HVAC control unit and the bulbs in there were incandescent with a blue sleeve right on the bulb, making it a green final color. When I put white LEDs in there, I put the sleeves on and they were very blue, so I took them off and they are white now. The thing with the blue tint right on the gauge is that it would need a dark (yet powerful) yellow to get a nice white color. Might be a good idea to get an assortment of LEDs to try on a small section, since incandescent were not yellow enough. Maybe somewhere in the 2000K's? Maybe even put different colored lights in a row to get a spectrum to pick from instead of relying on memory.

 

Thank you. The issue with the cluster is that the letters have blue gel behind the gauges. I'm not sure why GM chose to do this, especially considering that the headlight switch and window/lock switches just had the bulb condom on them. I might play around with the yellow/orange idea, but I assume that would just make the gauges green again.

 

Here's a better picture of the situaton I have. White LED bulbs with no filter or other shape of color changing mechanism however the gauges have gel behind them.

 

 

While on this topic, how did you open your climate control module? I see it has very small screws in, looks like they would be 2mm or 3mm.

 

Good work on the top seals. Since it still leaks a little, I will ask: What does the top itself look like when wet? If water does not bead off it, maybe you can try a treatment for it like raggtop or 303. These products just seal the canvas itself (in fact, you should not let them hit rubber), but they might let water run off the top a lot better (instead of soaking in), possibly correcting the leak.

 

Thanks. I took pictures of the issues with the seals to better describe where it leaks. It still needs a lot of fine tuning, but there was a time when rain in the car meant getting a free shower. That is no longer the case, but I can't put the carpet back in until it stops leaking. The original carpet stunk thanks to those leaks.

 

I took pictures of the top with an actual camera and not my phone. I hope quality is better. Here's the gap up close. I placed a screwdriver in where the gap is. The screwdriver goes in with no force at all. It's a bit sad.

 

 

Here's another source of leaks

 

The screwdriver is not jammed in there, but simply placed.

 

This is the A pillar seal. The other one is in worse condition thanks to the retards that call themselves "glass repair men"

 

Here's the passenger's side, same location where it leaks on the driver's side.

 

Same spot it leaks on the passenger's side. The seal does need to be reglued to the bracket on this side however

 

 

On the passenger's side, this is where it leaks in. While the window hits the seal, some little drops do get in. My idea to fix this is to make the seals a bit more firm by shoving a smaller piece of rubber weatherstripping in there, however it has not been very easy to find. I do recall the originals had rubber jammed in to the seal.

 

 

Not sure why this happened, but this is another thing I need to fix to completely seal off the water.

 

I took these pictures around 2pm EDT. It has been raining since 8am EDT. This is the puddle that has formed after 6 hours of rain. The puddle is much worse when it rains hard or when it rains for a long time.

 

However, you are right on the top keeping the water instead of beading off.

 

[vipmiller803]

I was going to get the moog pucks but members on here were telling me that the moog piece eventually cracks the monoleaf. Not sure how true that is, but that's why I didn't go with it. I don't want to chase down a monoleaf. Hell, I really want to change the lateral links to gen 2 links and I find that hard in itself.

 

That is a good point, considering how hard those pucks are. I guess you could keep the rubber pad between them if you really wanted the height, but your car does not seem low at all so no need. Also, as nice as gen 2 links are with the luxury of coils, I thought the strut mounts become suspect for cracking? Maybe I am wrong.

 

 

 

I'm not sure why GM chose to do this, especially considering that the headlight switch and window/lock switches just had the bulb condom on them.

Bigger bulbs = too much heat for condoms? Only a theory.

 

 

White LED bulbs with no filter or other shape of color changing mechanism however the gauges have gel behind them.

 

While on this topic, how did you open your climate control module? I see it has very small screws in, looks like they would be 2mm or 3mm.

The difference is a lot more evident with the comparison picture... I hope you have some luck getting bulbs that do the trick... I might just use them when I open mine up

 

As far as the HVAC control, I think the first time I opened it I used small vice grips. Not the best way, I know, but the screws go into plastic so they are not exactly torqued down. I used the actual fitting socket the second time. You are absolutely right, it is something ridiculously small like 4.5 or 5 mm. I do not remember which. I happened to have a small socket set around but you can probably get away without it with some diligence. Also, if you go that route, you can always replace those screws with philips heads since you will likely have to open it again (the soldering likes to come undone once it gets cold).

 

I took pictures of the issues with the seals to better describe where it leaks. It still needs a lot of fine tuning, but there was a time when rain in the car meant getting a free shower. That is no longer the case, but I can't put the carpet back in until it stops leaking. The original carpet stunk thanks to those leaks.

 

I took pictures of the top with an actual camera and not my phone. I hope quality is better. Here's the gap up close. I placed a screwdriver in where the gap is. The screwdriver goes in with no force at all. It's a bit sad.

 

 

I took these pictures around 2pm EDT. It has been raining since 8am EDT. This is the puddle that has formed after 6 hours of rain. The puddle is much worse when it rains hard or when it rains for a long time.

 

 

However, you are right on the top keeping the water instead of beading off.

Those are some big gaps. I guess I did not realize how big those gaps were from the other pictures. Good luck with all the adjustments. It seems like you are tackling it very well so far. I have little experience with sealing vert tops and do not know what the adjustments are. I can tell you that I recently used the products I mentioned before and they should help with beading water right off. As for the rubber you mention for filling that one spot, you may consider a home weatherstripping from your local hardware store. some of them have some volume but are still malleable enough to shove in there.

[George]

I was going to get the moog pucks but members on here were telling me that the moog piece eventually cracks the monoleaf. Not sure how true that is, but that's why I didn't go with it. I don't want to chase down a monoleaf.

 

Smart choice. The Moog isolator pads didn't crack my mono-leaf, just wore out the ends after 70k miles.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited April 4, 2015 by George

[Nas Escobar]

That is a good point, considering how hard those pucks are. I guess you could keep the rubber pad between them if you really wanted the height, but your car does not seem low at all so no need. Also, as nice as gen 2 links are with the luxury of coils, I thought the strut mounts become suspect for cracking? Maybe I am wrong.

 

Yeah, it doesn't bother me yet so I'll just keep the pads until I decide whether or not I want to swap to coil overs.

 

Bigger bulbs = too much heat for condoms? Only a theory.

 

Well that's what gets me is that all the bulbs had that blue condom on to make them look green, however only the dash had the condoms and the gel.

 

The difference is a lot more evident with the comparison picture... I hope you have some luck getting bulbs that do the trick... I might just use them when I open mine up

 

As far as the HVAC control, I think the first time I opened it I used small vice grips. Not the best way, I know, but the screws go into plastic so they are not exactly torqued down. I used the actual fitting socket the second time. You are absolutely right, it is something ridiculously small like 4.5 or 5 mm. I do not remember which. I happened to have a small socket set around but you can probably get away without it with some diligence. Also, if you go that route, you can always replace those screws with philips heads since you will likely have to open it again (the soldering likes to come undone once it gets cold).

 

That's what I was thinking as well, but I'm just scared to not be able to find suitable replacement screws. I might take one off, go to HD or Lowes and see what they can do for me, that way I can swap out the bulbs. I'd like to swap the orange light to red as well, but I'll see how that works.

 

Those are some big gaps. I guess I did not realize how big those gaps were from the other pictures. Good luck with all the adjustments. It seems like you are tackling it very well so far. I have little experience with sealing vert tops and do not know what the adjustments are. I can tell you that I recently used the products I mentioned before and they should help with beading water right off. As for the rubber you mention for filling that one spot, you may consider a home weatherstripping from your local hardware store. some of them have some volume but are still malleable enough to shove in there.

 

Hahaha this is my first vert, and first real project car, so really I'm learning as I go. Trial and Error seems to be the theme with this car.

 

Smart choice. The Moog isolator pads didn't crack my mono-leaf, just wore out the ends after 70k miles.

 

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Damn, I thought people were just saying that to say it, I didn't realize that the pucks did wear down the monoleaf. Damn.