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Wanted to update this topic. The lubricate spray appears to have solved the issue and is holding up the conditions it is being exposed to. Thanks to all who have helped!

Indeed it is........ both the primary & secondary fans will engage. The low pressure sensor engages the entire system when the system is above approx 40lbs, the compressor does NOT cycle, once engaged it runs 100% of the time the a/c is turned on (depending on the volume of system charge).

Yep, I've also read it's not reversible, which is pretty annoying to have to clean it with alcohol all the time. It's been out of the sun for the last 5-years, but the damage is already done. Also gets pretty hot in the garage and I'm sure that doesn't help. Only permanent-ish solution I could really think of is to have it wrapped in color-matched leather. Might look nice if professionally done. Only thing is if leather needs to be glued down, it wouldn't stick for long if the vinyl underneath keeps sweating. Maybe it would need to have the vinyl stripped off, then built up and sculpted with some other material to the right shape so that part can be leather-wrapped. Sounds like very high cost. Other parts of the car would need attention before I go to that extent to fix it though.

This is something that I remember hearing about years ago about when modern day cars would age. The plastics would decay and the first stage is when they get sticky. Then over time that stops and the plastics dry out and get hard and start to crack. I don't think it's possible to reverse this process once it get started. I know it's a big issue on foreign cars that are around 20 years old. They always seem to get the sticky buttons. It is just going to keep happening. The best thing would be to clean, protect and keep it out of the sun to reduce the decay rate. Unfortunately these cars don't have a lot of aftermarket support, so getting new interior pieces isn't really an option. Buying a used one is likely going to have the same issue. Pretty impressive the car went 30 years without having that problem. Lasted much longer than most.

New carpet next to the old one for comparison. This is just a test piece as the cut pile option no longer has graphite available to match the old carpet. The original carpet had alot more padding under it too, the Vert seemed to have twice as much. Its just a basic carpet pad easily found anywhere they sell carpet. This task is going to be alot like laying carpet on a spindle staircase with a shift lever and at least 20+ bolt and clip holes/slits that will need to line up perfectly or you`ll have lumps and wrinkles.

Actually its been holding up great. I've got over 20k miles on the swap now over 2 years. Nothing major, a couple ripped cv boots which may be because they were junkyard sourced. I highly recommend adding a HTOB spacer. ZZP sells them for around $50. Sits behind the HTOB and moves it closer to the clutch by 1/4" for earlier engagement and longer life. Aside from engineering the trans mount, the hardest part is getting the clutch pedal mounted and situated. The pedal arm needs to be cut & welded into proper position as well. As far as the mount, the low-profile mount I fabbed up works great. Only modification I made was adding rubber bushings under the nuts at the bottom to further insulate the mount from the frame. On an aluminum subframe, it might have to be done a bit different. Might be able to drill two holes and bolt it in the same way, but I haven't been hands-on with an 04+ subframe so I can't say for sure. I'm not a fan of the modified 4T65E bracket method that requires tubular control arms as the mount sits outside the frame. An extra $650 that could be spent elsewhere. There really are half a dozen ways you could fab up a mount but I can say for sure the one I made does the job. 3/16 steel plate holds up well so far. I have also just finished taking the time to document the changes to the tune that are highly recommended for a manual swap: Idle speeds in-gear changed to match P/N as its going to be wired to be in D at all times now. ( I actually added a toggle switch to change between forcing it in D or P, since P is needed for a crank relearn procedure if you need it) DTC codes changed And finally zeroing out all the auto trans stuff:

When measuring across from clip to clip... All 3 on the coupe are 55" on the money, On the Vert they are all 54 1/2, this will also make the carpet lay funny unless trimmed.

It's a bit of a bummer, my 89 Cutlass door armrests are very gooey and sticky due to sweating plasticizer. It's been going on the past few years. I've read this is how vinyl decomposes, and it won't stop until the vinyl becomes hard, brittle, and cracks. I've been cleaning it off with isopropyl alcohol in the meantime, but it's just temporary. Going to try cleaning it again, then putting 303 Aerospace Protectant on it. Anyone else have this problem and found a solution that works?