We've taken our first step into a larger...well, grayer, world. I installed the newly salvaged door panels in the car today. These mark the first of the new 'soft' goods in the gray/black color scheme to go into the car. Next up will be the purchase and installation of a new black headliner and new black carpet, along with black sun visors. Then the gray seats will go in last. I'm also on the lookout for a set of black front seat belts with the plastic trim, since before long the tan ones will have to go.

But, back to the door panels. I salvaged these off a wrecked car and they were in pretty good shape overall. They had the typical torn retaining holes along the top from where they were hastily removed at some point in the past, and the cardboard backing was water damaged and torn in places. But they were flat and the upholstery was in great shape so they were worth saving. I started out by reinforcing the backs with aluminum tape and then adding some sound deadening material to cut down on road noise. I reinforced the retaining holes at the top and installed the top rails from the car on them. I then gave them a good bath and vacuum, and got them installed. While I was in the doors I tightened some loose screws and fixed the moisture barrier.

All in all I think they look darn good. I did determine that we need a new driver side arm rest, as the vinyl is coming up along the back edge of our current one...I usually see these in good shape in the salvage yards so getting one should be too hard or expensive.

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The sunlight really washes them out in the photo, the bottoms are truly black, not gray and the stripes along the top material are black too.

Ladies and gentlemen, the A/C Works! After much diagnosis, vacuum line tracing, splicing and gerry-rigging, I got the system functioning the way it's meant to. The air is not cold, rather cool-ish...I think it needs a flush and recharge, hopefully I can accomplish that sometime in the next few weeks. But I am rather pleased with myself at this point.

I also picked up a 14" Edelbrock Air Cleaner this morning. It took some effort to get it set up correctly, as it is so large it hangs over the throttle body...so a little 1/2 inch spacer to get the clearance I needed and I am all set. I do want to get a flat topped nut for it, since the wings on the wing nut stick up a little high...it clears the hood, but just barely.

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Air flow is so much better now...performance should increase quite a bit now that it's not struggling for air. More to come, but probably not for a few weeks.

Big changes in Camaro-land! Yesterday I located a really nice set of seats out of a 93 Firebird...the only problem is they are ebony (aka grey-black). So, after consulting with my wife we've determined that the colors inside the car will be changing completely. Say goodbye to the beige/camel interior...it's going the way of the dodo. We'll be swapping out the carpet for black, the headliner for black, the door panels for black and charcoal grey, and the seats will be the grey-black. I'll probably find a way to bring a sliver of red in there for her, probably in some form of accent or trim, since that is her favorite camaro interior.

I also consulted with an engine expert I work with and he pointed out a few areas for improvement on the 350...I'll be looking for a larger air cleaner and a dual spring for the accelerator, and replacing a few hoses with larger dimensions to help improve performance. He also pointed out the proper way to reconnect the vacuum line for the a/c vent system. I'm hoping to have time today to hit the auto-store to start on a few of these things...particularly the a/c hookup. I think that will be a huge tipping point for me in the progress of this car, making something that didn't work at all into something that works exactly the way it should. Everything else I've done up to this point has been largely cosmetic or improving performance...I haven't "fixed" a darn thing. Hopefully that will change shortly.

Did a little engine clean-up today in hopes of finding the vacuum leak which was plaguing my A/C...not really any luck there, although I did find the correct plug-in location for one of the loose vacuum hoses. Re-affixing it did make a little difference, but the vents are still only working on the dash and none of the other locations.

I masked off the engine, windshield and body so I could do some touch up paint on the area between the windshield and the engine compartment...it was primer with lots of white overspray on it. I used some nice matte finish high-heat paint to give it a nice even coat of black, and while I was there did the wiper arms as well since they too had white overspray on them. They turned out really nice I think. I also cleaned up the radiator fan shroud and some of the hoses in the engine bay as well. The photos don't do it justice, since the sun is shining so brightly off the matte finish...

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I also got to put a couple of coats on the test rim for the plasti-dip project:

Again, the bright sunlight isn't doing the black any justice.

I am planning on going to look at a set of used seats on Friday if all goes well, hoping they will be what I need and at a price I can afford.

Interesting development today. I got bored since the rain was still drizzling down, so I went and sat in the car and started toying with the dash. I took out the right hand control pod for the heat, a/c and wipers in an effort to trouble shoot the non-working buttons. I checked for loose connections, unplugged everything and then plugged it back up...I re-installed it and, viola...the A/C works. At least a little bit. Some of the controls still don't work right, and air is cool rather than cold, but it is coming on and blowing air. That leads me to think it's simply a problem with the pod itself, which I hope to be able to remedy soon. I've got a line in to the expert on the digital dash and hope to hear some good news soon....

Progress on the car is slowing down a bit, mostly due to monetary concerns. I've consulted with the car stereo folks and I have a plan in place for upgrading the tunes...just have to find the money for it. I've also gotten carpet samples for the replacement carpet and picked the appropriate color, but again I have to wait for money to order the carpet kit. The seats are still up in the air, I found a set of donor seats for real cheap but they need to be recovered...a consultation with the upholstery place has indicated about $1,000 for recovering in leather-like material. Or I can buy a new set already covered for $800 plus shipping. Either way, that's a lot of money. So for now, the seats are moving waaaay down on the list of things to do.

I also met someone who owned a 84 Berlinetta for a long time and he told me he might have a few boxes of replacement parts for some of the starship specific parts...he's going to check and get back with me soon. I really hope he still has the stuff he mentioned, as some of it is stuff I might need in the future. 

The rotted rubber has come off the rims I picked up about a week ago. I found out powder coating is going to run a little more than I'd hoped, so I'm looking at alternatives. I found some great tutorials for coating them with a removable product called plasti-dip...it looks promising for a temporary fix. Waiting for the rain to stop so I can try it out.

I also did a quick run through the fuse box after finding the correct fuse block diagram courtesy of a fellow Berlinetta owner. All the fuses were in good shape except the Choke Heater fuse...replaced that and I'm hoping to take her out for a test spin later to see if that cures the idle issues we've been experiencing.

Junkyard Score! Found an '84 RS at the salvage yard in Greensboro yesterday which had all four factory rims intact. After thinking about it overnight, I went out early this morning and recovered them from the yard for a steal. One would never think it would be that difficult to break free lug nuts on a car with the front end elevated. It took some gerry-rigging and finagling, but I finally got them off. The rims are in great shape, although they are a little dirty and some of the factory clear coating is coming off...but that doesn't matter because the plan is to strip them and have them powder-coated black at some point in the future.

Ok, got to work on the car today...a little hot outside, but all together not a bad day. I started off in the engine compartment where I cleaned a few things up and replaced a few of the original plastic pieces which had gotten painted white (accidentally? maybe?) before I acquired the car. The replacement pieces came from a donor car at a salvage lot...total cost, $5.

Then I replaced the side marker lights, which also had white paint on them...

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I then moved into the interior and replaced a lot of the worn out beige interior panels with newly acquired black pieces. With the addition of these pieces I am one piece away from having a totally black plastic interior...then all that's left to do is replace the carpet and the seats and we're relatively done with the interior. I do still need to find a few black plastic screws and retaining clips to replace the mismatched grey ones I have holding some of the panels on, but those should be too hard to locate over time.

The most difficult part of this project was replacing the cardboard 'glove box' on the driver side rear panel...the donor panel had one that was completely rotten. About 10 minutes of reverse engineering and I figured out how to remove the existing one from the car and place it on the new panel.

I even managed to find intact hatch strut covers...these things are impossible to find without busted retaining clips!

One of the mismatched grey screws...hopefully I'll find a black one to replace it with, if not I have some black dye I can use on these small parts.

Probably going to look for seats again this afternoon...may be expanding the search to 4th gen models, as I have found out they will fit without modifications and they look a lot better too.

While out and about today I managed to locate a few more black interior trim pieces...I now have everything except the piece that goes in the trunk along the back wall behind the tail lights. I'm probably going to wait to install these pieces until I find that last remaining piece...it looks good with the mix-match interior right now, but I fear having it all black except that one piece will look odd.

Still in the market for new seats and door panels...found some really nice panels today, but again I was foiled by the power windows. Finding a used set with manual window cranks seems to be nearly impossible.