Just Can't Leave Well Enough Alone!

    Still waiting on the idler arm from out West so I figured I would tinker with a few odds and ends.

    I ordered the knobs that were missing from the dash when I ordered some tie rod end boots and drag link boots from Eckler's. So, I started the day putting those on. For the throttle knob I had to find/make a shaft to mount the knob on. All that was there was the chrome bevel and the cable sheath. I had a grab tool laying around that worked perfectly for a replacement. After taking that apart and slipping the knob on, I inserted it in the hole and that was that. Later I can put the knob on a new cable assemble and use it for a hood release of something.
    Then I had to replace the wiper knob. This too was missing but the rest of the components were there as far as I can tell. The problem I had with this knob was that the hole was for a small shaft and the piece coming out of the dash was about a quarter inch diameter give or take. So I had to drill out the new knob to fit. This was fairly simple and my fears of messing up the new knob were unfounded. It is hard to see in the following picture, but the top right knob is the wiper knob and the bottom left is the throttle knob.

    After that I worked on the shift boot and the front parking/running lights. I waned to glue the boot onto the retainer ring of the shift boot so it would not poke out or leave gaps etc. This took some time as I had to wait for glue to dry and work my way around the ring. So While that was drying I worked on the front lights.

    The front parking lights were loose in the chrome housing so I decided to take them apart to see what was going on. Of course me being me I had to clean paint and rebuild the dang things. The problem ended up being a dried up gasket. I will have to see if I can locate or make them, but I will put it all back together until then.

    Here are the lights in various stages....

Note the old gasket all dried up!

    I painted the inside a sliver I had on hand and found that too dark to be reflective. I went out and purchased a "chrome" paint.

    And here is the shift lever boot ....

Note the ignition switch hanging down... I want to change this out for something more original.

Last but not least ... the new tie rod boots and drag link boots ....