904-090
December 14, 2007

The doors get adjusted and re-adjusted about 20 times before I am satisfied with the final fit. We discovered that one of the hinges was installed upside down, so Andy has just changed it. These doors need the inside texture, which will take place this weekend. Final paint will be applied Monday or Tuesday.

We blueprint all these windshield wiper parts for future projects.

As it ends up, we have enough NOS parts for both 068 and 119.

These are the finished parts for 090.

The good news is...040 loaned us a perfect original windshield wiper setup.

The even better news is that through 30 years of collecting this shit, I have enough parts, minus a few brackets, to make windshield wiper arms for 068, 090, and 119.

These parts are really rare. The picture on the right shows the inside fender headlight cover brackets. These little guys slide over the bottom of the covers you see in the picture below. They hold the caps in place.

More fender light covers and the gas cap for 068 ready for paint.

Here are various headlight covers and what they look like after 40 years of road rocks. These have been repaired, and what a great job in getting them to look original...NOT! But they did keep the headlights from breaking.

You can see the steel rivets on the inside of the rim. All 904's should have these wheels, but racing with them is really risky because they are very rare!!

I have been sanding and metal finishing for 4 days, but they are nice now.

The holes are too small to weld, and too big to be covered in paint, so we use a little filler and then urethane primer.

Remember, in Florida or high humid areas, you have to cover the aluminum surface within about an hour of sanding. Otherwise the oxidation will cause a weak paint adhesion.

I have laid both sets of wheels out to remind me how much fun restoring wheels is...yea...right!

Ready for paint and ready for restoration.

Tom's gas tank straps are in pretty good condition. His gas tank needed a complete surface re-do.

Just some detail shots as to where these parts go. The picture on the right is the lower passenger side of the fuel tank and how the strap mounts to the fiberglass trunk.

What condition...what condition was in.

Same ol...same ol.

More junk parts that have to be converted to receive the 6 cylinder engine. These oil lines will be saved for the 4 cylinder engine and we will have to make new for the 6.

Hood alignment is important before the final paint. You'd be surprised on how many tanks are centered in the hood hole. If you're off a little, that's normally pretty good.

The hood has been off and on 10 times. The tank has been in and out more than that to make sure that the strap placement holes all line up in conjunction with the fitting of the gas tank opening (gas cap and the hood opening).

This was the 20th time...o.k., maybe the 4th time the tank has been in and out.

The tank is adjusted with horsehair pads. Thick pads, skinny pads, or even peach fuzz are how the tank is centered. The pads are glued to the inside of the trunk in 4-6 different locations. The picture on the right is the polishing shop down the street. They are restoring the surface of the fuel tank by machine and hand sanding, and hand and machine polishing. The reason you can't see is because the flash caught the floating particles in the air. You don't want to be in there too long without a breathing apparatus.

What you can't see is what you can't hear. These guys have rock and roll music up so loud you wonder how they concentrate on what they're doing. I guess the music takes them somewhere other than where they are. These guys deserve metals.

The straps are tuned up for paint.

Dolphin gray primer is always used before silver. Here are the plug wires, which we make, installed on Tom's engine.

The green tape marks the cylinder where the wires go. I remove the tape when finished.

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