What did you do to your 2002 today !

[zinz]

The Inka car has been reading hot on the gauge, so tonight I pulled the cluster. I needed to change the broken speedometer anyways. Added a pigtail ground to the back of the cluster and cleaned the main ground under the dash. That seems to have solved the temp gauge issue. 
 

I drove it out onto the county road at highway speeds and everything seems to be happy. Tracks straight and no odd vibrations. Topped it off with fuel and headed back to Barney’s to tweak the hot idle setting. 
 

It was hunting just a bit at hot idle and the idle speed was low. I gave the adjustment in the Tuna Can about an 1/8 of a turn and adjusted the idle stop a little bit. It seems happier now. I’ll recheck the timing and might need to re-tweak it, but right now it’s pretty smooth. 
 

 

 

Looks like it’s about time to bring it back home. It’s such a joy to work with Barney and his shop, he really has been a generous soul to help me out so much. I have 5 speed swap plans, so I’ll be back before too long. 
 

Ed Z

 

[Dave919]

Nice - I nestled to do that for my temp gauge

[its55]

6 hours ago, zinz said:

The Inka car has been reading hot on the gauge, so tonight I pulled the cluster. I needed to change the broken speedometer anyways. Added a pigtail ground to the back of the cluster and cleaned the main ground under the dash. That seems to have solved the temp gauge issue. 
 

I drove it out onto the county road at highway speeds and everything seems to be happy. Tracks straight and no odd vibrations. Topped it off with fuel and headed back to Barney’s to tweak the hot idle setting. 
 

It was hunting just a bit at hot idle and the idle speed was low. I gave the adjustment in the Tuna Can about an 1/8 of a turn and adjusted the idle stop a little bit. It seems happier now. I’ll recheck the timing and might need to re-tweak it, but right now it’s pretty smooth. 
 

IMG_0992.MOV 23.43 MB · 2 downloads  

 

Looks like it’s about time to bring it back home. It’s such a joy to work with Barney and his shop, he really has been a generous soul to help me out so much. I have 5 speed swap plans, so I’ll be back before too long. 
 

Ed Z

 

 

 

There's also a ground wire (on my '72) hidden somewhat behind the voltage regulator.  Cleaning that one is what eventually corrected by gauge readout.

 

 

[its55]

10 hours ago, Mike G said:

Weighed it

 

 

 

With fuel?  Fuel and driver?  ...

 

[Mike G]

3 hours ago, its55 said:

 

With fuel?  Fuel and driver?  ...

 

full tank, no driver. Tii engine, 5 speed, sound deadening, etc. 

[HobieDog]

16 hours ago, Mike G said:

Weighed it

 

 

Cool.  That’s interesting.  I’m surprised to see such a variance across left and right sides, especially considering the full tank in the back right.  Wonder what accounts for the differences 

[Mike G]

8 minutes ago, HobieDog said:

Cool.  That’s interesting.  I’m surprised to see such a variance across left and right sides, especially considering the full tank in the back right.  Wonder what accounts for the differences 

I was surprised as well. The battery is in the trunk on the drivers side. I didn’t check that all the springs had seated correctly after jacking the car as I was more interested in the over all weight, so that could contribute too. 

[Steve76063]

On 10/2/2023 at 12:36 AM, Lucky 7 said:

Upholstery work continues. The headliner and pillar covers are in, and last weekend I finished the dash. It was a bit of a cluster since I paid somebody to cover it, but they shit their pants and everything below the tray was crap. Glovebox and climate controls didn’t fit and it didn’t look great. I only paid half, then I reworked the whole area and am happy with the result. 

 

This weekend I started on the armrests. I’m still learning to sew, so this is the first French seam I’ve ever done. 

 

I covered the rears first because they’re easier and I’d like to learn on something I’ll see less of. The end result was very promising. 

 

Then it was the drivers door, which is much more complicated. The seam is curved, which is a pain I learned. 

 

Frenching it was hard, but I did okay. I also laid two stitch lines where the cover will meet itself. The plan was to butt trim the vinyl at that seam and do a steering wheel style hand stitch to close it up. 

 

So much careful stretching and glueing, but I got there eventually. 

 

It’s not perfect, but I’m actually really happy with the result. Considering I didn’t know what I was doing, I’m proud of my work. Next up is the passenger handle, most complicated of them all. Then custom door skins, then custom carpet kit, then custom back seat…

 

The good news is I’ll probably be really good at sewing by the end of all of this. 😂🤦‍♂️

Where did you find out how to French Seam?  I've got a project that I'll need that for and could use some guidance. 

[Lucky 7]

Yeah man, happy to help.  Keep in mind that I’m just leaning, so my process may be far from correct. I did watch some YouTube videos, so I can’t be that far off.🤣

 

Here’s how I did it:

 

Step one:  start by running the standard blind running stitch along the seam. Fabric is face-to-face with the stitch line along the back. I’d recommend having the stitch run 3/8” back from the edge (you’ll see why in a second). I learned that for this stitch, match the thread to the fabric, in my case black. 

 

Step two:  spray tack the ends over so they’re down flat next to the seam. Not too much spray, it really only needs to stay down for a minute or two. 

 

Step three: now you run your topstitch.  Contrasting thread is nice, but to each their own taste. I did mine 1/8” offset from the  blind seam. There’s a marker on the deck, but it gets covered by the fabric so I put a tape marker on the foot.  
 

Worth noting for this stitch run, use a longer stitch length. Most home machines max out at 4, use that. You want your French stitches to have some nice separation.  You can see how I’m keeping the original blind seam on my tape marker. 

 

Step four: enjoy!

 

The straight seams are pretty easy actually, but I found that it gets much more complicated when the seam gets curvy.  Go slow and you’ll do okay. 
 

 

Hope that helps. Like I say, I’m just learning, but I’m getting more comfortable each day. At first it took me half an hour to get the damn machine threaded!🤦‍♂️

 

[zinz]

Drove the Inka car back home from Barney’s place. Put some shine on everything. 
 

 

Now to drive it every day and see what shakes out.

 

Ed Z

 

[Steve76063]

14 hours ago, Lucky 7 said:

Yeah man, happy to help.  Keep in mind that I’m just leaning, so my process may be far from correct. I did watch some YouTube videos, so I can’t be that far off.🤣

 

Here’s how I did it:

 

Step one:  start by running the standard blind running stitch along the seam. Fabric is face-to-face with the stitch line along the back. I’d recommend having the stitch run 3/8” back from the edge (you’ll see why in a second). I learned that for this stitch, match the thread to the fabric, in my case black. 

 

Step two:  spray tack the ends over so they’re down flat next to the seam. Not too much spray, it really only needs to stay down for a minute or two. 

 

Step three: now you run your topstitch.  Contrasting thread is nice, but to each their own taste. I did mine 1/8” offset from the  blind seam. There’s a marker on the deck, but it gets covered by the fabric so I put a tape marker on the foot.  
 

Worth noting for this stitch run, use a longer stitch length. Most home machines max out at 4, use that. You want your French stitches to have some nice separation.  You can see how I’m keeping the original blind seam on my tape marker. 

 

Step four: enjoy!

 

The straight seams are pretty easy actually, but I found that it gets much more complicated when the seam gets curvy.  Go slow and you’ll do okay. 
 

 

Hope that helps. Like I say, I’m just learning, but I’m getting more comfortable each day. At first it took me half an hour to get the damn machine threaded!🤦‍♂️

 

I love it, Thanks :).  I'll be practicing and applying this to some leather covered parts in the near future.  I'm curious how thick/heavy the thread is that you used - I'd think you want as thick as the machine could handle.

[Lucky 7]

Everything I read said Tex 70 was the largest recommended for home machines, but I went with Tex 90 and it’s worked fine. I didn’t even need to buy new needles. 
 

Also, I guess bonded polyester is the way to go because it withstands the heat and UV the best.

[Steve76063]

About a month ago, I covered my shift surround with leather and did my first attempt at French Seams...I think it turned out OK, but I really like your idea of tacking down the seam edges before French Seaming - I'll try that on the next part.

 

Before (I'd 3D printed my own shift surround as my old one was ratty, and I added a USB outlet (the square cutout at the back), and fitted a cup-holder (you can see the mount on the right side).

 

After.  Yeah, the curves are tricky, and my seam around the USB cutout could have been a lot better.

[popovm]

Rust repair is coming along. Question: does the upper footwell piece that I have mocked up in metal weld to the frame rail or does it float and only the floor pan is attached to the rail? 

[72pdx02]

Finally completed drivers door outer skin replacement project.  While getting the door ready for paint, block sanding the guide coat revealed some low areas on the bottom edge that required a skim coat and more block sanding. The fresh chamonix paint on the door was a close match to the original color but off enough to bother me. To correct I used a sata mini jet gun to blend the new paint into the old on quarter panel.  Then finished up by wet sanding and buffing. Now that the drivers door is fixed, the dings on the passenger door is going to bother me. I’ll call that “patina” a little longer. 🙂