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, Tue, 30 May 2000 19:28:24
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Pain to find, yes -- but it feels great when you get the car running right, doesn't it?!
Answers/thoughts/speculations:
1) Horns are supposed to be on the splash panel inside the left front wheel arch. The wiring comes out of the harness on the left side of the engine compartment and runs through a grommetted hole to reach them. The splash panels often corrode away, though, so somebody may simply have discarded yours and the horns along with them. If the original mounting is gone, you'll have to improvise something, but you should still be able to pick up the wires where the exited the harness. If you've got an owner's manual or repair manual, the wiring diagram should tell you the colors to look for.
2) I had the louder version of the MSS exhaust on my car but was obliged to add a muffler after the city complained to our SCCA region about noise at some of their events. I haven't really noticed any degradation in performance as a result of adding the second muffler, so I'd say go for it. If you don't have an MSS exhaust already, the easiest thing is just to order the version with two mufflers; I think they'll also sell the rear muffler as an add-on if you already have the single-muffler system. I was in a hurry, though (next SCCA event was coming up) so I just measured length and clearance under the car and then went to Advance Auto Parts and bought a muffler small enough to fit. I hacksawed the last 18 inches off my MSS tailpipe, clamped the new muffler onto the end, added a bracket hanging off the rear bumper mount to support the muffler, and that was it. The total cost was only about $25 and the car *is* a lot quieter (which in turn makes things such as the whine in second gear and the sound of rusty parts flapping in the breeze sound a lot louder, but that's the price you pay!)
3) MSS sells the rocker panels and so does Jack Ashcraft (Jack's are a bit more expensive.) But if yours aren't seriously rusted, you may not need to replace them. Black was the factory color for them, and the jacking plates are *supposed* to be visible. If you don't like the black look, try just cleaning them up with rubbing compound or maybe repainting them. It IS important that they be sound -- they're box-sectioned and provide a major part of the car's structural strength -- but yours sound OK as long as they don't have structural rust.
4) A good upholsterer can custom-cut one for you, or you can get a pre-cut kit from Jack Ashcraft again -- I think his is about $250. Or you can try to do it yourself, if you can find suitable material (try an auto upholstery shop) and are pretty brave (it's hard to get the material stuck down just right and looks terrible if you botch it up.)
The worst part of the job, though, is getting all the old glop off and preparing the surface. The original headliner was foam-backed vinyl cemented directly to the fiberglass roof. The reason they come down is not that the cement lets go, but that the foam deteriorates (pollutants in the air break it down) and the thing just falls apart. Pulling out the vinyl is easy, but then you have to scrape out the foam residue plus all the cement, which is still stuck very firmly to the fiberglass roof... very messy, tedious job, especially if you try to do it all at once. (I used to just carry a scraper in the car, and whenever I'd be parked or waiting somewhere I'd scrape a few more square inches -- eventually I got it all off.)
5) Sorry, can't help you here! But good luck...
, Tue, 30 May 2000 19:28:24
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