Jan 04 2007
Please Have A Seat
Just a quick note to say that the seats I found for Roxy arrived today! I am very excited because they are actually in better condition than I expected. There is always a bit of nervousness when you buy things site unseen off the Internet from someone on the entire other side of the county. In this case it was even worse because we are talking about car parts that are more than 30 years old. In this case though it looks like all went well. The seller, Oscar from San Francisco, was great about everything and came through with flying colors. Now I just need to install them.
In reality the seats are one of those kind of linchpin things that a lot of other jobs center around. I was waiting until I could find some seats to repair the floors. With the seats out it will be much easier to tackle that job. And, once the seats go in I can reinstall the center console. The console is currently of the car and can’t go back in because the seat that is in the driver’s spot right now is too big. Once that is gone though I can put the freshened console in. And when the console goes in not only will the gear shift become more stable, but I will be able to install a radio. When the radio goes in I will take care of cleaning up the rest of the under-dash wiring too. And because there will a radio going in, I will fill the speaker holes in the doors. So you see, that simple thing of replacing the seats is going to have a far reaching effect.
I also have found some sun visors for the car. Not only will that just make the inside look a little better and more finished, but it will be a big help when I am driving to work in the morning and make the turn that faces me square into the sun. At the moment I become near blind when the sun hits me. The visors will be a worthy way of preventing, or at least minimizing, that. The other thing I am thinking about buying is new seat belts for the front seats. At only about $45 they aren’t expensive and the current one are old, seem to be dry rotted, and the reels more often than not don’t retract.
After that the only other significant item I am looking for is a new trunk lock. Really all I need is the tumbler and the key since the latch itself works fine. Basically I need this so that I can lock the trunk giving me a place to secure things. I need a place that I can lock so that I can haul around tools, packages, or anything else that shouldn’t be easily stolen. Not a big thing but it is amazing how many times you want to make sure you can leave something in the car without it walking away. That was a big issue over Christmas when I was out shopping. Now you know the reason I took the Sebring shopping with me instead of Roxy.
I will post pictures of the seats as soon as I get a chance. The weather here is gray and rainy and not conducive to photography or even car mechanicing for that matter.
And again, just FYI, listening to The Avenue from the album “Voodoo Shoppe” by Cowboy Mouth. A very touching song about New Orleans. Still hits me hard sometimes…
