What's new here? For the summer of 1997, here are some of my projects Have been working on the Healey for the better part of the summer. I decided that the car was just too hot to ride in, so I decided to pull the transmission tunnel and seal it up. But once you pull the tunnel, you should clean it up, so I scrubbed all the grease off it. And then I noticed that the carpet was torn everwhere, so I pulled it out to look at it. Then noticed that the floor pans were pretty dirty and wanted to clean them. But realized that floor pans are supposed to be the same color as the rest of the car and mine were still red. So I decided to repaint the floor pans. But there was alot of tar like sealant on them (an attempt to cut down on heat by a previous owner), so I had to scrape them off and wire brush them. Then I noticed that the metal underneath was pretty rusted. The holes under my feet hadn't gotten bigger, but were there nonetheless. So I ordered replacement floorboard pieces for under my feet and had them welded in. I looked into sand blasting, but it cost too much and would make a terrible mess. So I am going to sand it by hand. But how can I work in a dark shop? So I hung a light. Then I could see that I needed more storage space in the garage, so I put in an attic shelf for most of the junk. But since it was too hard to reach for everyday stuff, I built some shelves. I couldn't work off shelves. I needed a bench. So I bought it, a 9' piece of counter top which was on sale at the home renovation store that someone ordered and didn't buy. and built a cabinet to put it on. Then I had to hang a peg board above it (for tools, you know). And  I put up some more shelves next to the bench for good measure. Tam liked the bench so much that she asked me to get its other piece for her laundry in the basement. so I did, but it was 12 feet long and too long for the basement, so I switched it with garage piece and then built cabinets under it for her laundry. Then I thought "how can I work in the garage on a bench when the light is over the car? So I wired the garage with 4 plugs over the bench, a bench light overhead with a switch on the bench, one over the car with a switch by the garage door and a master box (to become a fuse box when I run a conduit for hard wiring from the house) by the garage door, with another plug. Well, the heat in my car isn't bothering me since I can't drive it. I am going to paint the floor boards later this month and then get a new carpet set. But I don't want to install it myself and live with a half done job, so I contacted someone who will put it in. Big $$$. But the interior also looks pretty bad so it is time for new upholstry. And I might as well get the leather that I always wanted, right? So that comes after bonus time, which is this winter. And the dash? how can I live with that? So I have found a place on the web that explains how to refinish it, which I will do this winter after I replace the wiring. (the dash lights don't work and I am tired of dash fires) which makes sense to do, since I am going to be in there anyway. But I should fix the transmission which pops out of third gear before I get new upholstry. Makes sense, right? As for the bumpy ride ... maybe another time.

Then I thought the floor sure is beat, and could use a new coat of paint. Since tam wanted the garage painted anyway, so I might as well kill two birds with two stones (lots more than two, actually). So I rented a power washer to wash down the garage and then did the floor. But it didn't get out the grease, so I got some grease remover and scrubbed it down with at wire brush. But it didn't get out the dirty stains, so I got some muric acid and washed down the rest.

But now all the garage stuff is in the front yard, along with my new bench which I had to dismantle so I could paint the floor. And the floor needs to dry for at least 4 days before it could be painted. So I went down to buy paint for the floor. "What color do you want", they asked. Color? for the floor? I picked through the blues (what other color is there?) and found one.

But if I am going to paint the floor, I should get the best, right, so I bought epoxy paint, with hardeners which takes longer to set up, so my car is going to be out in the rain for 7 days after I paint it. And I might as well paint the cement steps by the porch, so I did  that as well.
But the garage was beat, so I thought I would paint that as well. So with the garage painted, and the floor painted it was time to to turn back to the car.

Now it was time to start on the car. Click on the picture at right to see a detail of the interior work.  (Interior Work)

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