Today I ended up remaking the top of the shifter as the original one the grain was going the wrong way. Luckily I looked around and found a small piece of black walnut and used it instead of the cherry. It took a while to get it to look like it should be on the top of the shifter, at first it was too long. But after a while of whittling it down I got it the way that I wanted it, and reinstalled the shifter.

Next I decided that I would bleed the hydraulic clutch line and the brake lines. I have been putting this job off for quite a while now. Previously I bought a small device that makes it easier and cleaner for a single person to bleed the lines. It is really nothing more than a small bottle that has a magnet attached to it and a hose with a couple of fittings to go into the bleeders. It worked pretty well and kept most of the mess off the floor.

Once I started it quickly became apparent that I did not tighten down all of the fittings inside the front trunk area. So I removed the fuel tank and went around and tightened all up of the fittings so they no longer leaked and then cleaned up the small puddle of brake fluid.

I discovered that I have a problem with three of the eight fittings that I installed on the flexible stainless lines and they leak a bit. After thinking about it a bit I decided that since I now know the lengths of the hoses that I am just going to order up some pre-assembled ones and be done with it! This way I can get AN-3 female swivel fittings all around and make it easier for installation.

Bit the bullet and getting pre-made flexible lines - call it a lesson learned and keep moving forward!

The throttle cable looks great and moves very smoothly, the casing is about 5/16 " diameter and looks like it will work out great!

I also found all the bearings and seals that I will be using for it. I am trying to be real careful to list all part modifications, parts to be made as well as a list of miscellaneous components.

Next started working to install the throttle cable, got the casing routed from front into the steering rack tunnel, back into the passenger compartment and out to the engine compartment. Glad that I measured closely as it was a very good fit lengthwise.

It was pretty easy to connect to the throttle pedal, however I found that it installed easier if I removed the pedal, connected the cable and reinstalled the pedal. I had to make a bracket to mount the throttle cable near the carbs, this took a number of times to make it and finally got it right on the 4th attempt.

Once in place I wrapped the cable around the circular throttle on the carb and used a magic marker to locate where I had to position the 1/4" barrel. I got out my silver solder, some flux and my small propane torch (used for soldering copper plumbing), practiced on a piece of copper wire, and then silver soldered the throttle cable.

Pretty happy with the results, the barrel end should *not* ever come off now! Took a file and cleaned up any extra solder on the perimeter of the barrel and filed down the protruding wires on the opposite side and got the throttle cable completely installed:

MEC is some nasty stuff, unknown to me there was a little runoff, nothing more than a couple of drops that somehow made it onto one of my forearms. Well I did not notice it for a couple of minutes, when I felt this burning and washed my reddened arm off with some fresh water - caustic stuff!

I wanted to use some clear Plexiglas as the overlapping area of the tinted acrylic was dark enough already and I did not want a 3rd layer of tinted acrylic to darken it even more.

Next I cut a 1" x 1" square of the 1/4" acrylic and glued it onto the inside area of the window. Drilled through all panels using a 5/16" drill, and then tapping the one window with a 3/8"-16 NC tap to mount the rear window latch. I then used a thin jamb nut to help hold the latch in place and replaced the top of the framework of the rear window. Now when the latch is in the closed position the plunger portion of it protrudes through the other sliding window panel, locking them closed.

Here is the latch mechanism installed onto the sliding window:

I then moved my attention onto the sunroof, previously I had purchased a latch mechanism however did not have a mounting bracket. So I spent a couple of hours welding one up and then using the milling machine to remove some areas. I used 1/8" steel all around, the 'L' shaped angle is 1/2" x 1" and about 3" long, when welding up the bracket I used a 3/8" spacer between the two protrusions to keep them spaced apart the correct amount Finally some grinding to clean up some sharp edges and it's ready for installation.

Here is the bracket and one picture showing how it attaches to the latch mechanism:

At my local Tractor Supply they had a new Clarke band saw in which the pulley guard got dented up a bit. I also brought in an ad from Harbor Freight showing the price of a similar saw. In dickering with them over the price I got them to drop $150 from the item, and grabbed it up! The Clarke saw is better quality than the Harbor Freight unit and in looking around it looks like Enco sells a more comparable unit. It took 4 guys to lift it into my truck and is easily over 300lbs.

For Sale:

• Speedway Series #03497 mini-mill (here is review) with collet set and clamping set
• Horizontal/vertical 4-1/2" metal cutting band saw (this is not the one I have but is typical of import units)

The reason that I wanted a locking end is that the cable will be located next to the shifter on my right hand side, it would be difficult to hold the choke cable and turn the ignition key at the same time as the key is located on the right of the steering column.

Here are a couple of shots of the routing of the brake lines along the front suspension:

Drivers Side	Passenger Side

Here are some pictures of the lines coming into the front trunk:

By noon time I had the conversion done and the lines all installed, next onto bleeding the air from the lines, this went well and a couple of fittings had to be tightened up a bit but finally I have working brakes.

I decided to do some more work on the sunroof and mounted the latch mechanism that I previously made onto the rear window frame work:

Next I took a stainless steel bolt and machined it up a bit to work with the factory sunroof catch mechanism. I kinda guessed at what the total length had to be but I figured that I can always make up another one. Here is a similar bolt that it started out being, and the finished part, I mounted it with a rubber washer on the outside surface:

Once the rear catch mechanism was done I looked towards the front of the sunroof, as well as my stash of brass cabinet hinges. I saw some hinges that had potential and sliced them up a bit, cut them down in size, recessed them slightly in the front frame work. Next I modified the ends that go onto the sunroof itself, instead of using all three hinge loops I figured that I would remove the outside two and just use the center hinge loop to work with the part in the framework.

Here is one of the lower front hinges installed:

Here is a picture of the hinge component that I pop-riveted onto the sunroof itself, note the single loop:

Finally I made up a couple of 1/8" long hinge pins out of some 1/8" stainless rod that I had around. In order to insert the pins into the hinges I had to temporarily remove the weather striping around the front of the sunroof. Once the pins were in place I replaced the weather stripping.

Here is a picture from the outside showing the completed sunroof

Went through my mental checklist: engine oil - total of 4.5 quarts I am adding an additional 1/2 quart due to the large size of the oil cooler, almost 1 gallon of straight antifreeze, put radiator cap on, connect battery and charge it up for a little bit, connect the power to the front low pressure fuel pump, add about a gallon of gas into the tank, let the gas line pressure up a bit to push fuel back to the engine - and then ignition!

OK had to squirt in a bit of starting fluid and manually hold the choke all the way closed - then it started up!

I let the engine idle for at least 15 minutes and sat back to listen to the sound. It is kinda different, not quite like a motorcycle, and not quite like an automobile - a bit like a high performance 2-stroke outboard motor. When you get into the throttle it has a loud bark! I may add some more baffles to the spark arrester but for now I like it.

Ok next test the brakes - squishy, then the clutch - squishy. So my wife and I pushed it back away about 75 feet from the pole barn, I got in and found first gear slowly let off the clutch and IT MOVED! Was able to stop it before I hit anything but it was fun. I know that although I only went about 50' that had the brakes been firmer that I certainly would have taken it down the road... And I really need to go through everything first to make sure that every thing is tight, lubed and fit for use - so in the long run it was not such a bad thing...

Will have to bleed the brakes and clutch lines (for a 4th time) to see if I had get a firm feeling on both pedals as well as go around and double check for any leakage.

Here is the finished bracket:

And here it is mounted onto the shifter base:

You see that I recessed the front of the bracket so that the control did not stick out too far, but still allow clearance for the shifter.

Next I routed the choke cable around the back side of the passenger seat, drilled a 1/4" hole to pass it into the engine compartment, and up to the choke on the intake manifold. I then put a wire nut (or whatever they are called) and connected it to the choke lever. Now when I am inside and want to engage the choke I turn the tee handle slightly clockwise, pull it out to engage the choke and then turn the control counter-clockwise to lock the cable in the desired position.

It turns out that I have an intermittent neutral indicator, half of the times it works ok and half times it doesn't. Was not a problem until I tied the neutral switch into the starter circuit. Then today I remembered that I did not connect the wires to the clutch switch. I had wired the circuit up so that if either the engine was in neutral *or* I had the clutch depressed then the engine would start.

It was a simple matter of finally connecting the clutch switch into the circuit. I had began to wonder what those two wires that were hanging under the dash area were for - now I know...

I also started working on an adjustable torque strap. When I drove the vehicle the other day (all of a total of 100'), I noticed that the chain which was initially quite tight, now was very loose. After looking all around I determined that the engine had not shifted backwards in the mounts and the jack shaft did not move forward. The only thing that I could surmise was that the engine rotated slightly in it's mounts.

Had 10 lengths of 2"x8"x16' delivered and my good friend Paul Schreiner of PS Composites came over to help me remove the old and put in the new deck.