Labor Day weekend work

On the Friday before Labor Day Sean and Scott changed the front shock oil and wonder of wonders we now have stiff front shocks! On Saturday Sean and Doug installed the front suspension and replaced the brake pads with some el-cheapo pads so we could drive the car (one of the rear pads was metal-to-metal) and so I could send the old ones into Porterfield to be made into real racing pads). While they were at that I tackled the wiring inside the car and removed or cut back almost all of the unneeded parts with the exception of the power window controls since we haven't yet removed the window motors. I also attached the computers securely so they wouldn't flop around and removed the front amps for the stereo.

I had discovered during the week that Ford F150 shocks were supposedly replacements for the Pugs rear shocks so I headed down to TC's Off-road to get a set of Ranchos. Well once I got there I discovered that a) F150 shocks were not that close and b) the rear OEM Peugeot shocks we have were shockingly stiff compared to the Ranchos anyway (I'd never tried them before) so the good news is we now have 4 stiff shocks for the total outlay of one bottle of motorcycle fork oil!

About 5pm everything was done and we were ready for a road test. We installed the wheels from the parts car since we'd already sold the Pugs wheels for $250 a couple of weeks ago and that's when we discovered that we are idiots. Before we'd sold the wheels Sean and I had tested the black car's wheels to make sure they fit and there seemed to be no problems. Well when we tightened down the wheels we discovered that they didn't quite clear the bigger '88 front calipers and they wouldn't rotate at all! Now the plan is for Sean to call Diamond on Tuesday and find out how quickly they can get us a set of wheels and in the mean time we'll make spacers out of a few thick washers so Doug can get the car onto the trailer and transfer it to his shop to start the process of installing the cage. Oops!

There are still lots of things to do on the car before we're ready including figuring out a way to plumb in the 944 bypass valve I bought for $10, removing the mechanism for the sunroof and windows, cutting or replacing the springs with Volvo ones and getting the racing brake pads made so we're not done by any means but hopefully soon we'll have a running and driving car again!