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Got my dash painted the other night so I installed it last night, just to get it up off the floor and I was ready for it anyway. I had all my wire bundles set up and temporarily installed in the dash before I painted it, then I taped up the budles and routed everything where I wanted it to go. Well, now my fuel pump switch wires don't reach the dash, must have pulled that a bit when I secured them under the car. I think that I am just going to extend them at the switch, and hope the judges at Pebble Beach don't look under there. I assume none of them will be reading this anyway

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Put things together on the dash while the front seat was out and easy to get underneath. Installed the seat and steering wheel, so I could back the car out of the hangar and sweep the area for the first time in awhile.

Made a few speed runs on the access road - well, up to about 35 mph anyway- and the transmission seems to work OK. The speedo bounces a bit, but that is an issue for another time. I had it running for over a half hour and the temp gauge came up to the middle and stayed there.

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It has been in the 90's all week here, which you Californians and Texans will scoff at (I've worked in the summers in both places so I know) but for us that's what we refer to as "hot". So my work periods on the Ghost after my normal work day, are short and I only get a bit done each night. Tonight I finished wiring the headlights and installed them, now I have lights! I used a relay kit from KwikWire, which is where I got my generic harness too. Halogen headlights, nice and bright. One of these nights I'll park it in front of a hangar and aim them, then put the trim bezels on.

Found the little bolts that hold the glovebox to the tracks, so that is solidly attached again. Installed the lock and the light, that tests OK. I am going to use some toolbox drawer liner inside the glovebox, as the old cardboard liner had pretty much dissolved from the mouse pee.

Tragically, the "universal" bench seat cover that I picked up for $10 doesn't quite fit the front seat, a bit too narrow. I think it will fit the rear, I'll try that later.

Tomorrow if I don't have to run out to western ND to fly thunderstorms then I can go through the park lights in the grille, and then install that. Then we'll be looking good!

I'm going through the grille, since it was in the open end of the shed for 40 years or so it's pretty faded and the Korean War chrome didn't hold well. Nothing is broken or cracked though, so I just need to shine it up somehow. Not sure that new chrome plating is in the budget any time soon, so I thought I'd try to strip off the hazy, yellowed clear coat from the chrome and see how it looked underneath. You can see the difference between the park light housing that I used paint stripper on, vs. the rest of the grille. And you can see how the thin chrome job wore away in many spots to reveal the copper cladding beneath.

Right now I think I will just strip the pieces and put some clearcoat on them, sticking with the "patina" look that everyone loves. Especially those who don't want to spend the big bucks on cosmetics just yet.

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The center ring and the teeth in the grille are real chrome, so I can polish those pieces up like you'd normally do. I'm using some chrome polish and scrubbing it with a scotch-brite cleaning pad - very little abrasive power to that pad. You can see the difference in the picture. It takes the old yellowed laquer off and any rust very easily.

The rest of the grille is the crappy war chrome, the chrome plate layer comes off those parts if a mouse farts nearby. Pretty dicey as to how that will end up looking for now.

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Finished cleaning up the grille and reinstalled it. The headlight trim rings were too bad to save so they are now spray-chrome, don't look too bad really. I have to read up on how to adjust the hood latch, as it won't grab. All I did was disassemble everything and put it back, why would it be out of adjustment now?

My wife says the red inner panels make it look bloodthirsty or something, I think it adds a little jazz.

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The NOS windshield was delivered this week, yay! Expensive but I couldn't find one closer and the shipping was cheaper than driving somewhere to pick one up had I found one. Green tinted, I had the choice of green or another green, I can live with it. I will seek professional help to get this installed, since it seems to be made of unobtanium and I have never done a windshield swap. New gasket from Steele so probably some swearing involved from what I've heard to make it fit. Anyone have any tips on removing the trim pieces before we do the swap?

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Congrats on the windshield!

Re: the windshield. I finally caved and called MM and Kanter, time to let their fingers do the walking as they doubtless have more contacts than I do. JD at MM had two, a used one and the NOS. Price difference was only $150 so I went with the unused one. Price probably high but cheaper than me travelling somewhere to pick one up so went with them.

Figured out my issues with the front turn signals, turned out that the generic harness is meant for seperate turn signal indicators and this car has only one, so when I wired both indicator wires to the single indicator light I was of course hooking the front turn signals together. Duh. So I added a couple of diodes at the junction so that there would be no feedback, problem solved.

Installed the parking brake handle now that I'm mostly done crawling under the dash, I assume that will trigger some sort of meltdown under there again. Note to self, it would have been easier to intall the grommet while the fender was off.

I also moved the steering column up a bit to remove the gap under the steering wheel, that also makes it so the pins on the back of the steering wheel reach the turn signal switch again, so the signals cancel when I turn the wheel.

Then, since it was now dark, I checked the headlight aiming. A little adjustment on the right light and it's ready for the road! I installed amber bulbs in the front park lights, which I think look pretty good.

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