Webasto Goodness

Look what I found!

It's a complete Webasto set, ripped out of a 1989 W124. I bought the set from a club buddy whose shed the set had sat in for god knows how long.

It looks like a retrofit unit, because the control panel features the Webasto logo in the upper left corner. An OEM optional Webasto unit would not have that logo. This should be a working set, though, and compatible with the electronics in place in my car. What I need to do first is put it all together in the car, and then take out just the heater, and have it serviced.

I now have plenty of parts, I would think it's possible I will now have a working Webasto next winter.

Popped Down to the Capital

Today I drove down to Helsinki on business. Paid a visit to Matyas from FinalGear who gave me the bottom half of his old passenger seat. I shall now find out whether its metal structure is compatible with my drivers seat. I'm planning on redoing the front seats of the car. I also received a nice 80s first-aid kit from Matyas, so thank you very much!

I contemplated for a long time whether to drive straight home or go see what downtown Helsinki looks like today. As I was leaving I went ahead and set a route for home. Missed a turn, went "oh ffs" and turned the nav off. Followed the signs as far south as I could. Eventually I ran out of country!

I like to visit Kaivopuisto whenever I'm in Helsinki. In the background you can see Suomenlinna.

Helsinki is an awesome city, every time I'm down there I'm a bit envious of those who get to live there. It's also great for car spotters. Just today, only in traffic I oogled at a Ferrari 458 Italia, CLS (the new one) 63 AMG, and half a dozen Porsches among other things. Good stuff.

Total mileage today: 540 km. Fuel consumption: 11,66 l/100km.

Spring Cleaning 2012, Part I

Today was a fantastic warm and sunny day so it was time for a little spring cleaning!

Tried to do a bit more detailed wash than the first one of 2012, a few weeks ago.

Pretty dull shine, then again the paint isn't exactly prime material for polishing, it's already got some dents and sloppy prepwork.

The beading on this hood is pathetic... I think some waxing needs to occur after I'm done!

First doorstep cleanup of 2012, with water, Autoglym rubber protector and Turtlewax metal polish

Methinks next up is a more detailed interior cleanup. :)

Uninformative Pictures

I realized I hadn't yet posted a picture of the car's interior in proper lighting conditions, where all the changes since day one are visible. So, here it is!

Interior with new switches, retrofit speakers removed and the new Becker Mexico Cassette Diversity

And here is some wheel advice, courtesy of Miami Vice. The look is somewhat familiar! 8-)

Good Old-fashioned Botching

Ever since I bought the car, the rear storage compartments have been mutilated by one of the previous owners. Both of them had their bottoms carved off. The driver side box had most of the storage space intact, only the bottom was missing. The passenger side box is missing everything except the lid. I decided to repair at least the driver side box so that there would be somewhere to store light items such as documents.

You can see through the box into the trunk

Started by cleaning the box

It was pretty repairable

Looked like the the bottom had been carved off with a knife. Why anyone would do this is beyond me. Thankfully the edges were reasonably straight.

Just grabbed any plastic I could find

Cut a new floor for the box

Sanded lightly and painted with some cheap matte black spray paint

Glued it on with dual component epoxy and filled remaining holes with Bostik glue.

Upholstered with a thick black fabric.

Here's how the rear shelf looks with the boxes in place.

I don't have the storage compartments in place atm, though - first I need to source a rattle that's coming from the trunk.

Trip Down Memory Lane

Here's how you listen to your mp3s in the 1980s:

The cassette deck is my dad's original Nakamichi 480. This Japanese vintage audio company made the best of the best; it's the Nikon of cassette decks. The MSRP of the 480 in 1979-1982 was $495; adjusted for inflation, that is about $1350 today. The device features, among other things, dual heads, a silenced mechanism and Dolby noise reduction. Which the texts on the front panel make pretty clear!