Happy Easter, Passover or Hajj to All,
My employer - and I realize how lucky I am to have one right now - is closed today, so no Zoom meetings or conference calls to attend. I therefore sauntered into my (cold!) garage to have a poke around, no particular goals in mind.
First thing I saw was this:
It's a 15-20 year old, no-name Korean tire ... and not that I
would have driven on it, but ...
I'd figured some time ago with this project that I'd wait until it is truly close to becoming roadworthy before replacing the tires, what with all the hyperactivity nowadays about tire date-codes, although these photos do lend some credence to that line of thought, huh?
So what's a brief, satisfying and happy little job I could attend to? The sentence I'm about to write will amuse the veterans here no end:
I have a set of new cooling/heater system hoses and heater valve at the ready and the engine is out, so why not replace those two hoses that connect to the heater core ... nice 30 minute, feel-good project?
Not so quickly, Grasshopper. The dash is going to have to come out, no way around it, especially since in looking at the hoses, the old coolant residue within shows considerable engine oil emulsification; I'm now thinking it was a failed head-gasket that took this car off the road. The two hoses are swollen and greasy; leaving them alone isn't an option.
I'd already read and printed the Jim Pasha article on removing the 924/early 944 dash and considered either some sort of home-brew dash rehab ... mine is
awful ... or the "better" dash cap, or sending it to a trim shop like the guys in Dearborn, MI, but "the plan" was to get the car driving before I attack such aesthetic considerations and pull it when I get my cracked windshield replaced.
This being a Holy Day, I'll quote my good friend Vito, from Queens, NYC:
"Man plans, and God laughs".
How will I spend my day off? NOT pulling the dash to get to the heater core (which will also want replacing). My back hurts, it's cold out, and ... first world problems, the good kind we should all be grateful for in these strange, dark days.
John