12/18/11
GTE progress

With the engine installed in the Survivor 250GTE, I decided to focus my attention to the interior for a little bit. The rear defroster fan motor needed to be installed, along with fixing some of the old wiring. After the rear panel was installed, I trimmed in new foam on the rear well arches. The old foam was removed several months ago because it was all loose and crumbly.

The original leather covers were in great shape, but not as pliable as new leather. Most of the wrinkles have come out with the new foam, considering the old leather, but I’ll continue to work the leather as it takes a set.

Some of the carpets pieces were curiously replaced years ago with mats that weren’t even close to matching the original carpets. I managed to find a carpet that was close to the Wilton Wool type carpets and cut them to fit the missing spaces. I’ll take these pieces to my upholsterer to sew new binding on the edges of the carpets.

As I got closer to finishing 2259, Francois and I delivered another GTE to its owner. This GTE has been at the shop for all to long. Through the years, this car has received an engine rebuild, then it got a new interior, and after that, it was painted. The owner was in no rush to get this car back, but as it neared completion, he was excited to get his car back!

This car was one of the first projects outside of my own car I was intimately involved with, and I have fond memories seeing all the parts I had something to do with.

The interior was done by Frank Segreto, and although he passed away a few years ago, his work lives on in this car.

It was sad to see an old friend go away, but it was also nice to send her his owner could become re-acquainted!

I sent Karp’s Brake Service another brake equalizer for them to rebuild, but the large nut that seals the unit was really seized. You can see from this picture of another unit how the pieces fit together. There is a flat section on the equalizer that can be clamped to a vice, but for really stuck nuts, this flat section really gets chewed up. To make things worse, when enough force is applied to the aluminum casing, it can crack.

Ron Karp and I discussed alternatives to chewing up the aluminum case and risking breaking an irreplaceable aluminum casting. One solution was to machine the steel nut out of the body of the aluminum case, and replacing it with another nut. I contacted Morten Mortensen of http://www.montimatic.dk/ the machine shop that made the pushrods for the same unit. Morten owns a GTE and was happy to help make the nuts.

Within a couple of weeks, I had the parts in my hand and now Karps Brake Service has a safe alternative. Thanks Morten!

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