Today i finally installed door speakers. Some used kenwood excelon 5x3 coaxials that i bought and replaced the tweeter caps on.
So what i learned was, the reason why sites like crutchfield have such a hard time finding speakers that fit mk1 map pockets is not because there are so few options but because it turns out that the fitment is very close.
My excelons had a rectangular mounting plate, and most of that had to be cut off before they would fit in the speaker pods. Pain in the buttocks.
I initially feared that i had made a horrible mistake because there was a lot of buzzing and distortion but i found the major sources of buzz and after a few hours the speakers had shaken out the dust of their long slumber and right now are sounding pretty decent, if small.
Also it's normal for new capacitors, even film capacitors like i used, to go through some changes when first used. With electrolytic caps it's about forming the dielectric, but even in films you have microscopic points of vibration and physical change.
I'm a big proponent (and foolish collector) of vintage home audio speakers. I know that car audio is a wholly different game and i do try to get lightly used when i get used. In either case, electrolytic capacitors are the first component to fail.
I installed my genuine VDO oil pressure gauge. This one is from their "vision" series and true to it's marketing, it presents itself with an evenly lit dial of almost pure white numbering. Which looks out of place between the amber-on-purpose Defi EGT gauge and amber-and-green-on-purpose Di Pricol boost gauge. I'm going to try replacing the 194 bulb with a 194NA. Yes it came with the little colored condoms, in red and green. the red one produces a pinkish effect.
The fake VDO sender is still attached to the tee on top of the oil filter flange.
Rear passenger side marker keeps going dim, has to be jiggled. must remember to find my can of DeOxit and give it a spray and jiggling.
Found the bulb and holder for hazard switch illumination under the passenger seat. Bulb still good. Hazard switch illuminates now. yay.
Found the bulb holder for the cig lighter / ash tray illumination too. bulb bad. Found a 14v unknown wattage bulb with wire leads in my parts bin, soldered it in, too dim. I should do something with LEDs. I do have a bunch of 180 degree T1 LEDs. I could put a few green ones around the lighter and a few warm white ones around the ash tray, which i plan to use to store the filler cap key or something. Smoking is so 70's.
Wired in my genuine-looking chinese fog switch. This one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/180614374201 -- took a few weeks to arrive from hong kong. Looks great. The locking springs had to be bent a bit to work, just like the genuine-looking chinese headlight switch.
It's a two position fog switch. I put together a Y splitter so that both positions light my period-correct kmart-grade KC Hilites fog lights. No pigtail to match and my relay is out by the battery so i just followed the DIN terminal markings and it works great.
I have lm7810ct regulators in from mouser to replace the regulator on my cluster. haven't done it yet. Tach does funny things, like going to 0 when the headlights turn on. If anyone on this forum needs one, i can drop one in the mail. They cost less than a buck from mouser, and i was ordering $140 worth of other parts from them anyway. It's disgusting that mk1autohaus charges $28. I bought 4 so i have 3 spare.
'rocco-style license plate lights are in - an upgrade because they don't have big chunks missing that let water into the trunk. I have a replacement gasket for the lock/button i need to put in. passenger side tail still needs weatherstripping.
Discovered that the HVAC illumination is also missing. I don't even know what this looks like. Leaning toward four of my T1 warm white LEDs in series + a resistor. iirc their forward drop is more than 3v so they won't need much of a resistor.
Yesterday i also got the driver window regulator working with some squirts from a can of Liquid Wrench White Lithium Grease spray. I found a flexible straw that fit it's nozzle, and was able to direct it's foamy goodness to the back of the regulator track in a few points.
And then i gave the same treatment to the door latch and lock hardware. Works a lot better now. I can lock the door from the inside but i don't get the same positive latch feel as i get from the lock barrel. Something must be bent. And now i have a lock barrel that blackens the key with grease every time. I need to get out the air compressor and flush the barrel with WD40 and then with compressed air. All three of them.
Poured a small bottle ("treats up to 40 gallons") of Diesel Kleen into the full-minus-11-miles tank. I know this is foolishness but please forgive a little foolishness. I figure it's likely more or less the same stuff as diesel purge, which some people burn straight. Noted here for honesty. Wondering if there is something, anything up with my sketchy injection pump. I do have a line on some other turbo spec pumps, but those will need to be re-sealed.
I haven't bothered to re-fill the oil yet. I hope to get over to the House of Hose tomorrow over lunch. I envision myself tomorrow or tuesday night with my halogen work lights over the engine compartment installing new hose. Or maybe just removing the oil cooler and working on it on the porch, and then back to the car. I would really like to turn up on club night (wednesday) with my coupe.
