Wanted to install the seats… how hard could it be? That meant installing the firewall behind the seats first, but to do that meant setting the fuel sensor scaling now since it couldn’t be accessed later. To do that meant turning on the ignition to power the fuel level sensor… which meant installing the dash… which meant installing the rivnuts to keep it in place. However, doing that made accessing the wiper pivots difficult, so the wiper cable and guide was installed… and THEN the fuel level sensor could be dealt with…
… which consumed hours. The sensor is a capacitive-type sensor that has a wire running down the center of a tube. As fuel level changes, so too does the capacitance between the wire and tube. Circuitry inside the sensor is apparently is designed to drive a current-driven pointer gauge directly because it doesn’t put out any voltage. A resistor was added to convert the output from a current to a voltage. Since the gauge allows adjusting “empty” and “full”, the sensor had to be removed from the fuel tank to determine what it output with “zero” fuel, then put in a tall container of fuel (always fun with electricity nearby) and recording the numbers. Since fuel level will be read by the flat-dash, an equation will convert the inverted fuel level-versus-voltage to a reasonable value. After that, reinstalled the sensor, firewalls (both sides), center covers (there’s a lot of stuff crammed under them), then the passenger-side seatbelts… then ran out of time before getting to install the seats.
Speaking of seats, ordered and received some 1″-thick “memory” foam since the existing thin seat padding is just that – thin – so it would be nice to install the foam before installing the covers rather than fussing with it later. Had the 3M “clear bra” film installed on the nose mid-week, which of course came out much better than I could have done – for a price.
Still to do is the Dzus fasteners on the engine cover, then the rear license plate holder. After that… well, final wheel alignment, check corner weights, then it’s off to get the car inspected and registered!