Restoration, 2020
Speedometer faceplate
As an USA car my car has a miles speedo. Here in Finland we use kilometres. These 20 years I have used small stickers on speedo to show 60, 80, 100 kph. Now I decided to do something prettier. I know it would be possible to purchase kph speedo, but there is an another problem, my speedo does not show 1.6xkph=mph but about 1.4x. Maybe wrong ratio speedo cable adaptor or something else. So to get exactly correct speedo, I first recorded where 40-120kph are in my speedo, using GPS. Then I removed and dismantled the speedo and scanned the original faceplate. It did not succeed because faceplate is not flat but curved and scanner only focuses to flat. Then I took a digital photo of faceplate and edited it in PhotoShop to match my 40-120 (and 120-200 estimated) kph recordings. Then I printed it on photo paper and cut it out leaving small tabs to clue them to backside of original faceplate. And of course I had to cut openings for odometer and trip meter plus warning lights. So no change to original faceplate, in case someone wants to get back to it. Then everything back together and I think it looks quite ok.
Brake servo and master cylinder swap
During 6 months winter hibernation brake fluid container went empty. No leaks under car nor in engine bay, so it was common problem fluids leaking into brake servo. After adding brake fluid there was a loud (could be heard in cockpit) grunt/chuff when pressing brake and spongy pedal (air in the system). Maybe it could have been repaired by emptying servo and bleeding system, but I decided to order a new servo and master cylinder, to be sure. It was quite a job to swap servo, partly because my own mistakes (vacuum hose cut too short etc.). After installing master cylinder and trying to put clevis pin (old) to connect brake pedal to master cylinder fork (new), I noticed that it won't fit. Had to take it away again and measured the fork holes. They were 7.9mm when the clevis pin is 8mm. Nice. Specially to notice that after installing and crawling to pedal box. Well, I drilled fork hole to 8mm and then clevis pin went into place ok.
Now everything works fine, little chuff from the servo if you listen next to it but not so loud as it was before. I guess that is normal when air rushes into vacuum. I wonder if it was leaked fluid or what making that horrible grunt before.
