Changing heater (day 3) and preparations for the NvhO

With the majority of the work done the only things that remained for the Sunday morning where rather straight forward. Before I put the dashboard back in I had removed the gearlever, just to be sure it didn’t damage the dash. The other reason to remove it was to enable me to put the gearlever surround back without damaging it. Good plan, but not good enough. The surround wouldn’t go in place without putting a lot of strain on it. As I didn’t fancy damaging it in the process, I removed the bolts from the handbrake lever. This gave me just enough clearance to manoeuvre the trim back in place.

After that it was time to put the steering column cowling back in place. While cleaning it I discovered quite a lot of dark grey dust on the inside. Closer inspection revealed some wear on the top of the cowl where the steering wheel boss had rubbed along it;

To prevent this happening again I loosened all the bolts on the steering column and made it as long as possible before retightening them. At least there is some clearance again. With that sorted the only things left were the seats and the steering wheel. They went in without a problem. I even found time to polish the steering wheel’s spokes;

Yesterday afternoon I took half a day off from work for the finishing touches. Filled up and checked all the fluid levels and took ‘t Kreng for a short test drive. I think she should be OK for the Nacht van het Oosten on Saturday. Despite the rather bad weather she behaved rather well. She even managed to kick her back end out quite viciously on a slippery bit of road. Luckily the tree was standing far enough from the road side ... just!

On returning home and after the engine had cooled a bit, it was time for a check of all the coolant connections and the heater. I didn't find any leaks, knock on wood ...