what i learned today, apologies to the experienced Options

[type47]

the other day i removed what i thought was some unnecessary wiring in my car. they were wires that, frankly, just didn't go anywhere i thought. then upon starting the car to drive to a local car show, the tach was dead, the oil pressure gauge was dead and the alternator light was glowing brighter that Rudolph's nose! oh no, what did i do? so a couple of hours over a couple of days, i started tracing continuity on all the wires of the dead instruments, etc. no problems found. took down the fuse panel to trace the wires and later noticed that S9 (number 9 fuse was blown).

#1) when S9 blows, instruments don't work

so i put everything back together, theory says it should run as before. new S9 fuse. test drive (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif) was fine. at the beginning of the drive while on the interstate, it "snowed" like a blizzard (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif) there was all this stuff flying out of the vents at the front of the dash. consistency something like sand but a bit like laundry powder. i figure it was some media used to blast the car in its restoration, man that stuff covered everything. after all this time, why did it come out now?

#2) car was "sand" blasted which goes along with a paper i have that the factory color was grey and the present color is Bahia Red.

i hooked up/replaced the cylinder head temp gauge and have questions about what readings i should be getting but that's going into another thread or will search past posts.

#3) car is ready for the ECC Sept 15th if i don't mess with it.

now i know that you more experienced 914er's probably knew the S9 thing, but maybe a new owner won't panic when all it is was a blown fuse.

#4) check the simple things first before you spend all that time tearing the car apart to try to find a fault that isn't there. but i didn't know about S9 so i'm not going to beat myself over it, i learned alot in the process.