Looks good in the car.

Thanks. I am waiting to test the electrical system and do a few more things before I install the carpet.

Among parts that arrived while I was gone are some Bilstein rubber shock bumpers.

These have the right ID to slide tightly onto the shock shaft, and provide about 1 inch of bump protection. Enough to avoid metal-on-metal if the shocks ever bottom out.

With the rear shock assemblies done for now, I was able to tighten all the hardware.

More parts: stainless steel screws.

These are for the rear brake disks, replacing the originals that were partly mangled.

And more stainless hardware.

These are for the headlamp retaining rings.

So now I have both headlamps installed.

Today was my first play time with spray adhesive (DAP Landau gunk). I started with the dash center plates, which I covered with the same vinyl on my seats and door cards.

I taped together the main left side and the radio block-off plate.

Here are the vinyl piece, taped to keep it straight, and the plates, both already sprayed with adhesive. According to the instructions on the spray can, for "permanent" bonds, I have up to 2 hours after spraying both sides to make the join.

Joined and after initial trim, and compared to the vinyl piece I took off. That looks very crude--perhaps not original?

The vinyl must be wrapped over the edge of the radio plate next to the glove box and around the lock.

A little messy but it works.

After cutting all the holes. Not bad.

Next up was the glove box door. This is a bit more complicated since the vinyl attaches to the cover plate and the door itself.

I also needed to make the perforations line up with the rest of the dash plate. I made a jig to position the vinyl and the glove box plate.

Sprayed.

Adhered using the jig.

Trimmed close for wrapping on 3 sides, and longer on the edge that will wrap onto the door.

Plate edges wrapped.

I used 3M high strength auto tape to attach the plate to the door.

Final product: plate attached to the door, and the vinyl wrapped over the door edge. This should work.

Your build looks amazing. Really well done.

Loving the 2-tone interior.

Your attention to detail is incredible.....

I was definitely going to "ding" ya on points if those perforations didn't line up!
Hey, who does this kind of stuff? haha

I had about an hour today, and felt calm, so I took on the rear sway bar link bushings. As often reported, this qualifies as a true PITA.

Note the one bushing that looks a bit yellow. This is the only "spare part" I got with the car, besides some fuses floating in the center box.

I tried a few things, including simple pressing, that did not work. What did work was inserting the open bushing end at an angle as far as possible, with the bushing warmed up and a bit of grease.

I then muscled the remaining part of the open rim into the link rink, with some assistance from my pry tool (a dull screw driver).

After that is was fairly easy to press the bushing through.

Then I pressed the links onto the sway bar. Helps to twist the link while pressing.

And then I pressed the other ends of the links onto the shock bolts.

That is the last of the chassis work, including brakes.

Can't wait to see your car back on all 4 wheels.

Man, the car looks absolutely awesome. Cant wait to see what is next.

Thanks, guys. It feels good to see progress, but still lots to do. The motor is still a pile of parts and boxes.

I cant wait to see you dig into that. Your work is impeccable. So the drive train should be a real good part to follow.

Satisfying just to see pics under the car—has to be enormously satisfying looking at them in person at this point in your journey.

Inspiring stuff!

The underside is one of my favorite views, since it looks mostly done. Then I look at the interior and feel more urgent.

Speaking of the interior, I made some progress towards that today and tackled the dash top. I masked off the new paint near the areas to get adhesive. More to come about the paint and adhesive...

First step was to spray the dash and underside of padding with Weldwood Landau adhesive.

Padding in place, with lots of overhang on all sides. I started adhering in the center, and then pulled the paper out gradually on both sides.

Padding all stuck down. Very good adhesion.

And then trimmed all around with a new utility blade.

After that, I got out the liquid Weldwood. I decided to do what the factory did and glue down only the edges of the vinyl.

Test fitting the vinyl. Again, lots of overlap.

I taped the ends to add some gentle tension.

Then I first glued along the inside edge, about 1/2 inch below the raised area (and foam padding). Sorry, no picture.

I brushed adhesive onto the dash and the edge of the vinyl. On the first attempt, I realized the adhesive solvent was lifting the black paint (Rustoleum semi-gloss rattle can). I had to clean that up with acetone, and apply another coat of adhesive.

Once the inner edge was stuck on, I brushed adhesive onto the leading edge of the vinyl and the underside of the dash.

While smoothing and gently stretching, I folded the vinyl over the edge and stuck it to the underside. For the defroster vent inner corners, I duplicated the cuts on the original vinyl (bisecting the corner angles).