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Forgot something! Also repaired the kidneys one day this summer. Both were dented right in the center, figured they can't be terribly thick so I pulled them out and took a chance on straightening them. Turned out great.

Before: One down: Both polished and back in place:

Good work - the kidney grills have become super expensive to replace.

Thank you! Feels good to make progress on the car, even if only in fits and starts.

Looks great, do you mind sharing your polishing process

I attempted to polish the Aluminum trim around the grills, to no avail

TIA

Nice work Matthew. I like what you've done with the seats and the door cards, and the kidneys look good too. Keep up the good work.

MrE thank you for the kudos!

GRNSHRK I'm happy to share the process. I'll admit up front that I skipped a couple of steps that would have made this a more complete restoration of the kidneys, but nothing that can't be revisited in the future. After reshaping the metal I used a handheld flat lap with an increasingly finer grit, from 220 to 1000, gently working the surface as the metal is only around 24ga and would have been easy to leave too thin. From that point forward I used a pair of bench-mounted polishing wheels, first with Zam polishing compound to remove the sanding marks, then finishing with a red rouge to brighten it up a bit more. The steps I skipped were stripping all of the original clear from the kidneys prior to moving to the polishing wheels, and reapplying clear after final polish. I did not even realize there was a clear coat on the metal until I got up to the last grade of hand lapping, and at that point I was too impatient to stop and redirect

Swapped the thermostat this weekend as the weather was pretty mild. Had a bit of confusion regarding which part it actually required (early or late style), but Brucey came to the rescue after I resurrected a thread discussing the specific t-stat housing I have. It is marked 3.1, rather than 4.1 or 4.2 A as the majority of these read. Thread here for reference: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=23775

Broke the head off of a very crusty and rusty bolt, and the remainder of them put up a bit of a fight but came out in one piece. Thankfully I was able to coax the remainder out without major surgery! Replaced all hardware with shiny new parts, and used some nickel anti-seize on the way in. New thermostat is in now, and the car seems to be happy...warms up fully and maintains temps which it has never done. Definitely runs/drives a bit better now.

Some of the neighborhood deer visiting as I was working

Great job with the interior. Thumbs up!

If that was NZ, that venison would be on the bbq before you could say jack shit.

jps635 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 12, 2019 6:57 am If that was NZ, that venison would be on the bbq before you could say jack shit.

hahahaha...