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Thanks for the kind words tbirdz12!

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did you get this sourced Bruce?

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I have been waiting for a few months for the turbo button and the TRF back up bottle stencils to be reposted.

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Thanks for your story. I would love to hear more about you adding a vacuum trunk release. Our Riviera has one, it is so handy. What did car did you scavenge the parts from for the job?

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I spent many many hours looking on the internet for those clips with no luck. There is nothing on Restoration Specialties even close. Fortunately for me Eric had just picked up a car to part out and the trunk was a mess so he cut the area the letters were out of the trunk skin in one sheet then removed the letters and clips from pushing gently from behind. My letters were in excellent condition but the clips were all badly rotted and most all of them disintegrated when removing the letters. The emblem adhesive Eric mentioned has been used with good success.

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One thing that our cars are lacking is stuff we take for granted these days. A place to put a bottle of water or cup of coffee plus a safe spot for your cell phone. Since my car is a 4 speed, I need to have something out of the way of shifting: so something ‘off the shelf’ from the automotive aisle will not work. I decided to design a small console that would fit between the bucket seats – yes that tiny gap! It is just 3 ¾ inches between the seat frames and the cushions squish wider when you sit on them: but it can be done! I also designed it to have a power port too but went old school with a classic 12 v port that I can use a USB adapter in for cell phones or what ever gadget the grand kids may have in the back seat. The unit is easily removable with a quick disconnect on the power feed that tucks in under the carpet so I can be ‘stock’ at a show if I desire.
I had planned on covering it with original seat vinyl but realized it was too bulky and busy looking with the pleats, so I reverted to using some of the non-woven type of all-purpose ‘carpeting’ sold at swap meets. I decided the console would look nicer with a kicked out front. Lower photo: since we installed a factory clock – I had a factory F-85 logo from the filler plate that I could repurpose so I routed and recess section in the console face to accommodate that so it would recess in instead of just sitting on top of the carpeting. It is so narrow I actually had to thin out the sides to accommodate the square center pocket for the cell phone and there is no room for a coolie on your can in the ‘cup holder’ so I insulated that inside the console. If the phone needs charging the power cord does not need to be draped from the dash past the shifter this way!

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The kick panels are only pressed board and had seen a fair bit of water damage on one side and physical ‘foot’ damage too. Apparently, you can get ABS replacements and you certainly could not tell they were not factory once carpeted and installed. Instead, I decided to use my paper-mache skills and used thinned wood glue and newspaper scraps to fix the splits and reinforce the spongy spots of my original ones. I recovered them with the extra carpet I purchased but instead of just a straight stitch along that edge as from the factory: I hand sewed with an overlap stitch along the edge to stop the separation when removing and re-installing the panel and you cant see the stitches on the carpet side.

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Since I knew the hump area would be an issue, I started at the dimmer switch for alignment as that hole was cut out at the factory. I then used the heal pad and mass backing placement to install around the gas pedal stud. I used washers and vice grips to hold everything in place as I went along as well as bolts into the seat hold down nuts in the floor. I figured I would have to do some artful snipping to make the carpet fit the hump area, but it was not really a problem and although it ‘does not fit like a glove’ and am happy with the result. How ever the overall fitment of the carpets is very disappointing. The back seat carpet that has nothing to do with the front seat is the worst fitting piece. None the less, the carpet is in done and it looks reasonably good, unless you look really closely.

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I mentioned I had replaced the carpeting but did not elaborate. No one makes carpet sets for the 4 speed cars. The problem is that the 4 speed cars have a much larger shifter tunnel/hump than the automatics. All the car bodies started out as automatic floor pan configuration and if a car was ordered with a 4 spd manual the smaller hump was cut out. That job was done ‘rather roughly’ making you question if in fact you do have an actual ‘factory 4 speed’ car when you first see it. The hole is irregular and the larger hump was overlapped and welded in and sealant putty is troweled on. Further to the lack of availability of the 4 speed carpet set, the dark red of the factory carpet is also no longer woven (we ran into this same problem with out 61 Fiesta wagon) however the red that is available coordinates well with the rest of the red interior. So, I ‘bit the bullet and ordered a set of 63 ‘automatic’ carpets and hoped I could make them work. I also ordered extra carpet to recover my kick panels and the bottom edge of the door card that is carpeted. We completely lined the floor of the car with Dynamat sound deadening mat as well as an additional heat reflective product on the firewall and into the foot well of the floor board area.

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Wow, I am so behind in posting here! I apologize for that: I do want to have our progress on here to help others should they have any concerns. We finally started the Jetfire in November (2020). We were so fortunate to have our good friend Terry B who is a ‘mechanic by trade’ and a classic car guy join us for the occasion. So glad he did as he helped us with a few problems including a coil situation: and we learned ‘something new’ about coils today in the process. Jetfire’s have so many tubes and connections: so many places for leaks so it all seemed so daunting. Yes, we did have some troubles and leaks but thankfully none directly related to the Turbo’s connections. Everything sorted out, ran the car for about a half hour or so ‘breaking in’ the cam. We did not get the brake fluid filled and bled so a test drive will be another day. We did not have any muffler, just a 4-5 foot section of exhaust pipe connected to the header pipe and I was surprised how much sound the turbo supresses. I certainly do not need to purchase a ‘quiet’ muffler when we get to that job!

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