I wasted a lot of time working on the cooling system (heater loop). The metal tubes from the engine to the heater core both had some ugly welds on them that I thought were leaking.
I have some good tubes on hand and though it would be simple to swap them. It all went well until I had what I thought was everything disconnected and found that it was jammed between the gas tank and body. The gas tank has to be lowered at least partially to get the tubes out. Some day I'll do that, but this was not the time. I cut the 'bad' sections out of the tubes and joined them back together with some rubber heater hose.
I ran the engine for a while to warm it up and check for leaks. I found the leak. Not the tubes to the heater core, but the heater core itself. Coolant was flowing from the HVAC drain located near the front end of the heater tubing. I bought a new heater core that should arrive Monday. In the mean time I'm going to loop the heater system back to itself, bypassing the core.
Other things done: - Put on some barely used Continental ECS tires JustanOkie gave to me along with some other smaller parts and a few tools. The tires are about five years old and I'll do my best to put some wear on them before the age out.
- Installed a headlight tray on the driver's side along with the plastic support trim behind the bumper and right fender.
- Fixed the cables for the frunk release and found that the cable for the trunk release was missing. I rigged some wire to the rear fender well to have a functional release.
- Bolted a seat in.
- Got the insurance, title and registration done.
- Installed the driver's door from an '04 on to replace the door which has bad paint and no door handles. It's a different black, but works for now. The car is metallic black and the door is plain black. I may have my son in law do some repainting for me because I really like the Basalt Black Metallic and most of the paint on the car is good.
Tomorrow or Friday, I'll drive it to the glass shop and have them fix the rear window.