After the GT made it safely home, I had the car looked at closely to identify any lingering issues before starting on the Airconditioning and Interior reburbishment. On the underside, I wanted to replace most of the bushings and the shop had a hydraulic press which made bushing removal a snap. The Differential bushings were the only bushings which had to be taken out with heat and a jack hammer. Every other bushing in the suspension responded well to the hydraulic press. The bushings really needed replacement. Only 25,000 miles but the rubber bushings were shot pretty bad. I bought a set of urethane replacements and with the use of the press, everything was very smooth.
Attached are some pictures of old verses new bushings and the "caveman" extraction method when the differential bushings were involved.
Interior Door seals>>>>>>> unfortunately, when I was driving in the rain with the GT to the interior shop, I noticed two things>>>>>> the Darn car leaks so bad it would prompt Noah to build an Ark!.... and .... the car is friggin HOT on the inside. Even with the airconditioning, the car is hotter than a few women I knew in college during exam week. In the summer I could imagine the heat would be unbearable to tolerate for very long.
The interior shop looked into the water leaks and quickly found the problem. Many outside door and window seals were nver replaced and had decayed after many tears of use. HMMMM..... got me wondering about the paint shop which was supposed to replace the rubber and install new seals. Well, that never happened> Big lesson learned about using a shop far away from home.
I figured it was time to really fix them so I didn't ruin a perfectly good new interior.
The airconditioning system is another story..... but fair warning.... the solution I chose is not for the purists. They would be very upset with me. But Alas, "THEY" are not driving it ;)
to be continued....
