[DeTomaso] If it's broke, don't fix it...

[Christopher Kimball]

As far as the back interior; I know many have said a lighter color makes the cabin seem larger, but lighter colors also show dirt more easily, and besides, I've always loved black leather interiors.   I already have the headliner, sun visors and bulkhead done and I really love the look.  Right now the dash and door panels are in really good shape, so they match the rest of the interior even though they aren't leather (yet).  The seats are Recarro and have multi-colored orange cloth panels running down their centers, which I'd like to replace with green, to match the outside color of the car.

The cable that doesn't work on the heater is just the one that attaches to the level that changes the air flow from floor to defrost, but that seems to duplicate one of the other three levers which changes the flow from defrost to car (which works fine).  I can reach into the engine compartment to flip the shut off valves pretty easily now, so fixing the heater valve in the cab is probably the way to go for me.

Thanks again for all your help.  I hope I get a chance to meet you in person sometime soon!


Sincerely,


Chris
3846
From: JDeRyke at aol.com
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 03:15:35 -0500
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] If it's broke, don't fix it...
To: chrisvkimball at msn.com; jab at cisco.com; detomaso at realbig.com

In a message dated 11/24/07 5:19:33 PM, chrisvkimball at msn.com writes:



That will mean taking the dash out, so maybe while it's out I should get it recovered in black leather to match the headliner and bulkhead......By the way, the lever isn't  broken on my current heater, it's the casing around the cable that broke.  There's a little clamp that holds the cable in place, and it clamps to the casing....



I urge you to consider something other than plain black leather everywhere! I recently worked on an all-black-leather Pantera (including a custom black headliner) and the whole effect was claustrophobic to me. With a   lighter colored headliner, perhaps a lighter colored rear bulkhead, the interior becomes visually roomier and not so somber. One of the nicer Panteras interior-wise uses GRAY leather on the headliner and rear bulkhead. 

As for the cable jacket breaking, those cables can be replaced without removing the dash; possibly by shortening the main wire and loosening the jacket clamp, you could gain enough to not need cable replacement. But as I said, that valve is essentially worthless even when its working factory-correctly. Consider removing it entirely and using some other more accessible valve than your present hardware-store shut-off valves to control hot water flow. Just shutting the thing down entirely fixes the leak and the A/C problem but compromises the defroster as well as the heater. FWIW- J DeRyke








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