“I HAVE FOUND YOU A NEW-OLD-STOCK, CORRECT COMPRESSOR STILL IN THE BOX FOR US$600, PLUS $70 POSTAGE”
rang the supplier who told me the old fabric was “the last of the old roll”. The new roll must have had more dye so when placed together they looked a different colour. Bummer.
The culprit wasn’t prepared to pay for the car to be reupholstered, just for his error. I didn’t want mismatched sections so this went on for six months.
Ray Webb Senior from Pentastar then rang to say my armrests were ready and what colour did I want them? I asked, “Why the question?” as they were finished in a shrink-wrap heat moulding. Ray said they all came white and he could colour code them to any shade I wished.
I then sent the original door card and the new vinyl wrap to him so he could match everything and finally get my interior all integrated.
Meanwhile my wife had complained that every time I take my car out it is summer and 100 degrees. True. She wanted the air conditioning it came with repaired.
A bit of research pointed me towards a Mazda 6 compressor for $150 dollars. Small, efficient, with easy to find parts. But my project manager from ELKO Valiant Spares begged me not to proceed. He said I had worked so hard to get the car restored in original condition and the compressor would be out of place, not to mention the cost of custom hoses and brackets.
Eventually he found an old 1970s air compressor for $450, but it was rusty, greasy, had oil everywhere and I didn’t want it on my car.
Next month he rings, saying: “I have found you a new-old-stock, correct compressor still in the box.” It was in America on eBay, for US$600 or about $900 Australian, plus $70 postage. Quite a jump from the original $150! However it is finally installed and works a treat.
Once the car was at running stage I thought about a new battery, but wanted to keep the appearance of the original. I rang Ariel Batteries who advertised lead versions. They told me they would drop the new ‘sealed for life’ battery into one of the old massive boxes and install fake cells for appearance sake. Once he saw my car he fell in love with it and insisted on manufacturing an original product (“The last bits left,” he said, “I saved them for you”.) with fully-functioning lead-acid cells and old style stickers. More maintenance, but better – I think. It is still working.
The suspension needed replacing and Brad McKenzie from Valiant Spares imported