I didn’t have a huge amount of free time this weekend, but I did get a few things accomplished. First, having recently noticed an unsightly crack in the cover of my air bag while at the same time seeing a replacement for sale on eBay, I changed it out. Just a couple of deeply set screws in the back of the wheel and a single connector. God only knows who effective a 26 year old air bag is, but at least it looks nice now.
New Paint
I also finally received a color matched tan paint I had ordered awhile back that I wanted to use in an experiment. This experiment is called “not paying $50 for a single tan door guide casing.” The procedure was to buy cheaper blue guide casing, paint it tan and use it for the time being. I took my paints out to the ol’ paintin’ bricks in my back yard and hit them with several coats. The results looked nice, but I’m concerned about durability. We’ll see once I get them on. Since I had the bricks out, I also took a couple of rustier pieces from the engine bay and painted them black. They’ll go back on when I get the engine bay back together.
The star accomplishment of the day, though, was on the tailgate. Having had no luck finding an actual Volvo latch pin for the back door, I went to the hardware store to try and find a substitute. It turns out that a 5/16th inch diameter wire tab lock pin with the wire tab part removed works perfectly. Click the link to see the video.
So now the tailgate latches and can be opened from both the inside and out. I just have to get the lock connected. Hopefully I’ll either get the link part I ordered or I’ll make one myself. But at least I can open and close the thing.