What's in the workshop - Dolphin Grey time

[MikkiJayne]

Many of you saw what I'd been up to for the last month over the weekend, but for those who weren't at the meet, here's a run-down of what I've been doing on my own Dolphin Grey S8

Here she was with Vera's Pelikan Blau:



Gorgeous, but not very exciting

Some of you may remember this dead FE that I picked up locally from this thread





I liberated it's red interior. Red with grey. What were they thinking?



You may also remember this 2.8 FWD with a blown-up gearbox which I bought for its black interior



More of that later.

I stripped everything out of mine and got cracking...



I found the infernal rattle in the centre console - a loose snap nut with no home!



First job - get rid of the damn shifter interlock. This thing drives me nuts when putting a D2 on the lift (which I do a lot!) because it stops you shifting in to neutral without the key. Of course if you leave the key in, the car's electronics stay awake so the battery goes flat after a while. I can't open the doors on the lift so I have to leave the window open, and if I'm working on one for a few weeks it then gets dusty inside. Its all a big pain in the posterior so its getting deleted from mine.

This is the cable to the ignition barrel



and this is where it attaches to the shifter



With the key in, remove the circlip and slide the cable end out



One bolt removes the clamp from the shifter housing



This lever needs to go as without the cable it just flops about. Not sure if it would lock the shifter unintentionally, but it might rattle. I had to cut this up with the dremel and take it out in three bits.



All gone. I replaced the top aluminium cover while it was off since the original was all corroded and nasty.