Two steps forward, one step back…

Spent the day at the shop – no pictures, camera batteries died – and got a lot of detail stuff done. The hood side panels now have their chrome arrows, handles and corner pads. Headlights are connections are wired in. The wiring harness is almost completely in. Small firewall clips holding the wiper/oil pressure line and the throttle cable are attached. All harness clips and the speedometer clipped to the firewall. Instrument and tail lamps work, although I've got a ground problem with the tail lamps. That's typical with new paint. Restorations have put a lot more paint on the body, creating ground problems. Some people use star washers to cut through the paint, so I'll try that.

The bad news is that I fried the ignition cable. Mine was 2" or so too long to start with, which created a bend in the cable under the dash. As a result, that cable was touching the hot lead to the headlight switch when I connected the battery. I knew I had a problem when smoke started pouring out of from under the dash! Disconnected quickly, but the damage was done. The wire from ignition to coil was fried. Fortunately the wiring harness is still OK.

They are not easily repaired, so I need to find a new one. Of course I saw some at the POCI convention flea market last month and didn't buy one!

A frustrating day!