07-23-2006 - Gosh, It's hot!

After the car gets up to temp, the air flowing into the passenger compartment becomes super-heated after passing through the radiator. On a hot day, it becomes very hot in the car and it is not comfortable at all. So, Sunday I decided that I would make a stop-gap attempt at directing the air out the bottom of the trunk as designed and hopefully eliminate the high temperatures from the passenger compartment.

I placed a sheet of plastic-backed fiberglass insulation between the fuel tank and the radiator shielding and duct taped any openings in that area. Took the car for a spin and found that it helped but not as much as I had hoped. So, I put another sheet of insulation against the back of the dash and sealed it with duct tape and took another test drive. Some improvement, but again, not as much as I had hoped for... I did this several more times, tape and drive, tape and drive and it's now a lot better. There are a couple of spots where heat is still coming into the car, but I think I can eliminate those with another pass of "tape and drive". Still not comfortable, but my keys don't burn my hands when I take them from the ignition.

Late in the evening, Flash came over with his rebuilt and painted pedal cluster. He installed it in the 914 and we bled the brakes. The brakes are fantastic and really much better than they've ever been while I owned the car. The brake warning light was flashing after we completed the bleeding. Don't know if it is because of air next to the sensor, or if it's something else like a bad connection, but the brakes themselves are great.