After the chaos of field camp and field work in June and July, August was relatively low-key. I finally had time to work on my own research, and in my spare time I got a lot done towards my goal of selling Klaus the Kar some time soon. I've been slowly working on sprucing him up for that, and I finally feel like I'm close to finishing the things I set out to do.

First order of business was to replace the rusty exhaust system, part of which had literally rusted through:

Next I replaced the broken fuel filler neck, which I'm hoping will reduce the gasoline smell inside the car:

Then I sanded and ground as much rust as possible off of the trunk panels, and painted the inside of the trunk with POR-15, some absurd industrial strength rust prevention paint stuff:

I added a shock brace with a nice battery holder mount to replace the tiedown method I'd been using previously to keep the battery in place, and added some sound deadening below it for good measure.

To finish off the trunk I made a set of new trunk floor panels, which have been missing from my car for years.

Various odds n' ends under the hood: I installed an oil separator / catch can for the PCV hose to vent back into the intake, rather than to atmosphere.

And I had the wheels powder coated, and mounted new tires on them (pictures to come). I also drilled out a new valve cover to mount the coils in a more sustainable way than how I'd done it before. I had the shop throw the valve cover in with the wheels because it was looking pretty ratty, and I drilled and tapped the PCV connection for my new oil separator setup:

Next I painted the brake calipers, and installed new brake drums (also painted):

Continuing with the under-hood odds n ends, I stripped and painted the exhaust header to get it looking nice and shiny again

And my final project of the month, I built myself a new center console, another thing I'd been meaning to do for years.

I originally made the face plate out of wood:

but I wasn't able to get as accurate as I'd like.

So instead I drew up my design in CAD, and sent it off to frontpanelexpress.com.

Each part took me at least two tries, but in the end I think the final product looks pretty good!

I did a bit of work in the beginning of September, and a few things that I just don't have pictures of, but August was definitely full of lots of productive weekends. I can't quite believe that I did all that in like three weekends, but there it is! And of course, all this wouldn't have been possible without Tam's research assistance.