Exactly a week after I ordered the interior kit, the UPS guy dropped off two giant boxes, with the kit inside. They managed to make it in about three working days! I spent some time going through all the pieces to make sure everything was in order. It is well made, and the mohair fabric is very nice. I am still not sure what to do about the front seat spring. Next week I will talk to the vendor to see how much it might cost to have one custom-made based on my original spring.
I was never really satisfied with the color of the special high-temperature paint that I had used a couple of years ago to paint the exhaust manifold. It was supposed to to look like unpainted cast iron, but it had more of a flat tan color. Last fall at a swap meed I bought a can of a different brand of exhaust paint, which seemed to have a more suitable color. Last weekend I took off the exhaust manifold, bead-blasted off the old paint, and re-painted it. The new paint was a lot better, looking almost exactly like the raw iron.
I also used my Dremel tool to slightly open up the cracks in the steering wheel, so that the epoxy putty would bond better. I mixed up a bit of the epoxy and filled a few of the cracks. Once the epoxy dries I will see now good it looks. The putty was rather messy and sticky, and I’ll have to do some some sanding after all the cracks are filled.