So, where do we go from here? It’s legal, and “at large”. Well, I got to thinking, and we know how dangerous that can be.

I finally nailed down what comes to my mind when thinking about the 14, a German FW-190. Well, if a 190 didn’t have wings, but did have 911 suspension. The scents in the cockpit are not new, but somehow doesn’t smell old either. It smells to me like it always has. A hint of leather, pleather, faint petrol, and hot stainless steel, all finely blended into what I think of as “mid-70’s Porsche interior”. If they canned that scent, I’d use it in the Camry.

So, with that in mind I thought why not replace the bright white cabin light with a red one so it wouldn’t kill your night vision if you had to turn it on. It works great and looks cool. But you say “you can’t see stuff on the floor”. True, but I’m going to mount a flat blue LED strip on the front seat rail on both seats. There’s a face that angles down and forward, a perfect spot to put them. The floor mats I’m using now are black deep pile that just soaks up light, so I think I’ll be able to see stuff on the floor without the floor reflecting a bunch of blue light. I’m working out how I’m going to tap power from the cabin light (so it works with the cabin light), but still have the ability to turn one or both sides off and still have the red light on. It’ll come to me in a doodle or something.

One big concern I have is fire. I almost hate to write that, but I did replace 95% of the fuel system. I’m very confident with my work, and certified mechanics have looked it over and did not find fault. Still, I have been thinking heavily about fire supression. So, anyway, I got a car rated B and C fire extinguisher. It looks pretty cool next to the gear shift. The mount came with velcro already to stick to loop carpet. It’s not going anywhere and gives me peace of mind now.

Brake lights are now LED, and are very red. The incandescents washed out the red lenses and looked kind of orange-ish. They’re very bright poppin red now. It’s a shame they didn’t have any ambers for the turn signals, or white for reverse. I’ll look at another store tomorrow. I’d like to upgrade as many lights as possible to decrease the electrical load. The LED gage lights are now a definite must.

I tanked up again today and zeroed the GPS. If I go farther than 100 yards, I fire up the GPS to log actual mileage. I just don’t trust the VDO odo for gas mileage. My fuel gage (yes, the new one) is reading 3/4 when I know it’s full, so I’m going to have to do some testing and logging. I’ll drive it for the next couple of days and tank it up again and run the “in town” mpg. I have a road trip coming up at the end of the month that is going to be mostly interstate speeds for long stretches and I’ll run the “highway” mpg numbers.

I still need to wire in the power connection for the GPS dock. I have it ready to put in, but what I don’t have it daylight, and warm outside air. The cigarette lighter power port adapter will just have to do for a while.

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