Back to Autohaus, the car went and about a week later I get a call from Preston, our "service advisor" telling me Simon had another look at the car and found the U-joints and Gubios (rubber bushings/flex bushings) were shot, as well as the left half-shaft. With a new half-shaft on order, the drive shaft is off to a shop in Texas for balancing, and we are waiting for the new Gubios and u-joints to arrive.
This is all part and parcel of buying a car with a history of deferred maintenance, and that which was done was done on the cheap.
One other thing we recently discovered is a tear in the top of the left rear seatback. I think it's due to the brittleness of the leather in that area from years of sun exposure. I'll take it to a local upholstery shop to see if they can replace that section, or we may resort to replacing the entire interior at a not insubstantial cost.
The search for an unmolested dash continues...
At the end of the day, Johnny will be a lot closer to his proper self and will provide years of reliable service for us and any subsequent owner long after we are gone, and we've been able to save just a wee bit of automotive television royalty and enjoy the heck out of doing so. Who knows? If we win the lottery we can take Johnny to White Post Restorations for a proper full-blown restoration, cost no object. We're so far underwater at this point, why not spend an extra $100,000 to $200,000 to get things just so?
