Andou-san made the most out of the space he had. In front of his house were stacks of tires, some on rims and some not. A two-car carport in the back of the lot housed most of his tools. All of the cars that Andou-san was selling were parked in his driveway. I noticed a V8 Toyota sedan, a Honda motorcycle, a Nissan March, and two Renaults, among other cars. But my attention wasn't so much on these as it was the Roadster parked in front of all of them that I had travelled so far to collect.
Andou-san invited me into his humble abode, where there was a small office area complete with table and chairs. We signed paperwork, and I paid him the remaining balance. After that, there was no time to waste. I needed to get started on the modification.
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| Andou-san gave me a pair of "English" slippers to wear inside his house |
When I first sat in the Roadster, I noticed that the headroom could improve a bit, but that the legroom needed a definite increase. This was especially required as the steering wheel is not telescopic. (That is to say, the steering wheel does not move up or down.) This was what I was preparing for, and I knew that I needed to finish the foamectomy that was required so that I could be on the road before 1700 hrs. I had brought my own tools with me, so I should've been all set.
Well, it wasn't easy...
I managed to get one floor bolt in before I couldn't do any more. The remaining three were torqued on very tight, and neither a tire iron nor CRC 5-56 (WD-40) could get the bolts loose. Luckily, Andou-san had a power torque wrench that he used to get the bolts free. After that were the seat bolts connecting the seat to the slider, which were annoying to free, as my sockets couldn't reach them. And that wasn't even the hardest part.
By that time, I had to move into the shade. Andou-san moved his car (a Daihatsu Move) back a little bit so that there would be enough room to work in an area where the house next door blocked the sun. His English was pretty good, and he was able to explain to me that in addition to the shaken, he also replaced the A/C compressor, so I now had A/C that blew cold air. He was very professional and helpful, provided refreshment and his bathroom, and stayed with me throughout most of the mod, taking the occasional break to answer his phone in his soft baritone voice. If he had said no to letting me do the modification in his driveway, I don't know what I would've done, especially looking back in hindsight.
The seat upholstery was secured to the seat via hog rings. If you don't know what a hog ring is, go Google it, and then picture them all rusty and gross. That's what I had to pull out with needle-nose pliers. Andou-san gave me a pair of wire clippers to try to cut through them, but they didn't work. I must have pulled out at least 25 of them, and I noticed one more intact as I was putting the seat back together later.
I then tried to separate the seat into two pieces by taking off the plastic brackets and the bolts on one side of the seat assembly. When we got to the easy side, the screw would not turn. We both tried getting it out, but it would not budge. I was not looking forward to stripped screws, so I decided to just work with the two seat pieces still connected..
I took the foam pad from the back of the seat and shaved off a few centimeters of foam towards the back. The only knife I had was Andou-san's box cutter, and I actually broke it and had to borrow another. With the excess foam now gone, I reconnected the upholstery to the seat using zip ties, and then reinstalled the seat back into the car. Then I took a seat in it. There was much more headroom, and I could now clearly see out of the car.
But it did nothing for the legroom.
Tired and itching to get home, I decided to live with it. The legroom wasn't a major problem or a deal-breaker, but in the future, I'll have to take out the driver-side door handle, so that it will stop scraping against my knees. After removing the driver-side sun visor, installing my dash cam, and a quick trip to the bathroom, it was time to go. I thanked Andou-san for his time and grace, and he went to the curb to watch traffic for me. Feeling nervous, I got into the car and started the engine.
I had had relatively little practice driving a manual transmission in the states. The last time I did was in January, and now I was about to drive five hours, partially through the largest metropolitan area on the planet, to go home. I took a deep breath, started the car, and put it into reverse. I put the clutch at the biting point and slowly rolled backwards. Once on the street, I gave one last wave to Andou-san, shifted into first, and managed to get moving without stalling. After a quick stop for gas half a mile later, it was time to go back to Aizu.
つづく
-wp
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