On Saturday I dropped Ol Smokey off at a shop so they can find my oil leak, it's REALLY bad. Like one quart every ten miles, bad. I wanted to fix it sooner, but being home for a few days at a time didn't allow for that. They finally got to look at it today, and they are positive it's the rear main seal. The thing that sucks about it is, replacing that $26 seal requires either pulling the engine, or yanking both driveshafts, the transmission and transfer case. I could easily do it at home, except for the part where I don't have a garage, or flat and level place to work. They told me it's unlikely they'll have it done by Saturday. While they may be slow, it'll cost me under $600. To me, that's worth it so I don't have to do it myself, especially since the whole chassis is coated in a thick layer of oil.
In the meantime, I've rented a Ford Fusion and will go visit my sister in Colorado for a couple days, and on Sunday I leave for a week work in Canada and NYC. When I get back I'll have two weeks to accomplish everything on my checklist. My main priority will be replacing the factory chassis harness.
Also, somehow I lost all my Switchcraft connectors. I tore my place apart looking for them, but zilch. So a couple days ago I ordered some new ones and they came in today. I put them in my dash template and they looked alright:
But then it occurred to me, they can be rear mounted:
That looks SO much better. Whats really cool is I can have the final dash piece made with studs on the back, making flush mounting a snap. Hooray for two products coming together in a fantastic way!