Vuelta de Tuercas

So finally my new leather steering wheel cover arrived in an envelope from Poland (purchased from redlinegoods.com). They took 6 days to ship after I ordered, and then snail-mail took another 20 days so I was kind of eager to install the thing. Now, once you get the cover, you can have it professionally installed for around $100 but a) you have to search for a shop to do it and wait for them, b) it's not pocket change, and c) what would be the fun in that? The envelope says "synthetic leather samples, $0"... typical tricks to avoid import fees. A quick check confirms it's a nice, thick piece of leather baby! So, again, armed with utter ignorance but a lot of motivation, I set out for the task. I read the provider's writeups, watched the 5 youtube videos on how to do it, and off we go. Step 0: Preparation Prior to any action,  you need to ensure you have the tools and materials for the job. To glue the leather to the steering wheel's high density foam ...

There were a couple of plastic pieces missing in the center instrument cluster. Basically two screw covers and a plastic trim piece that goes horizontally across the dash and covers a couple more screws. As it turns out, if you need those parts you can only get them as OEM parts, that is, as original Nissan parts from a dealer (unlike larger items like the hood, steering wheel leather cover, shift knob, etc. that can be found in aftermarket distributors). As you would expect, you pay a significant premium for these parts (hell, I haven't done a realistic estimation but I'm sure buying a full car part by part would be way more expensive than getting a new Ferrari... and that's for any brand, not just Nissan). Well I bit the bullet and shelled out $43 for this: Everything is nicely packed and labeled individually, but they're still just a couple of freakin' plastic pieces! The two screw covers in the next picture are $8.40 each. And this other trim pi...

I spotted this on my way home biking on the Stevens Creek Trail. It's there on jackstands in some sort of car/RV junkyard. Sniff sniff, do I smell a future project coming? I mean, this is a classic but boy it would need some work. You may be able to see the quadrifoglio verde on the C-pillar. By the way, looks like it's a 1970-ish Alfa Romeo 2000 GT Veloce. For context, take a look at this beauty: Some more pictures of the car I saw: Well if in a couple years it's still sitting there, there may be a chance...